McCarty, Finsel & Ruch Rock the Ballroom with some Old Timey Sound

There's a little Elmer in all of us, now that we heard Finsel's ballad of the old backwoods quarryman & mountain dew man.

Sean's fingers put a hurtin' on those mandolin strings...you'd swear you were hearing two playing!!!

The boys ripped up "No More Cane on the Brazos."  I heard Robbie Robertson's shrills and Leadbelly's thump.

This was all part of the "Long Hunter Festival" this past weekend at the Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center.  Featured speaker was reknowned author, farmer, and modern day frontiersman, Mr. David Ehrig, also known as "Mr. Black Powder."  A must hear by any outdoor enthusiast.

David told of how German farmers in Pennsylvania in the late 1600s to early 1700s, went "long hunting" after the harvest in October through to Christmas.  A sharp eye with their Pennsylvania Longrifle could get enough "buck skins," skins sold for a dollar, to buy themselves more land for their growing families.  Children and adults alike, wrapped themselves in Dave's many furs: river otter, blackbear, skunk, porcupine, and more.  A great event for a great cause.  Proceeds helped the "Friends of the Dimmick Library" and for furthering the educational outreach of the Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center.

Below find some shots taken from the Museum out to the street: The Three Towers building, formerly Mauch Chunk school building. Stained glass from inside the bell tower of the Museum, formerly the Methodist Church.  Looking down toward the Opera House.

America's First Rollercoaster: Biking Along the Switchback Railroad

This is a view from the far trestle buttress atop the Mt Pisgah Plane.  Visible here, beyond the Flagstaff "Ballroom in the Clouds" at the tips of the branches on the right, you can see the Lehigh Gap through the Blue Mountain.  You can also see the many Dogwoods now in full bloom, along Route 209/The Mansion House Hill, entering Jim Thorpe, below that you can see the Lehigh River, snaking past St. Mark's Cathedrel, a European-style gothic masterpiece of architecture, endowed by Asa Packer.

The Switchback Railroad was the world’s first rollercoaster. It brought the coal from ‘coal country’ of Summit Hill, where coal was first discovered by Philip Ginter in 1791. It was the brainchild of Josiah White to bring the coal down to Mauch Chunk and the Lehigh River and on down to his and other factories of Philadelphia, eventually fueling the industrial revolution’s growing energy demands of the world.

It was the first man-made contrivance that allowed man to travel up to 60 miles per hour. An engine house atop Mt Pisgah, pulled the cars up over 2,000 feet of inclined plane, on down by gravity to the base of Mt Jefferson in Summit Hill and pulled over 1,600 up another plane, loaded with coal, and again down by gravity’s lure to the coal chute in old Mauch Chunk.

Today, one can bike this entire loop and see views from spectacular vistas. These views alone are worth the trip to Carbon County. But back in the 1870s to the 1930s, when this was the second largest tourist destination behind Niagara Falls, people flocked for the unbridled manifestation of White’s inventive mind. You can see the only working scaled replica of this railroad at the Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center, Broadway, Jim Thorpe.

Seen here, is the 5-mile Crossover, looking downhill toward JimThorpe.  This buttress held the trestle for the tracks headed toward Summit Hill and the Mt Jefferson Plane, traveling from left to right.  By mountain bike today, you can head to the top of Mt Pisgah 4.5 miles away by heading uphill to the left of this buttress.  Going straight ahead into this picture, you can find a lazy 5 mile ride along Mauch Chunk Lake and Mauch Chunk Creek, into downtown historic Jim Thorpe.

Where will any of this lead?

Ever ask yourself that question?

Did any of the miners of the #9 Mine in Lansford ever think as deeply as they traveled?

What was Josiah White's dream? does anyone really know just how ingenious he really was?

He invented hydraulic powered drills for the dry masons to use when boring holes into solid rock while building the canal. Many remember the storied Lower section of the canal from Jim Thorpe to Easton. Fewer realize that there was an "Upper Grand" section that ran from 'White's Haven' (White Haven) down to the Lower section. Immense dams were built to create slack water, then the boats were diverted to locks along the Lehigh River. And because the river depths were much higher than those on the Lower section, these locks were in the 30-50 foot range.
There are many lost skills and innovations that permeated this area. Did you know the Lehigh River once had hydroelectric generation, long before there was the concept of our current "power grid"? Take a minute to peek around the front of the Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center on Broadway in downtown Jim Thorpe and you'll see one of the fist hydroelectric turbines ever used right here in our own Lehigh River.


Metaphorically, where has all this lead us? Where can we go now that we're here? There are plans afoot and I hope you will stay tuned.