Philip Ginter
Summit Hill, Carbon County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
While hunting, Ginter discovered anthracite on Sharp Mountain here in 1791. He showed it to Col. Jacob Weiss, a prominent area settler. In 1792 Weiss and others formed the Lehigh Coal Mine Co., the first Anthracite company and a forerunner of Lehigh Coal & Navigation.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
According to long tradition, in 1791 the hunter Philip Ginter stumbled upon a black, burnable stone on Sharp Mountain here—anthracite, the hard coal that would power a nation. He carried his find to the settler Col. Jacob Weiss, and the next year Weiss and others formed the Lehigh Coal Mine Company, the first anthracite venture and a forerunner of the great Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company.
Why it matters
This chance discovery opened Pennsylvania's anthracite fields, the fuel that drove America's iron furnaces, railroads, and cities through the industrial age.
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Related people
- · Philip Ginter
- · Col. Jacob Weiss
Related events
- · Discovery of anthracite (1791)
- · Formation of the Lehigh Coal Mine Co. (1792)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Mary Harris “Mother” Jones
Coaldale, PA
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was among the most fearless labor organizers of her age, and in October 1900 she led a march of some 2,000 women from McAdoo to Coaldale to bolster a strike the United Mine Workers had called that September for higher wages, union recognition, and a grievance process. Many mineworkers joined the walkout and the union. The pressure helped set the stage for the great anthracite coal strike of 1902.
Switchback Railroad
Jim Thorpe, PA · est. 1971
Built in 1827, the Mauch Chunk Switchback Railroad used nothing but gravity to roll loaded coal cars nine miles down the mountain from the Summit Hill mines to the Lehigh Canal, with mules riding along to haul the empties back up. In 1844 engineers added back-tracks and inclined planes so the whole return trip could also be made by gravity. Once a marvel of early industrial engineering, it later became one of America's first tourist thrill rides—a forerunner of the roller coaster.
Carbon County
Jim Thorpe, PA · est. 1982
Carbon County, formed in 1843 from Northampton and Monroe, was named outright for the element at the heart of its wealth: the rich anthracite coal beds that fueled America's industrial rise. Its seat began life as Mauch Chunk, a booming coal-shipping town on the Lehigh, and in 1954 took the name Jim Thorpe to honor the great Native American athlete, whose remains were brought there. The renaming stitched a legendary Olympian's memory to a hard-coal town.
Packer Mansion
Jim Thorpe, PA · est. 1971
Asa Packer arrived in the Lehigh Valley a poor carpenter and left it one of the richest men in America, having built the Lehigh Valley Railroad into an anthracite-coal empire. In 1860 he crowned his fortune with an ornate Italianate mansion overlooking Mauch Chunk (today's Jim Thorpe), and he poured his wealth back into the region—most enduringly by founding Lehigh University in 1865. The house survives with its original furnishings intact, a preserved window into Gilded Age industrial wealth.