Path to Glen Onoko Falls near Mauch Chunk

This view of Glen Onoko Falls near what was then the small town of Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania (present-day Jim Thorpe) depicts an area that has barely changed since Brown visited over one hundred years ago. Glen Onoko, named after a young Native American woman who jumped from the Falls due to unrequited love, was the home of the massive Hotel Wahnetah and a resort, both built by the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the 1880's. The location was only accessible by rail. The resort became a popular tourist location, and many, like Brown, would make the hike up to Glen Onoko Falls from the resort to experience its beauty firsthand.

The Hotel Wahnetah was destroyed in a fire in 1911. The resort continued to operate until 1917, but after this date all structures were razed on the site. The buildings' foundations, however, still remain, and people can still find artifacts such as dinner utensils or parts of iron benches if you look around the former resort location.

The Falls themselves are still a public recreational area as part of Lehigh Gorge State Park, and have remained virtually unscathed by the time and population expansion that has claimed countless other tracts of beautiful landscape.

H.E. Brown created a similar work prior to this in 1885 that is also in the Payne Gallery Collection, titled Glen Onoko Falls Near Mauch Chunk.