Delaware & Lehigh Canal National Heritage Corridor and State Heritage Park

Mary Means & Associates, Inc.

The Delaware & Lehlgh Canal National Heritage Corridor and State Heritage Park presents the most exciting opportunity for the people of the Delaware, Lehlgh and Wyoming valleys since the discovery of anthracite coal, the building of the Canals, or the first pouring of iron more than 150 years ago. The Corridor showcases our extraordinary natural, cultural and recreational resources and gives us the opportunity to base growth and development on our heritage. What is a National Heritage Corridor and a State Heritage Park? It is an area recognized for its important history and rich and distinctive cultural and natural resources. It is an area where many Partner organizations and agencies - at the local, state and federal level- act on a singular opportunity to collaborate for the Corridor's future that makes the most of each Partner's contribution. It is not a traditional park with fences and rules, but rather a special place - a living landscape in which people live and work and share the responsibility to keep it special. Our Corridor is a nationally significant 150-mile long region in eastern Pennsylvania, within Luzerne, Carbon, Lehigh, Northampton and Bucks Counties. Our unique inheritance of settlement, industrial development and recreational opportunities has earned both recognition and support from the National Park Service and Pennsylvania's State Heritage Parks Interagency Task Force. Make no mistake, these federal and state agencies will not own or control the area. Instead, they are helping local residents and organizations in their own efforts to guide the Corridor's preservation and development, to build a future from our past. This Management Act ian Plan is our call to action, our guide to creating the Corridor. It identifies the outstanding resources and attractions that have made the Valleys important for centuries. It explores precisely how residents, local governments and civic organizations, and the state and federal governments can act in partnership to conserve our heritage, to tell our part in the great American story, and develop our economic base for present and future generations -in short, how to continue enhancing the quality of life we enjoy here.