The second Carbon County Tourism Summit filled the Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe on Tuesday night, as lawmakers, business leaders and community organizations presented projects aimed at strengthening the region’s most visible industry while addressing issues such as housing, infrastructure and parking.

The evening, hosted by state Sen. David Argall and state Rep. Doyle Heffley, was described as a chance to take stock of progress since the inaugural summit in 2023 and to plan for the future.

Officials said attendance more than doubled from the first gathering.

“This community never gave up,” Argall said of Jim Thorpe in his opening remarks. “It has made so much progress in the last few decades removing blight and restoring pride.”

The good and the bad

Tourism in Carbon County, he explained, has become both an economic engine and a source of strain.

“We all understand tourism has very significant benefits,” Argall said. “But those benefits have also put challenges in front of us — parking, traffic and housing affordability. Nobody worried about those things 40 years ago, when people feared the town was dying.”

Projects across the county were highlighted Tuesday as examples of how historic buildings and underused spaces are being given new life. The former St. Michael’s Church in Lansford is being redeveloped into vacation rentals, loft apartments and a future wedding venue. Weatherly’s Schwab School is slated to be rebuilt for housing. Lehighton has launched a $250,000 façade improvement effort to revitalize downtown storefronts.

Temple University also announced plans to establish its first rural dental school in the area.

“We’re going to bring students here, not just to learn but to provide important dental care,” Argall said. “We’ll show them hiking, biking and everything this community has to offer.”

Heffley called tourism the county’s leading industry, right up there with health care.

“When you’re walking up Broadway or down Race Street, you could be in 2025 or 1885,” Heffley said. “That’s why people come here. It’s unique.”

Heffley pointed to attractions beyond Jim Thorpe — including the Lehigh River, three ski resorts, hiking trails and the Weatherly Hillclimb — as proof that the industry touches every corner of the county.

“If you keep building on those opportunities while also enhancing housing and public safety, that’s the key,” he said.

$1B in revenue

Chris Barrett, president and CEO of the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau, presented data showing the scale of the industry.

“We host 30 million people a year in the region,” he reported. “They leave behind $7.2 billion,” Barrett said. “Tourism in Carbon County alone means $1 billion yearly. That’s what it means.”

Barrett noted that half of visitors come from New York and more than 20% from Philadelphia.

“Of the $7.2 billion, $5.18 billion is coming from those markets,” he said.

He also addressed housing.

“We are very concerned about the lack of workforce and affordable housing,” Barrett said. “We’ve been recruiting developers to consider building workforce housing here because it’s incredibly important, not just for our employees but for the communities we serve.”

Business and tourism

The Carbon Chamber and Economic Development Corporation stressed the importance of linking business with tourism.

“We like to say that we’re at the intersection of business, community and opportunity,” said Kylie Adams-Weiss, senior vice president of the organization. “Tourism dollars help businesses keep their doors open, their lights on and their staff employed.”

She pointed to sidewalk improvements at the Old Jail Museum and new breast cancer detection equipment at St. Luke’s Lehighton campus as examples of projects supported through grants.

“It’s estimated that 67 cents out of every dollar spent locally stays local,” Adams-Weiss said.

Blueprint community teams also outlined visions for revitalization. John Dowling, chair of the Panther Valley group, said the coming 9/11 National Memorial Trail in the area will create opportunities.

“This trail will bring cyclists, hikers and heritage travelers from across the country,” he said. “Our goal is to make the Panther Valley not just a pass-through, but a destination.”

The trail stretches 1,500 miles between New York, the Pentagon and Shanksville.

About half the route is already off-road, with plans to extend trail connections across the region. Carbon County is a centerpiece of the project. A 30-mile corridor between Jim Thorpe and Pottsville will serve as the “anthracite connector,” tying into both the Schuylkill River and Delaware & Lehigh trail systems.

“When that is done, it will create a 270-mile triangle of trails,” Andy Hamilton, vice chair to the Board of Directors of the September Eleventh National Memorial Trail Alliance, said. “That’s a marketable opportunity for this area.”

Helping small towns

Project planners emphasized that the new route will bring visitors directly into small towns rather than bypassing them.

