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| Natural whitewater flow on the Lehigh River ended in 1819 with the introduction of the Bear Trap Lock. These locks would store water, then allow a boatman to open the lock and release a freshet of water to carry the coal boats to the next lock. (Photo illustration based on a model courtesy of the Mauch Chunk Museum.) |
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| The Lehigh River begins as a network of underground springs that form a wetland near Gouldsboro. |
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A long time ago, geologic forces created the Blue Mountain, the Pocono Plateau, and the coal-rich mineral deposits that over eons formed the watershed whose drainage became the Lehigh River—a wild and scenic river before its exploitation by European-American industrialists, and a wild and scenic river today—a Mecca for whitewater rafters and kayakers.
Until the Walking Purchase of 1737, the Lehigh Valley was the territory of the Lenni Lenape. Soon afterward, Moravian farmers moved into the Mahoning Valley. In 1754, they floated a boatload of linseed oil on the Lehigh River to Philadelphia.
Rafts—wooden logs lashed together with ropes or vines—had been paddled across rivers, lakes and oceans since the Stone age. They evolved into boats of various types, including arks, which are box-like boats used for carrying cargo.
Not long after anthracite coal was discovered, an attempt was made to transport it by raft or ark to the Philadelphia market. Beginning in 1794, the Lehigh Coal Mine Company planned, attempted, and perhaps succeeded in rafting coal to Philadelphia—although no details have been documented.
In 1803, five arks—each 90 feet long, 16 feet wide, and 4 feet deep, with a carrying capacity of 60 tons—were launched from Lausanne, about a mile north of present Jim Thorpe. Two arks successfully plied the waters of the Lehigh and Delaware rivers to Philadelphia, although the coal could not be made to burn and was used as gravel for foot walks. The voyage of the arks was thus described:
"The descent of the river for the first fifteen miles from Mauch Chunk was exceedingly rapid, the fall being some 300 feet. It was a bright and cheerful morning. After the stream had attained the usual high-water mark, the arks were cut loose, and, each equipped with six men, began at once the descent of the rapids. |
"Now the torrent roars; the waves whirl and dash madly around the boats; the men at the oars, with faces wild with animation and excitement, and with muscles full distended, run to and fro upon their narrow platforms; the pilot, with energetic motion and speech, addresses the steersman; the steersman, with like gesticulation and vehemence of manner, responds to the pilot, and then all hands make desperate plunges at the oars!
"Now the boat, shaking and cracking, swings its cumbersome form around a submerged rock; now it sheers off in a counter current towards the shore, and then bending around, again dashes forward into the rolling waves, when—cr-a-sh! je-boom!—it rises securely upon a ledge of rocks half-concealed beneath the surface of the water. A moment serves to complete the wreck, and then the men, seizing oars and planks, make good their escape to the shore, leaving the broken and dismembered ark to its fate, and the cargo to the curious speculation of the catfish and eels."
Some 10,000 feet of lumber were used in the construction of each ark. It took four men seven days to navigate one to tidewater. Although they were not able to profit from the sale of the coal, they sold the ark for lumber to cover their costs.
Eventually, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard started two companies, the Lehigh Coal Company and the Lehigh Navigation Company. In 1818, the Lehigh Navigation Company obtained the right to control the Lehigh River as a monopoly, making it the only privately owned river in the United States. |
