coal, as railroads replaced steam locomotives with diesels and other forms of heating came into wider use, cut deeply into corporate profits. Consequently, various boards oversaw gradual contraction of the company and sales of bits and pieces. In 1966, Greenwood Stripping Co. bought the remaining coal properties, most located as originally exploited along the Panther Creek Valley, and sold them eight years later to Bethlehem Mines Corp. In 1986, shareholders dissolved the company after it sold its last business, Cella's Chocolate Covered Cherries, to Tootsie Roll. The new company The company name remained associated with anthracite mining through the independently founded and otherwise unrelated Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, incorporated in 1988. While unrelated legally, the 'New Company''' as it is known in the area was spearheaded by a previous officer and stockholder: James J. Curran Jr. took over Lehigh Coal from Bethlehem Mines Corp. in 1989, and through the 1990s it remained the largest producer of U.S. anthracite, which is now a specialty product. In 2000, Lehigh Coal shut down and laid-off 163 employees, saying plunging coal prices made it impossible to make a profit. The company reopened in 2001 with help of a last-resort $9 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 2010, in bankruptcy proceedings once again, the company was purchased by one of its bigger creditors at auction, BET Associates, who were affiliated with Toll Brothers. The company properties in between Lansford and Nesquehoning, boasting an EPA permit sign in the same Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company'' name at the company gates along Rt-209 were observed in operation during mid-July 2013. See also Lehigh Canal Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad Panther Creek Valley Notes References Sources Footnotes External links Switch-Back Gravity Railroad: Proprietary photos touring the Lehigh Coal & Navigation's Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway, the second continuously operating railway in North America, the first to carry passengers, the first long railway (i.e. over 5 miles), the first to carry paying passengers, the first tourism railway, acknowledged as the first roller coaster, after which The Switchback, the first amusement park roller coaster was named. 1822 establishments in Pennsylvania 1986 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania Coal companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Pennsylvania Defunct mining companies of the United States History of Allentown, Pennsylvania Industrial Revolution Companies based in Carbon County, Pennsylvania American companies established in 1822 Energy companies established in