The Greater Hazleton Rails to Trails is one of the connecting links to the spine of the Delaware Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Trail system. After a hunter discovered coal in the 1820’s, supposedly when digging for groundhogs, mining operations began in and around Hazleton. As coal was beginning to be mined in such places as Hazleton, Beaver Meadows, Coleraine (Junedale) and Tresckow, the need for a railroad to carry coal down the mountain to Mauch Chunk, now Jim Thorpe, was paramount. In 1833, a young man by the name of Ario Pardee, employed by the Engineering Corps of the Delaware and Railroad Canal Company, was sent to Beaver Meadows for surveying to develop the Beaver Meadows Railroad to carry coal to Mauch Chunk on the Lehigh River. As the coal industry grew in the area, so did the village of Hazleton and the number of railroad tracks and lines.
Additional Information
- Features:
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Trails
First mile includes 5 exercise stations
First 4 miles includes 3 picnic areas
with tables and benches.
