Mauch Chunk Museum & Cultural Center

The Exhibition at the Mauch Chunk Museum and Cultural Center leads the visitor through the ages from the geological formation of coal in prehistoric times to the present. It focuses on such topics as the Lenape Indians, the discovery and mining of "black diamonds" (coal), the settlement of early Mauch Chunk, the scramble to build waterways and railroads to transport coal to eastern seaboard cities, the unique Switchback Railroad, Mauch Chunk in its industrial golden age, its decline and revival as the town of Mauch Chunk becomes today's Jim Thorpe-repository for the body of the great Native American Olympian. The theme is struggle, prosperity, decline and revival; the legacy, the architectural and natural beauty that is today's Jim Thorpe.