Mount Pisgah is a peak in

Carbon County, Pennsylvania Carbon County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,749. The county is also part of Pennsylvania's Coal Region and Northeastern Pennsylvania. ...

situated north-northwest from and looming over the right bank business district in downtown

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native ...

Location

Mount Pisgah is located above Jim Thorpe and is the northeastern end of the 12.5-mile-long

Pisgah Mountain Pisgah Mountain or Pisgah Ridge (on older USGS maps) is a ridgeline running from Tamaqua to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania (from the Little Schuylkill River water gap to the Lehigh River water gap). It is oriented north-northeast to south-southwe ...

(or Pisgah Ridge) above the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley (), known colloquially as The Valley, is a geographic region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County and Northampton County in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a component valley of the Great Appalachian Valley bound to the no ...

. The peak is located in northeastern Pennsylvania's Anthracite Upland region on the west bank of the

Lehigh River The Lehigh River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania. The river flows in a generally southward pat ...

just north of and parallel to Broadway, which is a block downhill from the lower looping end of the historic Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company's historic

Mauch Chunk & Summit Hill Railway The Mauch Chunk and Summit Railroad was a coal-hauling railroad in the mountains of Pennsylvania that operated between 1828 and 1932. It was the first operational railway, in the United States, of any substantial length to carry paying passenger ...

, which delivered coal to barges through chutes crossing what is now U.S. Route 209 and the rail yard along the Lehigh. While the lower south slope of the mountain and the ends of the railroad loop and yard have now been developed into private lots and a town street, there are still two railway rights-of-ways—railroad bed road ends now turned into bike & hiking trails to travel the trip to the upper terminus and loop at Summit Hill, Pennsylvania. The former Upwards or climbing roadbed connects via a switchback path the steep climb to the Mount Pisgah summit that has a view of the surrounding countryside, especially the Lehigh Valley and the

Mauch Chunk Jim Thorpe is a borough and the county seat of Carbon County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is historically known as the burial site of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe. Jim Thorpe is ...

- Bear Mountain Gap and the slackwater area above the last canal dam estimated from USGS Topogical map, given summit and the benchmark notation BM=490 ft at confluence of "Beaverdam Run", along US-209 near the Parkerton rail yard below, and two hiking-biking trails now depart along the pathways up to Summit Hill, Pennsylvania once the uproad and downroads of the United States' and North America's second railroad,

Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway The Mauch Chunk and Summit Railroad was a coal-hauling railroad in the mountains of Pennsylvania that operated between 1828 and 1932. It was the first operational railway, in the United States, of any substantial length to carry paying passenger ...

is also located at the base of the mountain.

Name

Mt. Pisgah is named for the biblical mountain in

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

from which

Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...

first saw the promised land.

References

* Alan R. Geyer (1979) "''Outstanding Geologic Features of Pennsylvania''",

Geological Survey of Pennsylvania Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other E ...

* Tom Thwaites (1997) "''50 hikes in Eastern Pennsylvania''", Third edition * Art Michaels (2003) "''Pennsylvania Overlooks a guide for Sightseers and Outdoor People''", Penn State Press {{DEFAULTSORT:Pisgah, Mount Mountains of Pennsylvania Landforms of Carbon County, Pennsylvania