Lehigh Gorge State Park

Lehigh Gorge State Park
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)[1]
Lehigh Gorge State Park in October 2006
Location of Lehigh Gorge State Park in Pennsylvania
Location	Pennsylvania, United States
Coordinates	40°57′58″N 75°45′31″W / 40.96611°N 75.75861°W / 40.96611; -75.75861
Area	4,548 acres (18.41 km2)
Elevation	1,027 ft (313 m)[2]
Established	1980
Named for	Lehigh Gorge
Governing body	Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Website	Lehigh Gorge State Park

Lehigh Gorge State Park is a 4,548 acres (1,841 ha)

The central access point is near Rockport, a few miles off Pennsylvania Route 93 near the borough of Weatherly, where the mountainous terrain is transitional, creating a relatively shallow sloped flat. This area was also historically important regional rail transport.

The southern access point is just off exit 74 of Interstate 476 via U.S. Route 209 through Jim Thorpe and across the bridge to the north bank on Pennsylvania Route 903 to the Glen Onoko neighborhood, formerly East Mauch Chunk the left bank or northern part of the borough of Jim Thorpe. This access point is on the opposite bank from the Glen Onoko nature and hiking trail which climbs up slope westerly alongside the tributary descending Glen Onoko Falls giving the eponymous name to that region of the lower gorge, whilst the Lehigh descends through several sharp curves before reaching the slack water elevation of Nesquehoning Junction between Jim Thorpe and Nesquehoning.^[3] The two railroad lines which competed for trade along the Lehigh diverge to run on opposite shores at this entrance.

The Lehigh River forms the border between Carbon and Luzerne counties in the northern part of the park. The northern end of Lehigh Gorge State Park is just below the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Francis E. Walter Dam, in Bear Creek Township on the right bank (Luzerne County) and Kidder Township on the left bank (Carbon County). The Lehigh River flows generally south and enters Dennison Township, then the borough of White Haven, the northern access point, on the right (Luzerne) bank. It enters the borough of East Side, opposite White Haven.

Leaving the boroughs, the river enters Foster Township on the right (Luzerne) bank, and returns to Kidder Township, passing Hickory Run State Park on the left (Carbon) bank.^[5][6]

The river and park then leave Luzerne County, with the southern part of the park entirely within Carbon County. Lehigh Township is on the right bank, with the river entering Penn Forest Township soon after on the left bank. The river veers west here and makes a large, tight bend at Rockport and the central access point (right bank), before heading back east, then south, west, and then generally south again. Some of the land bordering the river here is Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 141. The park then enters the borough of Jim Thorpe on the left bank, then the borough of Nesquehoning on the right bank, with the Glen Onoko southern access point on the right bank in Lehigh Township, just before Nesquehoning. Soon both banks of the river are within the borough of Jim Thorpe, and shortly after this the park ends, just above the Pennsylvania Route 903 bridge.^[5]

The Lehigh Gorge Trail, a multi-use rail trail, follows the right bank of the Lehigh River south through the park from the village of Port Jenkins in Dennison Township in Luzerne County to Glen Onoko in Lehigh Township in Carbon County.^[7]

The history of Lehigh Gorge State Park is tied into the development of anthracite coal mining, which was once the center of the high-tech economy of northeastern Pennsylvania. It is also tied into the early-to-middle period of the United States' Canal Era and the rapid development of pragmatic railroading technologies and consequent accelerated growth and use of railroads—all contributing factors in the Pennsylvanian and North American Industrial Revolution. By the 1790s deforestation of the American East, like it had in Britain a century earlier, was making the search for alternative fuels urgent and with England's experience of coal many were willing to invest in ventures to somehow mine and ship Anthracite east to the Delaware River where it could be barged to the cities of the east coast of the United States. England's technological lead was obvious and its extensive canal system was given much credit for the success of Britain's industries and its emergence as the sole world power at the end of the Seven Years' War.

While eight mules could carry a ton, each 4-5 mules needed a human to lead them and their loads needed to be laboriously loaded and unloaded at the beginning and end of each day's march. It was the end days of the era that had held for millennia— when shipping bulks goods was only practicable over long distances by water, and one consequence was roads were not much more than unimproved tracks frequently more muddy ruts or filled with rocky obstacles as they wandered about trees and along ridgelines striving to stay above streams. Wagons were useful only on locally improved roads and with a traditional labor shortage and lack of distinct feudal structures there were few ways to draft a large enough work party to improve roads even within a township, so in the main they remained primitive. Traditional Amerindian footpaths or game trails did not co-exist readily with carts or wagons, and bridges were scarce while streams swarm along the bottom of every valley in rain-blessed Pennsylvania.

