| Timeline
At a Glance
Mauch
Chunk Time Line of Historic Events
1791 Phillip Ginder discovers an outcrop
of anthracite coal at Summit Hill
1818
Mauch Chunk is founded by Josiah White and partner Erskine
Hazard who install “bear trap locks” on the Lehigh
River for coal barges to travel from Mauch Chunk to Easton.
1824
Mansion House hotel begun on Susquehanna Street –
proclaimed the largest hotel in America; Mauch Chunk consists
of nineteen log buildings.
1827
Switchback Gravity Railroad opens to carry coal from
Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk
1833
Broadway House and the White Swan hotels open
1836
Lehigh Canal opens
1843
Carbon County chartered
1848
Asa Packer builds Stone Row’s sixteen houses
1849
Fire sweeps lower Broadway; thirty buildings destroyed
1850
Mauch Chunk incorporated
1854
East Mauch Chunk incorporate
1856
Lehigh Valley Railroad reaches Mauch Chunk from Easton
1860
Asa Packer builds mansion
1861-65
Civil War sends hundreds of Mauch Chunk’s men into combat
1862
Disastrous flood smashes through town, destroying upper canal.
1868
Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad extends from Mauch Chunk to
Easton
1869
St. Marks Church – National Historic Landmark; Lehigh
and Susquehanna Railroad reaches Mauch Chunk
1871
Carbon County Prison opens on upper Broadway
1872
Switchback Gravity Railroad excursions begin
1876
Molly Maguire trials in Mauch Chunk; President Ulysses Grant
visits General Charles Albright
1877
Four Molly Maguire prisoners hung at the Carbon County Prison
1878-79
Three more Molly Maguire prisons hung in Mauch Chunk
1882
Mauch Chunk Opera House opens
1884
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Building
1887
Jersey Central train station built
1889
Dimmick Memorial Library opens, endowed by Milton
Dimmick
1893
Present court house built, replacing two earlier structures;
YMCA built, possibly re-cycling the four columns from court
house #2.
1901
First trolleys carry tourists to the summit of Flagstaff Mountain
1902
Trolley Service extended from Mauch Chunk to Lehighton
1908
Flagstaff Park opens
1911
The Wahnetah Hotel, a resort in Glen Onoko destroyed by a
forest fire.
1912
Death of Mary Packer Cummings
1925
Last trolley service run up Broadway
1932
Last shipment of coal sent down the Lehigh Canal
1933
Switchback dismantled
1951
Nickel a week fund drive to revive Mauch Chunk
1953
Inter-borough bridge built
1954
Mauch Chunk becomes Jim Thorpe; the Olympic athlete’s
remains are moved from Oklahoma to Jim Thorpe
1956
Asa Packer mansion re-opens
1962
Jim Thorpe Tourist Bureau opens
1965
Central Railroad of New Jersey ends passenger service
1968
Carbon County Tourist promotion begins; Molly Maguires film
produced, staring Sean Connery, filmed on location
1972
Mauch Chunk Lake dam completed, town floods stop
1973
Mauch Chunk Historical Society founded; Opera House saved
from demolition
1974
Mauch Chunk Lake Park opens and Lehigh River raftingstarts
1977
National Register of Historic Places nominations
of Jim Thorpe Historic District; over 300 properties registered.
1979
“Historic Jim Thorpe” planning begins; fire guts
the Dimmick Memorial Library.
1980
Lehigh Gorge State Park established
1981
Main Street Project
1982
Civic/Commerce Association formed
1983
Memorial Hall built in East Jim Thorpe
1986
National Landmarks established
1988
Delaware and Lehigh Corridor chartered
1993
Chamber of Commerce founded; Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural
Center opens in the former St. Paul’s Methodist Church
1995
The 1871 County jail closes and reopens as
the Old Jail Museum
1996
First St. Patrick’s Day parade in Jim Thorpe
2003
Jtams Productions starts at Mauch Chunk Opera House
2006
Railway excursions return to Jim Thorpe
2009
Internationally known Wailin Jennys release Live from the
Mauch Chunk Opera House.
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