| |
The Lehigh County Log Cabin Trail Committee has launched the new Lehigh County Log Cabin Trail, a unique historic and educational resource, via its Website lehighcountylogcabintrail.org. The result of more than a year of research by a volunteer committee, the driving trail consists of 22 historic log homes in Lehigh County, Pa.
Visitors interested in exploring the trail can download a field guide and detailed driving directions for the trail’s three routes (northern, central, and southern) from the Website, and read descriptions of each cabin’s past and present day uses. A county map on the site indicates where each building is located along the trail.
Each of the trail’s three sections has its own driving tour route complete with detailed driving instructions, allowing visitors to explore one or more section at a time. Visitors should allow four to five hours to drive the entire trail.
The 22 18th and 19th century log buildings on the trail were selected from a list of nearly 100 log buildings identified in Lehigh County by the log cabin trail committee as the result of extensive field surveys and archival and literature research. Some are located in public parks and owned by municipal governments or non-profit organizations, while others are privately-owned residences.
Two of the log buildings on the Lehigh County Log Cabin Trail are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are the Shelter House on South Mountain near the Borough of Emmaus, and the Leaser Log Cabin near Leaser Lake in Lynn Township.
Several points along the log cabin trail intersect with the Lehigh Valley Covered Bridge Tour, allowing tourists to also visit Bogert’s Bridge, the Manasses Guth Bridge, Rex’s Covered Bridge and Geiger’s Covered Bridge. A Covered Bridges of the Lehigh Valley brochure can be downloaded (PDF) online.
A portion of the northern part of the log cabin trail in Lynn, Heidelberg, and Washington townships also overlaps the Kittatinny Raptor Corridor where major autumn raptor migrations occur annually along the 185-mile Kittatinny Ridge, also known as Blue Mountain.
The Lehigh County Log Cabin Trail Committee consists of representatives from six local historical societies, as well as volunteers with expertise in the log buildings of Lehigh County. The Website and related field and research tasks were completed by Eagle Scout candidate Chris Jones, a member of Boy Scout Troop 131, who also supervised a group of assistants.
The Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania is located along the state border with New Jersey and is approximately one hour north of Philadelphia and an hour-and-a-half west of New York City. It is home to the three cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton and is the state’s third largest metro region.
Lehigh Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau (lehighvalleypa.org) is the designated tourist promotion agency of Lehigh and Northampton counties. Its mission is to develop and promote Lehigh Valley as a leisure destination and as a destination for meetings and conventions for the area’s economic benefit. For more information on LVCVB and its activities or to request a Lehigh Valley Map & Guide, call (800) 747-0561 or visit the official tourism Website.
|
tracey[.]lehighvalleypa.org 
