The Borough of Lehighton is working to remove Heilman’s Dam—the only dam on Mahoning Creek. The dam, located just below Rt. 443 and less than a quarter mile from the confluence of Mahoning Creek and the Lehigh River, has been unused for fifty years.

It is the last of a series of dams on the Mahoning Creek. This dam, built in 1915 and refurbished in the 1950s, supplied water to the Lehigh Valley Railroad, chiefly for its steam-fired locomotives.

According to Lehighton Borough Manager, John Hanosek, there is a plan to return migratory fish, such as the shad, to the Lehigh River and its tributaries. With the Palmerton Dam removed last month and a fish passage planned for the Cementon Dam in 2008, removal of Heilman’s Dam would open Mahoning Creek to the future return of migratory fish.

The first water to be dammed in Carbon County was probably Mahoning Creek. Soon after the Moravians settled Gnatten Heutten, current Lehighton, in 1746, Nathan Hinkle is said to have built a grist mill near the current location of Heilman’s Dam.

In 1775, the Benjamin Gilbert family arrived in Gnatten Heutten where they built a log house and a barn beside the Mahoning Creek but several miles upstream of the Hinkle Mill. Later, they built a saw-mill and grist-mill that is said to have “rendered the family comfortable.” On April 25, 1780, the Gilbert farm was attacked by eleven Indians, the buildings were burned and survivors were taken as captives.

In 1783, Capt. Joseph Longstreth purchased the property and rebuilt the mill. The mill passed to D. and S. Kennedy, and from them to Septimus Hough. It was resold and became the Garber Mill.

Returning to the site of the present Heilman Dam, the Hinkle Grist Mill went into disrepair and, in 1825, on the verge of the Canal Era, Daniel Snyder constructed a gristmill to service the Mahoning Valley farmers. His property was purchased by John Koons.

During the second half of the 1800s, the LVRR established its shops at Packerton. Packerton focused on coal cars and in the late 1800s, when demand for livestock, milk and produce cars developed, John Koons sold the South Lehighton property to the LVRR, creating the Mahoning Yards. The property included a dam on the Mahoning Creek that had been built for swimming in the summer and ice skating in the winter.

M. Heilman and Company took over an existing wood facing mill operation below the dam. The Mahoning Yards began attracting shipments of milk, meat and produce, all transported in insulated cars cooled by blocks of ice. In order to replenish the melted ice, Heilman used the mill dam as an ice dam, harvesting blocks of ice in the winter and constructing an enormous Ice House to store the ice to cool the refrigerated cars during the summer months.

The Mahoning Yard could service over thirty refrigeration cars at a time. Ice was also sold to the Obert Pork Plant on First Street and the Swift Meat Packing Plant on Railroad Street. In 1906, the ice House was destroyed by fire.

By 1913, the LVRR was rapidly expanding and to satisfy its growing thirst for water, it applied to construct two dams, the Packerton Dam on Beaver Creek, and a Rebuilding of the “Old Facing Mill Dam” on Mahoning Creek. Both dams would be built by the LVRR. The Packerton Dam was breach about two years ago.

The rebuilt Heilman’s Facing Mill Dam was designed to impound water. A gate valve diverted water into an underground 16-inch cast iron pipe that supplied water to a two million gallon per day electric powered pumping station retrofitted in the old mill building, about 300 feet below the dam. The pumps produced 250 feet of head to provide sufficient pressure to provide water to the Packerton shops.

The LVRR also used the Mahoning Yards for handling stock cars . The Packerton Yardmaster, Al Feuerstein, remembers the operation.

“We had to follow the 36-hour law,” said Feuerstein. “When animals: sheep, cows or pigs are shipped on freight, every 36 hours, they had to be fed and watered. We did that in Mahoning.”

“Sheep and cows had to be taken out of the cars,” he continued. “Pigs, we fed in the car. We also had men assigned to ice and water the cars.”

In the 1950s, the LVRR switched from steam engines to diesel locomotives, no longer requiring a water supply. Shortly afterward, the Mahoning Yards, including the Heilman Dam, were sold to the borough of Lehighton. On March 26, 1973, the Packerton shops were closed and on March 31, 1976, the L.V.R.R. ended all railroad operations. The following day, Conrail took over the LVRR and relocated what was left of the Packerton operations to the Allentown Train Yard.

The Heilman Dam remained- unused, neglected and deteriorating. “The dam has no usefulness as far as historic artifacts because it lost its purpose,” said Hanosek. “There’s no need for it.”

He argues that it blocks fish migration, is a mosquito breeding ground, and during the summer attract youngsters, who ignore the posted warnings of an unsafe dam.

Lehighton Borough is in the process of putting together a funding package for removal of the dam, a project estimated at $120,000 and anticipated to be completed by Aug. 2007.

“Once the dam is gone, it will be a nice fishing stream,” Hanosek said. “Fishing groups have offered to provide volunteers to replant.”

“Anytime we can make an improvement, it is well worth trying,” he concluded. “If you look at the overall plan of restoring the Lehigh River and returning shad and other fish to their spawning ground, it’s great.”

Mike Ebbert helped provide historical information.