Agnes McCartney was a community inspiration for planning, restoration and tourism. She served as Executive Director of the Carbon County Tourist Promotion Agency, Executive Director of the Carbon County Planning Commission and Deputy Director of the Schuylkill-Carbon Agency for Manpower.

Agnes McCartney saw the periodic flooding of downtown Jim Thorpe as a barrier to development. She also saw the creation of a Mauch Chunk Lake Park as the beginnings of a county recreation area and a major tourist attraction. 

The Central of New Jersey Railroad Station was purchased by Carbon County and served as an office for Agnes McCartney’s Carbon County Tourist Promotion Agency. 

As head of the Carbon County Tourist Promotion Agency, Agnes McCartney produced brochures to publicize the attractions of Jim Thorpe and Carbon County.  

Mauch Chunk Times News reporter, Joe Boyle, had written a story about the proposed Mauch Chunk Lake Dam project—as an April Fool’s joke. McCartney wasn’t laughing. 

The downtown section of Jim Thorpe suffered periodic damage from flooding of the Mauch Chunk Creek. Agnes McCartney fought to have a dam built on the creek and created Mauch Chunk Lake Park.

This is a series about the resurrection of the town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, not Jim Thorpe the athlete who is buried in East Jim Thorpe. Also, this story tries to tell the story of what happened and some of the people who helped make it happen. It is expected that more was left out than was included, even in the nine parts of the article. If you would like to share your story, please contact info@jttoday.com.

In nearly two hundred years, the town of Jim Thorpe, formerly Mauch Chunk, has gone from wilderness to industrial boomtown to squalid depressed town—finally resurrecting itself as an historic, arts and ecotourism community. How did Jim Thorpe reinvent itself?

 Please note - articles 1 through 4 are in the previous edition.

Part 5 –  The Foundation Years

Today, Jim Thorpe, the county seat of Carbon County, is a tourist destination. Nestled in a valley flanked by mountains on three sides, a pristine river dividing its major communities and a sparkling creek cascading  through a stone archway beneath the downtown, this Victorian town, among the largest listed on the National Historic Register is—well, frankly, romantic

After the name change, while the newly consolidated town of Jim Thorpe was focusing on rebuilding its infrastructure, Carbon County was creating a Planning Commission to help stimulate and guide its growth. The first Executive Director of the Planning Commission, and the person who is most associated with the turnaround of Jim Thorpe and Carbon County was Agnes McCartney.

Agnes McCartney

McCartney, who will be 90 years old in April, is currently living in Virginia. After over thirty years as the Executive Director of the Carbon County Tourist Promotion Agency, she retired in 1993 and moved to Florida.

“At one time they thought I was nutty,” said McCartney in a recent interview. “Jim Thorpe was losing people because of the Depression. Beautiful mansions were going to ruin. There was low esteem. With the mines and RR closing, they saw no hope. As a newcomer, I had a vision.” 

When McCartney came to Carbon County in 1955 from Harrisburg, she was no stranger to politics. Her husband, Frank, grew up in Coaldale and wanted to return to the area to open a security agency. Frank had been a Colonel in the Pennsylvania State Police and was appointed Police Commissioner from 1959 to 1962. Agnes McCartney had been the executive secretary to the Governor. 

Agnes McCartney became interested in tourism and planning. She was especially good at attracting grant monies. While her husband was busy running the State Police in Harrisburg, Agnes was hired by the Carbon County Planning Commission on a temporary basis that lasted eleven years. She became the first Executive Director of the Commission in 1962. 

At the time, Federal money was available for flood control projects. The Francis E. Walter Dam was built on the Lehigh River in 1960 and the Beltzville Dam was built on the Pohopoco Creek in 1970. In 1955 and again in 1968, overflowing of the Mauch Chunk Creek flooded the downtown section of Jim Thorpe. 

McCartney saw flooding as a barrier to development of the downtown area. She also saw the creation of a lake as the beginnings of a county recreation area and a major tourist attraction. Mauch Chunk Times News reporter, Joe Boyle, had written a story about the proposed Mauch Chunk Lake Dam project—as an April Fool’s joke. McCartney wasn’t laughing. 

Working with the Soil Conservation Commission, the boroughs of Jim Thorpe and Summit Hill and the Federal Government, McCartney was able to raise $3 million for the Mach Chunk Creek Dam. The lake was enlarged to 300-acres to provide a water supply, and with additional funds from the Fish Commission, the lake was expanded to 600 acres. 

The Mauch Chunk Lake dam was completed In 1972, just about a month before a hurricane, ironically names Agnes, delivered enough rain to have flooded the town of Jim Thorpe had not Agnes’ Mach Chunk Lake Dam been in place. “I got down on my knees in amazement that I could see that the dam paid for it self that day,” said McCartney. 

Next, McCartney became deputy director of the Schuylkill-Carbon Agency for Manpower. Through grants, the agency hired the unemployed to fix the homes in the county that had gone into disrepair. The agency worked on homes in Palmerton, Lansford, and in Jim Thorpe, focusing on Race Street. 

McCartney had the Central of New Jersey Railroad Station repaired and it became the office for the Carbon County Tourist Promotion Agency that she started and directed for thirty years. 

Through the TPA, McCartney made an inventory of tourism related sites like the Asa Packer mansion and St. Marks Church and created brochures to promote the town. 

In 1993 at the age of 78, Agnes McCartney retired and toward the end of the decade, left for the warmer temperatures of Florida. She still enjoys Jim Thorpe and visits the town that she helped revitalize several times each year. 

The TPA ran for several years after McCartney’s departure but with Agnes McCartney’s drive absent, the organization folded and it operations were taken over by the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau. 

The story continues in Part 6 -  The Heritage Years—George Hart brought a tourist railroad came to Jim Thorpe and Bruce Conrad created the Old Mauch Chunk National Historic District.