The Town That Traded Its Name: Jim Thorpe

Borrowed

"Good stories tend to do that. They have extraordinary ability to inspire and evoke positive emotions, bringing insight and attention to topics that people tend to ignore when they've previously been presented with nothing but facts."

From "Same as Ever" by Morgan Housel [Book]

Learned

I did a day trip to Jim Thorpe, PA, earlier this year for my younger brother, Justin’s, birthday. It turned out to be one of the coldest days of the year, so while we got to walk the streets, it was hard to take it all in. The second was last week for my own birthday. We spent the week in nearby Lake Harmony and did a couple of trips there. A highlight was taking Mylo on the train that leaves right from Jim Thorpe station, on what turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year so far. Extremes!

After the Poconos, we drove down to Brigantine, NJ, to spend a few days with my parents. It felt like one long vacation, a first with our 6-month-old Cora in the mix. With Cora heading to daycare this week, Dana pointed out that we spend more time without the kids each week than with them. I know this, but hearing it puts everything in perspective. Traveling with kids always comes with its moments but I know we’ll cherish trips like this for years to come.

Back to the train. While we waited for the trip to start, I realized I had no idea who Jim Thorpe was or why a small town in the Poconos would be named after him. So naturally, I started talking to ChatGPT, and the story turned out to be a fascinating case in branding.

The town was founded in 1818 as Mauch Chunk, meaning “Bear Place” in the Lenape language, a reference to the mountain overlooking the town that resembled a sleeping bear. It grew into a wealthy coal-and-railroad town, and by the late 1800s, it had become one of the most visited destinations in America, second only to Niagara Falls. The main draw was the Switchback Gravity Railroad, a coal-hauling line turned thrill ride that reached speeds of 50 miles per hour and inspired the first roller coaster at Coney Island. With its dramatic mountain views and the town tucked into a steep gorge along the Lehigh River, people started calling it the Switzerland of America.

Then coal declined, the Depression hit, the Switchback shut down and was sold for scrap, and the town spent the next couple of decades fading. Things got desperate enough that residents started a community fund called Nickel a Week, where everyone chipped in a nickel each week toward anything that might bring the town back. Over a few years, they raised about $30,000, all in nickels.

Around that same time, Jim Thorpe, an Olympic champion considered by many to be the greatest athlete of his era, passed away. His home state of Oklahoma declined to fund a memorial, and his widow went looking for a town that would. In 1954, Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk, two boroughs facing each other across the Lehigh River, merged into one town, took his name, and built him a memorial using money from the nickel fund. In return, they received his remains. Thorpe had never set foot in the town in his life.

The new name didn't change much at first. The businesses and attention the town hoped for never came, and for decades, it was still a struggling town, just with a different name. Ten years after the rename, some residents were already pushing to change it back to Mauch Chunk. But the struggle turned out to be a gift. The town never had the money to tear down its old buildings, so the Victorian mansions and storefronts along what was once called Millionaire's Row survived untouched. When preservation efforts and outdoor recreation in the Lehigh Gorge finally started drawing people to the Poconos in the late 1970s and 80s, the new name piqued people's curiosity enough to explore, and the town with the story and the preserved streets had something its neighbors didn't.

Today, tourism is the number one industry in Carbon County, accounting for roughly 40% of its employment. Some 4.5 million people visit the county each year, spending over $600 million, and on busy weekends, it can take an hour just to drive into town. Luckily, we didn’t deal with that, but for some of the hottest and coldest days, it was busy. The local debate is no longer about how to attract people, but how to manage them all. Not a bad problem for a town that was pooling nickels to survive.

I found the whole thing fascinating. A town that once rivaled Niagara Falls lost everything, then bought itself a new story a nickel at a time and waited decades for it to pay off. Seventy years later, the name made me curious enough to look up a man I'd never heard of, and I left with a t-shirt.

& Thought

What's a question I've never bothered to ask?