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Ironton Rail Trail

Pennsylvania geography stubsProtected areas of Lehigh County, PennsylvaniaRail trails in Pennsylvania

The Ironton Rail Trail is a rail trail that spans 9 mi (14 km) in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The trail was made from tracks of the defunct Ironton Railroad and includes a paved 5 mi (8.0 km) loop. The trail spreads across Whitehall Township, Coplay and North Whitehall. It is a very popular trail in the Lehigh Valley for walkers, bikers, runners and dog walkers. The trail has many events such as a 10k race held every year.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Ironton Rail Trail (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Ironton Rail Trail
Chestnut Street, Whitehall

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N 40.66475 ° E -75.51014 °
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Chestnut Street 3699
18052 Whitehall
Pennsylvania, United States
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Fort Deshler
Fort Deshler

Fort Deshler, located near Egypt, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, USA, was a French and Indian War era frontier fort established in 1760 to protect settlers from Indian attacks. The fort was near the location of what is now the intersection of Pennsylvania Route 145 and Chestnut Street, between Egypt and Coplay. The fort was built by Adam Deshler, who was employed during the French and Indian War furnishing provisions for provincial forces. It was actually a fortified stone blockhouse, 40 feet (12 m) long and 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, with walls 2.5 feet (0.76 m) thick, that was also as Deshler's home. Adjoining the building was a large wooden building, suitable as barracks for 20 soldiers and for storing military supplies.There appears to be no evidence that the fort was either garrisoned with provincial troops or served any military purpose beyond functioning as a place of refuge and rendezvous for settlers of the region.The fort remained in the Deshler family until 1899, when the building and its remaining 151 acres (0.61 km2; 0.24 sq mi) of property were sold to the Coplay Cement Company for $100,000.The historian Charles Rhoads Roberts, in his 1914 History of Lehigh County Pennsylvania and a Genealogical and Biographical Records of its Families, wrote the following about Fort Deshler: This old stone mansion, the only building standing in Lehigh County which was used as a fort in the colonial period, should by all means be preserved and marked as a historic spot, not only as a memorial to the pioneers of this location but also as a reminder to the coming generations of the hardships which their staunch and sturdy ancestors were compelled to undergo. Fort Deshler was not preserved, and stood in ruins until it collapsed around 1940. Its location is commemorated by a Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission marker.

Coplay Cement Company Kilns
Coplay Cement Company Kilns

Coplay Cement Company Kilns, also known as the Saylor Park Industrial Museum, is an open-air historic site located at Coplay, Pennsylvania in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The nine kilns were built between 1892 and 1893 and used for the production of Portland cement. The kilns are constructed from locally produced red brick, and are known as Schoefer vertical kilns. They were shut down in 1904, and the Coplay Cement Company then donated them and the surrounding land to Lehigh County in 1975, which was used in creating a cement industry museum celebrating the important role the company and cement played in the area's early economic development. It is operated as a partnership between Lehigh County, which owns and maintains the site, and the Lehigh County Historical Society, which provides educational services. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.The Saylor Cement Museum honors David Saylor (1827-1884), the father of the American Portland cement industry, and the people who built this industry into one of the most important in the Lehigh Valley and the nation. Lehigh County was a natural spot for cement production. Cement is made from rocks containing lime, silica, and alumina; Lehigh County limestone “cement rock” contains all three ingredients. In 1866, David O. Saylor helped found Coplay Cement Company. In 1871, he received the first American patent for Portland cement, which is much stronger than the natural cement that had previously been produced in this country. Saylor's Portland cement built bridges, docks, jetties, roads, aqueducts, subways, and skyscrapers. By 1900, the Lehigh Valley made 72% of Portland cement produced in this country.The first kiln at the Coplay Cement Company was a dome kiln. Dome kilns were inefficient; they had to shut down often. In 1893 Coplay Cement built Mill B, containing the Schoefer kilns standing today. Originally enclosed in a large building, Schoefer kilns could run continuously. Soon, however, the even more efficient rotary kilns came into use. Mill B's outdated Schoefer kilns shut down in 1904, and Coplay Cement later used Mill B's buildings for storage.