The Parsonage Bed and Breakfast

How the town got it's name

by Dabs

It seems logical that for a town to bear Jim Thorpe's name that he would show up somewhere in the history of the town-was he was born there, grew up there, died there, slept there, rode through on a train? The answer is none of the above, Jim Thorpe didn't even pass through the town while he was alive.

So how did the town of Mauch Chunk come to be renamed Jim Thorpe? Turns out there was a positive economic benefit for both the town and his widow, she got a memorial to her husband, denied in his native Oklahoma, and the town got an economic boost from having the remains of the former Olympic and professional athlete buried there.

Jim Thorpe, PA

by Easty

"Jim Thorpe"

Jim Thorpe is located at the western edge of the Pocono Mountain region. It is known as Pennsylvania's Little Switzerland because of the steep mountain torraine of the Jim Thorpe area. This town was orginally known as Mauch Chunk. It was renamed to commerate the great Olympian Jim Thorpe during the 1930's, who resided in the area.