page_title: Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Topographic map of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania
context_page_description: Jim Thorpe is a borough and the county seat of Carbon County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The population was 4,781 at the 2010 census. The town has been called the "Switzerland of America" due to the picturesque scenery, mountainous location, and architecture; as well as the "Gateway to the Poconos." It is in eastern Pennsylvania about 80 miles north of Philadelphia and 100 miles west of New York City. This town is also historically known as the burial site for the body of Native American sports legend Jim Thorpe.
context_section_description: Jim Thorpe is located near the center of Carbon County at 40°52′23″N 75°44′11″W.
  In the deeps of the geologic timescale the two shorelines of the Lehigh River occupied by the 19th-century towns of Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk were situated on the bottom of an ancient river-fed tarn, a mountain lake which filled the valley on the west bank and covered the relative flatlands on the east bank. The muddy bottom of that high tarn (the range then rivaling the Himalayas in size), where the waters pooled at a lower elevation amongst the twisted folds of four near-parallel ridgelines, created a level region whose settlements became the relatively flat lands on either bank of the Lehigh. The ridgelines, which run east-northeast to west-southwest, are (from north to south) Broad, Nesquehoning, Pisgah, and Mauch Chunk ridges (or Mountains)—each of which runs over 15 miles (24.1 km) west to the gaps cut by the Schuylkill River.
  According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough of Jim Thorpe has a total area of 14.9 square miles (38.6 km²), of which 14.6 square miles (37.8 km²) is land and 0.3 square miles (0.8 km²), or 2.15%, is water. Jim Thorpe is 3 miles (5 km) north and upstream of Lehighton, below the Lehigh Gap which sunders Bear Mountain on the east bank from the extended ridge of Mauch Chunk Mountain. The town is 4 miles (6 km) east of Nesquehoning, which is up a steep grade and around the bend along U.S. 209 South, and also butting up against the slopes of Mount Pisgah. This was a key element in the LC&N's planning, for the grade from the mountain ridge down to the river enabled them to fill barges quickly, using chutes and an elevated entry from a road down the ridge face. Jim Thorpe's developed elevations range between the river slack water at 540 feet (160 m) above sea level—720 feet (219.5 m) to the town's upper streets, all below the western peak of Mount Pisgah, which tops out at 1,519 feet (463.0 m) above sea level.
  The elevation of the Borough of Jim Thorpe ranges from 540 feet (160 m) at Broadway and Hazard Square downtown to 1,700 feet (520 m) above sea level 3 miles (5 km) northeast of the borough center near the Penn Forest Township line.
caption: Jim Thorpe lies in the shadow of Mount Pisgah at the end of Pisgah Mountain (Pisgah Ridge), upriver of the Lehigh Water Gap between Bear Mountain on the east/left bank and the valley of Mauch Chunk Creek on the right bank.
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