High grade coal was discovered by a hunter on

In 1818, fed up with sporadic and unreliable deliveries by the Lehigh Coal Mining Company, several Philadelphia foundry owners, led by two known for high tech thinking, combined and leased the mining rights and took over management of LCMC. They also formed the Lehigh Navigation Company (LCN) to build navigations up the

By 1822, the navigations reached the broad flats of Mauch Chunk and the two companies were merged into the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, the company which would tame the gorge. By 1824, the Lehigh Canal was shipping record amounts of coal and adding further navigations creating a two way barge highway, this set the stage to founding the Upper Grand Section of the Lehigh Canal through ambitious improvements through the Gorge between White Haven and Jim Thorpe, with a rail link from the Susquehanna at Pittston via Ashley, Mountain Top, and White Haven which would allow goods from Pittsburgh and the Ohio river valley and coal from the Wilkes-Barre area to come east to coastal market cities.

By mid-decade in the 1820s, inspired by LC&N success and the

However, Lehigh Gorge and its rapid waters stood in the way as barges could not pass the rapids. This relegated to shipping coal by slow mule train, which is labor-intensive and costly, as it is pragmatically limited to an eighth ton per mule. After 1818 fuel shortages were growing acute, and the partially barged and partial mule-trained coal deliveries by the Lehigh Coal Mining Company were unpredictable and sporadic. This problem was solved by Josiah White who leased the operating rights and also formed the Lehigh Navigation Company and began to systematically put into place the original series of dams and locks and channel improvements of the navigation from Easton on the Delaware the 40 miles up to the Mauch Chunk Creek, outletting in area of today's Lehighton, which streamside trail was the easiest descent for the mule trains to reach the river about twelve miles from the Summit Hill and Lansford mines. By 1820 the navigations had fixed the worst of the barging issues, a road from the mines was systematically being improved easing the teamster's problems and the ventures began to make substantial money; by 1822 the two companies were combined into the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company and both the navigational works and the mule road were re-routed so they reached Mauch Chunk, the mule road high enough to dump coal by chutes into barges on the town's quay. By 1824 the company was flush with cash, had been further improving the lower river with two way locks— and seeking other sources, began buying more coal lands and eventually bought lands around Hazleton and Ashley and the saddle shaped mountain pass above at Penobscot, Pennsylvania (now Mountain Top) above both south Wilkes-Barre on the Susquehanna and White Haven on the Lehigh at the head of the gorge.

LC&N which built

Between November 1852 and September 1855 a railway line was built for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, largely by Asa Packer's personal credit, from Mauch Chunk, later renamed Jim Thorpe, to Easton.

Naturalist and painter

The primary recreational use of Lehigh Gorge State Park is on the whitewater of the gorge. Other uses are hiking, bicycling, sight seeing and animal/bird watching along the abandoned railroad grade of the Lehigh Gorge Trail. The park is also open to hunting and fishing.

The Lehigh Gorge Trail is a 26-mile (42 km), multiuse rail trail.^[3] The trail is part of the 165-mile (266 km), D & L Trail.^[8] It is open year-round for hiking and biking. Bicycle rentals and shuttle service are available. In the winter, the trail is open for cross-country skiing. A 15-mile (24 km) section from White Haven to Penn Haven Junction is open to snowmobiles.^[3] Parking for snowmobiles is available at the White Haven and Rockport trailheads. In addition to the Lehigh Gorge Trail, there are 7 miles of hiking-only trails. These hiking-only trails are neither marked, signed, nor mapped.

Hunting is permitted in much of Lehigh Gorge State Park. Hunters must follow the rules and regulations of the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Common game species are ruffed grouse, squirrels, turkey, white-tailed deer, black bear and rabbits. The hunting of groundhogs is not permitted at the park. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission assures that anglers will have plenty of chances to catch fish by stocking trout in the waters of the Lehigh River.

The following state parks are within 30 miles (48 km) of Lehigh Gorge State Park:^[9][10][11]

• Beltzville State Park (Carbon County)
• Big Pocono State Park (Monroe County)
• Frances Slocum State Park (Luzerne County)
• Gouldsboro State Park (Monroe and Wayne Counties)
• Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center (Northampton County)
• Hickory Run State Park (Carbon County)
• Locust Lake State Park (Schuylkill County)
• Nescopeck State Park (Luzerne County)
• Tobyhanna State Park (Monroe and Wayne Counties)
• Tuscarora State Park (Schuylkill County)

• Turn Hole Tunnel, an abandoned railroad tunnel in the park at Glen Onoko

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lehigh Gorge State Park.

• "Lehigh Gorge State Park Official map" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2010. (598 KB)
• Lehigh River Rafting with Whitewater Challengers