Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in White Haven, PA

White Haven is a borough in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, located along the Lehigh River at the edge of the Pocono Mountains.

White Haven was created in 1824 by industrialist Josiah White, co-founder of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company, and the town was originally called White's Haven in his honor.

The first settler was John Lines, who brought his family to the area by sled in April 1824, and the tiny settlement was known as Linesville for years before it took White's name.

White Haven was incorporated as a borough in 1842.

White Haven was the northern terminus of the Upper Grand section of the Lehigh Canal, a 26-mile stretch of locks and dams built between 1835 and 1838 to carry coal and lumber down the Lehigh Gorge.

Lumber was White Haven's first great industry — by 1860, ten large sawmills in the borough were cutting more than 20 million feet of lumber a year.

A devastating flood in June 1862 wrecked the Upper Grand canal works so badly they were never rebuilt, and railroads — the Lehigh & Susquehanna and later the Lehigh Valley Railroad — took over shipping the Wyoming Valley's anthracite coal through White Haven.

The 2020 census counted about 1,160 people in White Haven, and recent Census Bureau survey estimates put the borough at roughly 400 households, with homeowners making up the large majority.

White Haven is served by the Crestwood School District, whose Crestwood High School serves this part of Luzerne County.

Today White Haven is a popular trail town: the Delaware & Lehigh (D&L) Trail follows the Lehigh River through the borough, drawing hikers and cyclists heading into Lehigh Gorge State Park.