Pennsylvania's anthracite, or hard coal, lay in isolated, rugged mountain valleys north and west of the turbulent Lehigh River, and although it promised profit in downstream markets, low-cost transportation was a major obstacle. By the beginning of the 19th century, businessmen sought a solution in the Lehigh Navigation, a civil engineering feat that overcame an almost 1,000 foot elevation drop between White Haven and Easton through dams, hand-dug channels, and calm river straits that created a downstream route. It eventually became the largest capacity and longest running towpath canal in America, and the section between Mauch Chunk, today's Jim Thorpe, and Easton still retains towpath trails and watered sections. Though it endured longer than most because of its location and the industries it generated, costly floods, railroad systems, evolving highway networks, and declining coal sales ultimately ended its operation, and the last boat passed along the canal on the evening before the flood of 1942, closing an era and a way of life.
