Explore the history of picturesque Lehigh Valley

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PENNSYLVANIA | LEHIGH VALLEY

Past-Tense Travel

Take a trip through time in Lehigh Valley

The Tannery, Luckenbach Mill and Springhouse are located in the Colonial Industrial Quarter of the historic Morovian district in Bethlehem, Pa.

HUB WILSON

By Lisa Elia More

LEHIGH VALLEY, SET AMONG Pennsylvania’s lush landscape and gentle hills, offers throwbacks to a simpler time. And there are plenty of opportunities to stretch out and enjoy the outdoors in what was once America’s steel manufacturing mecca.

“There is so much to see and do here, and that’s because we are a microcosm of the development of our country,” says

Charlene Donchez Mowers, president of

Historic Bethlehem Museum and Sites .

One of the best ways to learn about that local history and soak in its natural beauty is to walk along the Delaware &

Lehigh National Heritage Corridor . The trail winds its way through about 140 miles of American industrial history, nature and recreation areas — 35 of which are within Lehigh Valley — and traverses local parks, state forests, farmland, historic boroughs and the three vibrant downtowns of Bethlehem, Easton and Allentown.

One of the trail’s most historic areas is Easton’s Hugh Moore Park, which includes the National Canal Museum. The 520-acre park is home to the Josiah White II, a re-created canal boat pulled by two Percheron mules in the same manner as when such boats transported anthracite coal more than 100 years ago.

The trail runs by the old Bethlehem

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GETTY IMAGES Forest, farmland and mountains make up the colorful landscape in Pennsylvania’s rural Lehigh Township.

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FIG BETHLEHEM The Historic Moravian Bethlehem complex sits on 14.7 acres of the original 18th-century community that served as the center of activities of the early American settlers.

GETTY IMAGES The Manassas Guth Covered Bridge, a 129-foot-long single-span truss, was built in 1858 over Jordan Creek in Allentown, Pa. Steel mill that has been repurposed as SteelStacks , an entertainment venue built amid five Gothic-looking blast furnaces. There are walking tours of the mill and Hoover Mason Trestle that was used to transport raw materials to the furnaces.

Behind the Historic Hotel Bethlehem is the Colonial Industrial Quarter , where the Moravians, a Protestant group from today’s Czech Republic that settled in the area in 1741, made almost all of what they needed. The park has one of the largest and earliest concentrations of pre-industrial revolution craft and trade buildings in the country.

For a nostalgic night, Lehigh Valley is home to two drive-ins. Movies first flickered onto the big screen at Shankweiler’s Drive-In Theatre in Orefield in 1934 — making it the oldest in the country. Becky’s Drive-In Theatre in Walnutport opened in 1945 , and is the county’s oldest drive-in run by the same family.

Visitors can search online for self-guided covered bridge tours, which feature bridges built between 1839 and 1860 in a 50-mile trip that passes through some of the most picturesque farmland in Lehigh Valley.

There are five wineries on Lehigh Valley’s Wine Trail , and the locally grown chambourcin grape is a French hybrid that produces red wine.

Lisa Elia More writes for More Content Now, a division of the USA TODAY Network.

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