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Carbon County, PA
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Created on March 13, 1843 from parts of Northampton and
Monroe Counties. Its name alludes to its deposits of
coal. Jim Thorpe, the county seat, was originally
incorporated on January 26, 1850 as the borough of Mauch
Chunk, an Indian named meaning Bear Mountain. It was
renamed in 1954 for the famous Indian athlete, Jim
Thorpe, who is buried there.
 Consisting
largely of land Pennsylvania obtained by the Walking
Purchase from the Delaware Indians in 1737, it was the
scene of Moravian missions to the Indians, frontier
fighting during the French and Indian War, and Tory
raids during the Revolution. The Lehigh Coal and
Navigation Company, formed in 1822, built an economic
base, and Mauch Chunk flourished. Wealthy canal boat
builder Asa Packer led the movement to create the
county. In 1851 he formed the Lehigh Valley Railroad and
broke the Navigation Company’s control, although it
revived after another railroad opened the Lackawanna
Valley as a route for transporting coal to New York.
When New York tycoon J.P. Morgan bought the Lehigh
Valley Railroad in the late 1890s, millionaires left
Mauch Chunk and the area declined. Deep coal mining
lasted until 1973. Always producing high quality
anthracite, the county still is an area for surface
mining. Zinc mining became important after 1898, and the
forests produce good lumber. But this is not an
agricultural county; only 9 percent of the land is
farmed. The population peak, 63,380, occurred in 1930.
The Northeast Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike and
the thriving tourist attractions of Mauch Chunk sustain
the present economy. Women’s clothing is the largest
manufacturing business. The value added to the economy
by manufacturing in this county increased 67 percent
between 1987 and 1992.
There was an Underground Railroad station at Palmerton.
Carbon County was the scene of much of the Molly
Maguires movement against coal mine owners. |
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