{"product_id":"jim-thorpe-in-the-20th-century-9780738538600","title":"Jim Thorpe in the 20th Century","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): John H. Drury Jr | Joan Gilbert\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: Arcadia Publishing (SC)\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: Arcadia Publishing (SC)\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: United States - State \u0026amp; Local - Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMauch Chunk (Bear Mountain) was a boomtown gone bust by the mid 1900s, and came up with a unique way to change its fortunes via Olympian Jim Thorpe.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJim Thorpe in the 20th Century examines the causes and effects of a community's decision to relinquish its Native American name Mauch Chunk (Bear Mountain) to become the town of Jim Thorpe. In the 19th century, Mauch Chunk rode a wave of prosperity, as coal shipping and tourism turned ordinary men into millionaires. In the 20th century, the mainstays of the town's economy began to tumble like dominoes: mule-drawn coal boats could not compete with the iron horse, ending Mauch Chunk's days as a canal town by 1922; the touristattracting Switchback Gravity Railroad, unable to afford parts, closed in 1932; the coal mines and working railroads collapsed, as industry, home heating, and trucking turned to petroleum. Down-and-out by the mid-1900s, Mauch Chunk was looking for a means of saving itself when the widow of 1912 Olympian Jim Thorpe proposed a stranger-than-fiction solution.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Arcadia Publishing (SC)","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47892091928727,"sku":"9780738538600","price":1793.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780738538600.webp?v=1781185714","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/jim-thorpe-in-the-20th-century-9780738538600","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}