Reading & Northern's 4-6-2 No. 425 and its consist arrive in the historic town of Jim Thorpe, PA as part of round trip Fall foliage excursion from Port Clinton, PA and return. This overview of the town was captured from the Flagstaff Mountain View Overlook. The view, like the then vacant overlook itself, has become more and more overgrown with brush and trees over time, yet a ladder and an opening by the station at least then provided a spectacular view. Lots to see here, well worth some time to further investigate - for instance, the large 3 story, 18 room mansion topped by the red-ribbed tin roof and a central cupola, center left, is the Asa Packer Museum, former home of Asa Packer. Packer settled at Mauch Chunk in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, in 1883 where he became the owner of a canal boat carrying coal to Philadelphia. He then established the firm of A. & R. W. Packer which built canal-boats and locks for the Lehigh Coal & Navigation. Packer urged the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company to adopt a steam railway as a coal carrier, but the project was not then considered feasible. In 1851, he became the major stockholder of the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad Company, which became the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company in January 1853, and they built a railway line from Mauch Chunk to Easton between November 1852 and September 1855. That line (bottom right, obscured by trees) follows the bank of the Lehigh River opposite of the CNJ. Lehigh Valley Railroad's now demolished station can be seen here.
The excursion train is seen along the former CNJ main in the heart of Jim Thorpe. That line originates near Newark, NJ, continuing to Allentown, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton, PA. The restored 1888 CNJ station can be seen just behind R&N's blue steam locomotive, bottom left.
The building with the clock tower is the Carbon County Courthouse, built in 1893. The courthouse, still in use today, is known for the Molly Maguire trials which today are considered by some to be a surrender of state sovereignty. A private corporation (a coal/railroad company) initiated an investigation through a private detective agency (Pinkerton Detectives), a private police force (the Coal & Iron Police) arrested the alleged offenders, and private attorneys (employees of the coal companies) prosecuted these men. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania provided only the courtroom and the gallows. The Molly Maguires were an Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool and parts of the Eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish immigrant coal miners in Pennsylvania. After a series of often violent conflicts, twenty suspected members of the Molly Maguires were convicted of murder and other crimes and were executed by hanging in 1877 and 1878. This history remains part of local Pennsylvania lore.
Adjacent and to the left, is the restored Lehigh Coal & Navigation Headquarters Building which was designed and built in 1882 for the Lehigh Valley Railroad but sold to the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company before its completion. The historic building was rehabilitated into 27 apartments for seniors in 1979.
There's lots of history here in Mauch Chunk which reveals itself once you get past the fancy restaurants and high end boutiques.
