<b>Former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania">Mauch Chunk, PA</a> Corporate Headquarters building</b> of the historically important <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehigh_Coal_%26_Navigation_Company" class="extiw" title="w:Lehigh Coal &amp; Navigation Company">Lehigh Coal &amp; Navigation Company</a> (<b>LC&amp;N</b> locally through several counties also called the '<b>Old Company'</b>), whose founders opened the first commercially exploited coal mines in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Region" class="extiw" title="w:Coal Region">Southern Anthracite region</a> (as predecessor company: Lehigh Coal Mining Co., from 1792), and over time owned the mineral rights or properties of most of three counties in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehigh_Valley" class="extiw" title="w:Lehigh Valley">Greater Lehigh Valley</a>. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehigh_Valley_Railroad" class="extiw" title="w:Lehigh Valley Railroad">Lehigh Valley Railroad</a> would be founded in an attempt to break their monopoly on the eastern Anthracite coal supplies.
<ul><li>LC&amp;N later moved the corporate headquarters to Lansford, PA after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hauto_Tunnel" class="extiw" title="w:Hauto Tunnel">Hauto Tunnel</a> and standard gauge (over ridge circuitous route via Barnesville and Tamaqua) and light rail (Nesquehoning up <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisgah_Ridge" class="extiw" title="w:Pisgah Ridge">Pisgah Ridge</a> to Lansford, et al.) railways were engineered into the Panther Creek Valley. This Mauch Chunk office building at that point became the headquarters of subsidiary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehigh_and_Susquehanna_Railroad" class="extiw" title="w:Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad">Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad</a> (LH&amp;S) and then the regional offices of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Railroad_of_New_Jersey" class="extiw" title="w:Central Railroad of New Jersey">CNJ</a> when the LH&amp;S leased its operations to the CNJ.</li>
<li>LC&amp;N built the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehigh_Canal" class="extiw" title="w:Lehigh Canal">Lehigh Canal</a>, owned the lands of or founded the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/company_town" class="extiw" title="w:company town">company towns</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summit_Hill,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Summit Hill, Pennsylvania">Summit Hill</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lansford,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Lansford, Pennsylvania">Lansford</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaldale,_Schuylkill_County,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Coaldale, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania">Coaldale</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamaqua,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Tamaqua, Pennsylvania">Tamaqua</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Thorpe,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania">Jim Thorpe</a> (once both Mauch Chunk, PA and East Mauch Chunk, PA.) in the middle Lehigh Valley, and extensive properties northwards extending through the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehigh_River_Gorge" class="extiw" title="w:Lehigh River Gorge">Lehigh River Gorge</a>, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Haven,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:White Haven, Pennsylvania">White Haven</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Top,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Mountain Top, Pennsylvania">Mountain Top</a> and Wilkes-Barre area <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Run,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Laurel Run, Pennsylvania">Laurel Run, Pennsylvania</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Pittston,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:West Pittston, Pennsylvania">West Pittston</a> and mines and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Planes" class="extiw" title="w:Ashley Planes">Ashley Planes</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/funicular" class="extiw" title="w:funicular">Funicular railroads</a> around <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley,_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Ashley, Pennsylvania">Ashley</a> and Mountain Top. The same company started USA's second oldest railroad, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauch_Chunk_and_Summit_Hill_Railway" class="extiw" title="w:Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill Railway">Mauch Chunk and Summit Hill Railway</a>, and the various efforts of their companies were bundled into the subsidiary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehigh_and_Susquehanna_Railroad" class="extiw" title="w:Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad">Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad</a> which were leased to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Railroad_of_Pennsylvania" class="extiw" title="w:Central Railroad of Pennsylvania">Jersey Central</a> into the 1960s.</li></ul>
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