Gargoyles! - Upper Mauch Chunk Cemetery Memorial Chapel of the Resurrection

This internment chapel was built by Asa Packer's last surviving child, Mary Packer Cummings.  It is located in the "Hills" section of Jim Thorpe, previously Upper Mauch Chunk Cemetery.  Jack Sterling, with the help of Keith Bellhorn, put together a webpage devoted to it if you wish for more information.  This chapel has an Otis elevator for lowering caskets into the crypt below.

The above photo is by Ronald Rabenold.  The following photos are by Keith Bellhorn.

  You can see the Otis elevator shaft in the center of this photo.

One of the 6 stained glass panels in this Gothic-inspired stone chapel constructed by Charles Neast of Mauch Chunk.

Mount Pisgah and the Switchback Railroad - My Sunday Hike

I simply love this area.  Its rich history makes for a beautiful place to live and play.  And with warmer air and higher light, what better place to take a late winter's hike, as I did today.  (Check out my YouTube video from opposing mountain...Mount Pisgah plane is quite visible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJGSv-d947M .)

 

When you reflect on the importance of this area in fueling America’s industrial revolution, on the backs and ingenuity of Josiah White, Erskine Hazard and later, Asa Packer, you learn to appreciate this place we live even more. To take in some of the same views they did, you can perhaps have a little inspiration of your own.

One amazing piece of our history is The Switchback Railroad. It was one of a kind. Not only was it key in delivering coal, but it also became our nation’s second biggest tourist attraction behind Niagara Falls.  It is also said to be the first man-made contrivance to excede 55 miles per hour and has been cited as the inspiration for the rollercoaster.

President Uylsses S Grant and Thomas Edison were said to have traveled here to ride it. Today, expert mountain bikers ride it for some of the same thrills as years ago.

Empty coal cars were pulled up the Mt Pisgah plane. Cresting the top, they would traverse this trestle as they began their descent down the other side to reach the base of Mt. Jefferson at Summit Hill. Again the cars are pulled atop another plane, that of Mt Jefferson, then filled with their cargo and sent down the eight mile gravity journey to Mauch Chunk. There, coal was sent down chutes over what is today Route 209, and filled the awaiting Canal Boats on the Lehigh Canal. Later, Packer’s Lehigh Valley Railroad took over the bulk of the coal transport.

(Pictures: Above, Mt Pisgah trestle long ago, Below: the same site today)

Mt Pisgah is one of the key vistas of Carbon County.  A must for anyone visiting our county.  You gotta love this place! 

Check out these sites for more of a flavor of the history and character of Carbon County:

http://mauchchunkmuseum.com/

http://www.switchbackgravityrr.org/

Carbon's History - A poem by Ronald J. Rabenold

My Carbon County:
Give me a moment,
In your time and place,
Let me cross,
Your millions of years,
To see
The great gorge cut,
Let me see Sleeping Bear,
In her rested fold,
The push, the pressure, the hardened coal,
Give that to me,
Harden my role.

Send me on,
A father’s mission, to slow a son’s greed.
Let me cradle the truth for the Lenni Lenape.
Send me on
With Onoko, to the Hemlock and Oak,
Let me see Ginter’s find,
And behold Josiah’s dream,
Let me feel the buzz,
The Yankee energy,
When Foster and Packer,
Transformed the age for thee.

Give me the punch, from the Dry Mason’s hand,
Give me my peg on the Miner’s board.
Let me in and give me my role,
But let me out, to take in the light,
Keep me above and away,
Beyond the fray, beyond the Rope,
Beyond the Day the just betrayed.
Give me throaty shrills,
The squeal of steam atop the hill.
High up, looking down the plane,
Give me the sights, the speeds, the thrills.
Give me my mule,
To guide me through the lock,
Let me touch this land, this water, this rock.

Send me on
With the passion of Audubon,
The tact of Albright and
The back of the Mason.
Then I too can push mountains
And broaden horizons.
Give me
The wits of the coal miner’s wife,
To be wise and true.
Give me
The hands of the Breaker Boy,
To pick what’s best for you.

Give me
The dauntlessness of Boyle,
The inventiveness, the vision of White.
Then send me on a mission,
With the zeal of Zinzendorf,
Let me
Walk in the peace, of a Quaker’s son,
Then all our hopes can be one,
Send me on,
Send me on.

Now is my time and
You are my place.
Give me the vision you dreamed for me.
Let me stand on its pillar
So that I can see:

My Carbon County,
May I awaken,
Your dream for thee.

Carbon's History - Part 2 of 3

Give me the punch, from the Dry Mason’s hand,
Give me my peg on the Miner’s board.
Let me in and give me my role,
But let me out, to take in the light,
Keep me above and away,
Beyond the fray, beyond the Rope,
Beyond the Day the just betrayed.
Give me throaty shrills,
The squeal of steam atop the hill.
High up, looking down the plane,
Give me the sights, the speeds, the thrills.
Give me my mule,
To guide me through the lock,
Let me touch this land, this water, this rock.

Carbon's History - Part 1 of 3

My Carbon County:
Give me a moment,
In your time and place,
Let me cross,
Your millions of years,
To see
The great gorge cut,
Let me see Sleeping Bear,
In her rested fold,
The push, the pressure, the hardened coal,
Give that to me,
Harden my role.

Send me on,
A father’s mission, to slow a son’s greed.
Let me cradle the truth for the Lenni Lenape.
Send me on
With Onoko, to the Hemlock and Oak,
Let me see Ginter’s find,
And behold Josiah’s dream,
Let me feel the buzz,
The Yankee energy,
When Foster and Packer,
Transformed the age for thee.