From Mountain to Market

From Mountain to Market. "A few miles above Easton, the Lehigh was pocked with white water at almost every turning. To navigate it seemed impossible." , Josiah White, Co-founder of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, Pennsylvania's anthracite (hard coal) lay entombed within isolated, rugged mountain valleys north and west of the turbulent Lehigh River. Anthracite spelled money to those who knew of markets downstream, but low-cost transportation challenged prospective coal barons. By the beginning of the 19th century, eager businessmen struggle toward a solution., A civil engineering feat of its time, the Lehigh Navigation tamed an almost 1,000 foot elevation drop between White Haven and Easton. Creatively designed, it used dams, hand-dug channels and calm river straits to weave a path downstream. It eventually became known as the largest capacity and longest running towpath canal in America. The section between Mauch Chunk (today's Jim Thorpe) and Easton still offers tow-path trails and watered sections., Though successful longer than most due to location and industries it spawned, the canal finally closed. Costly floods, railroad systems, evolving highway networks and declining coal sales eventually took their toll. The last boat floated peacefully along the canal the evening before the flood of 1942. An era and lifestyle ended., Each boat captain warned locktenders of their approach through some type of horn. Conch shells were popular.