The Upper Grand Near Penn Haven Junction - Lehigh Gorge State Park

For an extensive look at the Lehigh Gorge River Trail click here for a virtual tour.

After Josiah White and Erskine Hazard built the canal from Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe) to Easton, they worked to provide coal transport from White Haven on down to the harbor of Mauch Chunk. This was done by way of damming the Lehigh River, then creating gargantuan

A residence as was part of the once remote outpost along the CentralJersey mainline heading west.  For more in-depth look at the Penn Haven Junction and Planes, click here.

locks that dwarfed the height of the Lower Lehigh Canal.















These foundations can be seen just north of Penn Haven Junction on the Lehigh Gorge. According to one Central Jersey map, these walls were once part of a residence here at this lonely spot.  was the foundation of a large ice house or cold storage or perhaps it was a residence. I found old solid copper wire that could have been telegraphic wire or clothes hanging wire to the rear.

The spring carrying through this area over the years has certainly contributed to the notch the structure rests in. And currently with the Spring thaw underway, the spring is flowing well and through the remains. Whether this was the course of the spring years ago is uncertain. Higher on the hill and when facing west, the spring flows on the left side. As it approaches the foundation, it turns to the right. There is a large mound, covered in ferns in the summer that sits directly behind it. Whether it be man-made or a nicely rounded rock slide I cannot tell.

In this view, up the hill now, looking down at the remains, looking toward the east, you can see the Lehigh River in the distance, at the bottom of the east side of the Lehigh Gorge.  (White water can be seen in the swollen Lehigh River past the pine on the bottom left.)

It is a mystical place, with the greenest of green moss I’ve seen.