Jim Thorpe Gravesite

Standing beside Jim Thorpe’s tomb, I realized that perhaps the most unusual part of his story is not what he accomplished during his lifetime, but how he came to be buried here. Jim Thorpe had never lived in Mauch Chunk or East Mauch Chunk. In fact, there is no evidence that he ever visited either community. Yet today his remains lie here, and the entire town carries his name.

The story began with Thorpe’s death on March 28, 1953, in California. He was a member of the Sac and Fox Nation and had been born in Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma. Plans were initially made for him to be buried in Oklahoma, and traditional Sac and Fox funeral and burial rites were begun.

Thorpe’s third wife, Patricia, wanted something more substantial than an ordinary burial for the man she believed should be remembered as one of America’s greatest athletes. Plans were discussed in Oklahoma for a permanent memorial, but the necessary public funding did not materialize as she had hoped. Patricia, who legally controlled the disposition of her husband’s remains, began looking elsewhere for a community willing to create a fitting memorial.

Hundreds of miles away in Pennsylvania, two neighboring communities were confronting problems of their own. Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk had once prospered from anthracite coal, canals and railroads. By the 1950s, much of that economic world was disappearing. The communities were considering consolidation and searching for ways to bring new attention and economic activity to the area. It was an extraordinary convergence of circumstances: a widow looking for a permanent memorial for her famous husband and two Pennsylvania towns looking for a new identity.

In 1954, Patricia Thorpe and officials from Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk reached an agreement. The two boroughs would consolidate, take the name Jim Thorpe, and provide a permanent resting place and memorial for the athlete. The formal agreement was dated May 19, 1954. It stipulated that Thorpe’s remains would remain there as long as the consolidated borough continued to be officially known as Jim Thorpe. And so Mauch Chunk and East Mauch Chunk disappeared from the map as separate municipalities. In their place was Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.

The decision created one of the most unusual relationships between a town and the person for whom it is named. Thorpe had no personal connection with the communities during his lifetime. The connection was created entirely after his death.

Several of Thorpe’s children objected to their father’s burial in Pennsylvania and maintained that he should be returned to Oklahoma and buried on Sac and Fox land near members of his family. Decades later, the disagreement became a federal court case. In 2010, members of Thorpe’s family sued under the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, commonly known as NAGPRA. They argued that the borough should be required to return Thorpe’s remains so they could be reburied in Oklahoma. A federal district court initially ruled in their favor. 

But in 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed that decision. The court concluded that applying NAGPRA in this situation would produce a result Congress had never intended when it enacted a law designed in part to protect Native American burial sites. The court also emphasized that Patricia Thorpe had possessed legal authority over the disposition of her husband’s body when the agreement was made. Thorpe’s remains therefore stayed in Pennsylvania.

This is not simply the grave of one of America’s greatest athletes. It is also the place where several very different stories intersect: the story of a Native American man whose extraordinary abilities carried him onto the world stage; the story of a widow determined to create a substantial memorial to her husband; the story of two struggling Pennsylvania towns searching for a new future; and the story of family members who believed that Thorpe should have been returned to his ancestral home.