“We’re connecting Coaldale, Nesquehoning, Lansford and Summit Hill,” Bob Armstrong of WSP, a project engineering consultant, said. “It’s not just about recreation. It’s about economic revitalization, heritage tourism and building community.”

A survey of more than 2,000 people showed strong support for the project. Public workshops are scheduled in October in Pottsville and the Panther Valley to gather more feedback.

White Haven’s blueprint team shared plans for a streetscape redesign and new river access projects.

“We have three exits off I-80,” said team leader Chuck Stoffa. “We’re an hour and a half from New York City, Philadelphia or Harrisburg. We need to build up our infrastructure, but we already have all that recreation to build on.”

Trails were a recurring theme throughout the night. Tom Hall of the Greater Hazleton Civic Partnership described efforts to connect Hazleton to Weatherly and the D&L Trail.

“If we can implement that, we’ll go from Hazleton to the Lehigh Gorge on a beautiful set of trails,” he said.

Capitalizing on history

Summit Hill leaders are pursuing a project to use immersive technology to showcase the history of the Switchback Railroad.

“We want to use 21st century technology to bring the stories of our rich history to life,” said project lead Dave Wargo. “People will be able to almost travel back in time to see what it was like to live, work and play here in the Panther Valley.”

The project is in its conceptual design phase, supported by a state Local Share Account grant. Organizers are finalizing a site and working with lawmakers to secure additional funding.

While reconstructing the Switchback itself would be prohibitively expensive, the immersive plan is being promoted as an affordable way to preserve the story. Argall compared the idea to a virtual experience in Gettysburg.

“In that case, I put on the headset and ended up in a Civil War hospital watching a surgeon at work,” he said. “It was incredibly real. The Switchback version will be much more fun, and it will give visitors a reason to stay in Summit Hill.”

Transformation

One of the most ambitious private redevelopment efforts in the county is taking place in Lansford, where co-developer George Haleem is working to transform the former St. Michael’s Church complex into a multi-use destination.

Haleem told the audience the project is divided into three phases. The first, already completed, turned the old rectory into a large vacation rental.

“It’s now a nine-bedroom rental,” Haleem said. “It has been operating for about a year. There aren’t many places in the Poconos or around Jim Thorpe that can comfortably accommodate that many people under one roof, so it fills a real need.”

Phase two focuses on the adjacent school building, which Haleem is planning to convert into 14 loft-style apartments.

“They’ll be able to accommodate wedding guests, venue visitors and vacationers,” he said. “It will be a mix of short- and long-term stays, right behind the rectory building.”

The most visible piece of the redevelopment will come in phase three — the restoration of the church itself. Haleem said his team has already invested heavily in making sure the structure is sound.

“We replaced the roof, did extensive masonry work and made sure the building was stable,” he said. “We brought in a company from Philadelphia that worked on the Art Museum to handle the stonework. It was a major project. We even had to shut down the street for 30 days to get the lifts in.”

Once complete, the church will serve as a large event space, with capacity for 150 or more guests. Haleem envisions it primarily as a wedding venue, but said it could also host community gatherings and corporate events.

“We’re excited to bring new life to one of the most beautiful churches in the commonwealth,” he said.

The project sits alongside the path of the planned 9/11 National Memorial Trail, which will run near the church property.

“The trail will come right up next to our parking lot,” Haleem said. “That’s going to be huge for Lansford, and we’re excited to be part of that revitalization.”

Haleem added that securing the buildings and preparing them for reuse has already required significant investment, but he believes the payoff will be worth it.

“We see this as a way not just to preserve the church, but to help Lansford grow as a destination,” he said.

Mine expansion

The No. 9 Coal Mine and Museum in Lansford is preparing to unveil a major expansion in 2026. Mine Superintendent Zach Petroski said the project has been years in the making.

“The building itself is finally completed,” Petroski said. “It’s been about six years of organizing and planning, but we’re happy to see it done.”

The new Dorrance Fan House will house the last two remaining giant mine fans surviving in the state’s anthracite region. Both were used to circulate huge volumes of fresh air through the Dorrance Colliery Mine near Wilkes-Barre. The 1883 fan and 1905 fans along with their original stationary steam engines were moved to No. 9 as part of this historic preservation project where they are being restored and exhibited.