What Happened Next

Betty Orlmann was one of those people who saw a need and took action. She organized neighbors and other residents and started the Friends of the Delaware Canal in October 1982. Using the impetus of the canal’s designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1978, the friends were able to rally interest among citizens to try to save or restore the essence of the historic canal. In early 1983, the friends incorporated, and in 1987, with a $50,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Commerce, devised a Master Plan for the corridor’s rehabilitation. With guidance from Northampton County Parks Director Bill Mineo, Steve Humpfrey, and Lance Metz of Easton’s Canal Museum, the Friends were able to interest local U.S. Congressmen in preserving the two canals and their stories.

In November 1988, a bipartisan bill moved through the United States Congress establishing the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor in order to celebrate the history of anthracite mining, its transportation routes, and the industries it spawned. Congress appointed a federal commission to administer funds and to coordinate the development of the region as a National Heritage Corridor. Commission and partnership funding brought $53,882,065 to the heritage corridor over a 13-year span. These monies helped accomplish management plan goals and expansion of corridor territory. Today the corridor encompasses five counties in eastern Pennsylvania: Luzerne, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton, and Bucks.

Commission members traveled throughout the corridor, talked to residents, and got their ideas for improving their communities and telling their stories accurately. The results of these meetings came together in 1993 in a 10-year Management Action Plan. That plan, almost a decade later, continues to serve the communities and residents who helped formulate it by focusing on four main elements identified as key at the outset. The first is “navigation,” to help visitors and residents move through the corridor. When creating or enhancing places with potential to become tourism destinations, planners must address questions of accessibility and ease of location through clearly marked road signs. Linking communities together through driving routes, walking trails, and water pathways completes the navigation strategy.

The second element is accurate and effective interpretation of the stories and ways to link local stories within the corridor. Corridor staff works with community leaders, local historical societies, and nature preserves to further their goals, sometimes even assisting with entire site or community comprehensive planning projects. “For example, retired miners wanted to open one of the deep mines in Lansford to tourists,” explains Sue M. Pridemore, chief of Visitor Services. “We worked with them and the surrounding communities to develop a site plan they can implement in increments, while also encouraging local and regional support.”

The third element blends preservation and conservation as key aspects of all corridor projects. Residents feel strongly that their towns remain viable places to live. They want clean air, good drinking water, an attractive community, and a strong neighborhood. Therefore, they concentrate on improvements that stand on their own merits as valuable to daily life as well as being of historical significance or recreational importance. In many cases, these issues come together. When Luzerne County officials consulted with the Army Corps of Engineers about raising the Wyoming Valley levee to protect against the threat of devastating floods, they found an opportunity to also provide recreational opportunities by placing a trail along the top of the levee. Through exhibit signs placed along four sections of the levee, the stories of the river, the levee, and the people —their histories, evolution, lifestyles, and architecture—are told through pictures and prose for the enjoyment of walkers, cyclists, and joggers along the levee trail.

The fourth element is economic opportunity. Every resident places importance on a good job and a great place to live. To that end, corridor partners work together to incorporate quality of life improvements within many economic decisions. They also look farther ahead than the next election by evaluating the long-term sustainability and viability of each decision.

The corridor receives limited annual federal funding for a small staff and the supplies and materials needed to implement the master plan’s actions. Therefore, it has been the development of federal, state, and local partnerships, financial support of local businesses and civic organizations, and the will of the residents that have brought out the stories of coal mines, steel mills, and canal trade along with the communities surrounding them.

The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor Commission and their many federal, state, local, and nonprofit partners would have not have accomplished what they have so far without their national and state designation, one tool among many that local organizations can use to attain their goals.

“The corridor designation requires, however, that individuals and elected officials think globally while working locally, build regional constituents as well as local support, and be inclusive instead of exclusive,” says Pridemore. Becoming a National Heritage area in and of itself does not guarantee success. Citizens, organizations, and governments also must come together on their own to work on common goals.

Timeline

• 1791-1836 - Development of the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers as a navigation system

• 1931 - Boat operations along the Delaware Canal end
  
  Delaware Canal between Raubsville and Bristol deeded to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as Theodore Roosevelt State Park

• 1939 - Commonwealth acquires all 60 miles of the canal for Theodore Roosevelt State Park
  
  Delaware River Protective Association joins the Bureau of State Parks in developing a recreation area and protecting the canal

• 1942 - All boat operations along the Lehigh Navigation end

• 1957 - Sections of both canals are built over due to lack of funds for protection

• 1978 - Delaware Canal designated a National Historic Landmark

• 1982 - Friends of the Delaware Canal established

• 1987 - Master plan for the rehabilitation of the Delaware Canal completed

• 1988 - Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor established by Congress
  
  Congress establishes federal Corridor Commission

• 1990 - Theodore Roosevelt State Park becomes the Delaware Canal State Park

• 1990-93 - Development of Federal Commission and Management Action Plan

• 1993-Present - Implementation of the Management Action Plan

• 1993 - Easton - Two Rivers Landing , Exhibits
  Lehigh Canal Project, Walnutport, Canal Area

• 1994 - Allentown Lehigh Landing, Design
  Lehigh Canal Project, Catasauqua Pedestrian Bridge

• 1995 - Saylor Park Cement Kilns Restoration
  Visually Speaking Signs Program
  Bristol Lagoon Restoration

• 1996 - Master Plan for Visitor's Services, White Haven
  Delaware Canal & Historic Walk Study, New Hope

• 1997 - Graystones Land Acquisition, Morrisville / Huber Breaker Feasibility Study
  Bucks County Inventory & Preservation Plan / Corridor Wayfaring Signs

• 1998 - Audubon Auto Tour
  Lehigh Canal Improvements, Walnutport Lock Restoration
  No. 9 Mine Study, Carbon County

• 1999 - Municipal Assistance for Conservation
  Delaware Canal & Train Station Improvements, Bristol
  Nain House Historic Structure Report, Historic Bethlehem

• 2000 - Rail-Trail Acquisition Project / Restoration Lock #4, Bristol Township
  River Environmental Education Center Exhibits, Delaware Cana

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