“It
does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.”
~ Confucius
551-479 BC
A
late September evening marked the first time I spotted a turtle along the
Ironton Rail Trail, taking its own sweet time moseying toward the creek.
The
Ironton Rail Trail loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the
Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township in Pennsylvania.
The Ironton Railroad was a
shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore
and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted
to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20th
century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of
Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.
In 1996, Whitehall Township
purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the
Ironton Rail Trail.
