Jim Thorpe Memorial

   Jim Thorpe, born in Oklahoma, and a member of the Sac and Fox Nation, was a natural athlete. He won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon and played professional football, baseball, and basketball. After his sport career ended in 1928, he held odd jobs, working in construction, as a bouncer, a security guard and a ditch digger. He died in 1953 of heart failure.

  Strangely, he is buried at this roadside memorial on the outskirts of a small Pennsylvania coaling mine town, a place he had never even visited. The original plans for a memorial at his gravesite in Shawnee, Oklahoma were thwarted when the governor of Oklahoma vetoed the funding. Thorpe’s wife, Patricia, angered by the slight, heard that the town of Mauch Chunk was looking for a way to attract people to their town and offered her husband’s remains if the town would change its name and build a memorial to him. Kind of a weird proposal but the town followed through on its promise  and built a very nice memorial. Statues depicting Thorpe as a football player and showing Thorpe with a discus were installed in 2007 and 2011. The Spirit of Thunder and Lightning, an abstract sculpture, was dedicated in 1998. Interpretive signs give details on Thorpe's life and athletic accomplishments.

  Paved walkways provide access.

  Any size RV can navigate the loop drive and fit in the parking along the back edge. Memorial  40.88477, -75.72575