Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company

The surge of investment that filled the Anthracite region of northeastern Pennsylvania in the mid-1700s did not reach the Lehigh Valley until 1791 when coal was found near Summit Hill, west of Mauch Chunk, leading to the formation of the Lehigh Coal Mines Company. Coal was floated downriver on wooden rafts known as arks, which were dismantled and sold as lumber upon arrival. Flooding, shallow water and swift currents created financial problems for the company until Josiah White, familiar with canal locks and dams, leased the failed company around 1826, renaming it The Lehigh Navigation Company. The Lehigh Canal operated from 1827 to 1933, transporting coal from the northern fields of White Haven to the southern fields in Easton. In 1820 The Lehigh Coal Company united with the Lehigh Navigation Company, changing the name to Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N) in 1821. Mountain peaks near Wilkes-Barre thwarted a further expansion westward prompting the LC&N to complete the Mauch Chunk Railroad in 1827. In the 1870s, although the demand for anthracite coal increased, rail transportation began to surpass canal navigation, leaving the LC&N on unstable footing. Its need to convert to rail was financed by the lease of many of its properties by the Central Railroad of New Jersey. By 1919, LC&N employed 11,000 miners and produced 5 million tons of coal and in 1931 the Lehigh Canal was closed to commercial navigation. The demand for coal decreased steadily after World War II and in 1960 the last deep mine in LC&N closed and the company dissolved in 1965.

The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was a major anthracite mining and transporting firm in eastern Pennsylvania between 1822 and 1954.

Lehigh Coal Mine Company was organized in 1792 as an unincorporated association; succeeded in 1817 by Lehigh Coal Company and Lehigh Navigation Company; consolidated in 1821 into Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, incorporated 1822 in Pennsylvania.

The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was a major anthracite mining and transporting firm in eastern Pennsylvania between 1822 and 1954.

The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company was incorporated on February 13, 1822, as a consolidation of two unincorporated companies, the Lehigh Coal Company and the Lehigh Navigation Company, both founded in 1818. The founders, Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, had been wire manufacturers in Philadelphia and as such were among the earliest regular users of anthracite coal.

Between 1818 and 1824, the company and its predecessors opened coal mines, established the town of Mauch Chunk as a transhipment point, and constructed a descending navigation on the Lehigh River from Mauch Chunk to Easton, utilizing a form of hydrostatically operated flash gates invented by White and commonly known as "bear traps." The company built an eight mile gravity railroad from its mines to Mauch Chunk in 1827, and the descending navigation was replaced by a full canal and slackwater navigation between 1826 and 1829. The canal was extended northward to White Haven in 1838, using dams and locks of unusual height. A portage railroad was constructed from White Haven to Wilkes Barre in 1840-43, but it was never used to carry loaded canal boats as originally planned.

The original Mauch Chunk railroad was rebuilt in 1846-50 and converted into a system of loops worked only by stationary engines and gravity. Cars would be hoisted up one inclined plane and then coast by gravity to the foot of the next plane, where the process was repeated. This system was replaced by a conventional railroad in 1873, but a portion of it continued to be operated as a scenic railroad for tourists until the 1930s.

The portion of the canal between Mauch Chunk and White Haven was destroyed by a flood in 1862. The Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad was extended from White Haven to Easton to replace the canal between 1862 and 1868. The L&S RR was leased to the Central Railroad Company of New Jersey in 1871, giving direct connections with New York. The company had purchased the Delaware Division Canal running from Easton to Bristol in 1866.

The Lehigh and Delaware Division Canals were abandoned for through service in 1931, although small sections of the Lehigh Canal continued to operate until 1942. The company discontinued coal mining in 1954 and sold its coal reserves in 1966. Its last interest in the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad was sold to Conrail in 1978, and the company was finally liquidated in 1985.