Carbon County Seat ยท Switzerland of America
Source - U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey Five-Year Estimates ('24).
Jim Thorpe is the county seat of Carbon County, set in a steep gorge on the Lehigh River. Josiah White and the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company founded it in 1818 as Mauch Chunk, a name from the Lenape for bear place. Its dramatic setting earned it the nickname the Switzerland of America.
In 1954 the boroughs of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk merged and renamed themselves for Jim Thorpe, the Olympian who died in 1953. His widow arranged for his remains to rest here, though Thorpe had no connection to the town in his lifetime. He is entombed in a memorial on the edge of the borough.
Anthracite coal built Mauch Chunk. The Switchback Gravity Railroad, opened in 1827 to move coal downhill, later became a pioneering tourist ride and a forerunner of the roller coaster. Industrialist Asa Packer founded the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Lehigh University from here, and his mansion still stands. The town hosted a major Molly Maguires trial in the 1870s at the Carbon County Jail. Today the Old Mauch Chunk Historic District, the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, and whitewater rafting in Lehigh Gorge State Park make Jim Thorpe the tourism anchor of the Poconos, about 35 miles south of Wilkes-Barre.
We work Jim Thorpe and the surrounding Carbon County market every day. Whether you are buying your first home, selling, or investing, we know this area and we would be glad to help.
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