The township dates back to 1808 when the first Lausanne settlement was organized with a local frontier government.

The original population of Lausanne Landing was quite variable limited to a handful of year-round settlers and varying groups of itinerant workmen from expeditions sent to log, mine, or build boats.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 5.9 square miles (15.4 km2), all of it land.

Lausanne has a warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb) and the hardiness zones are 5b and 6a.

Average monthly temperatures in Buck Mountain range from 24.4 °F in January to 69.7 °F in July.

The Moravians, who established the first white settlement, knew the region north of the mountains as “St.

Work began on the river at the mouth of the Mauch Chunk Creek on the Lehigh, thus founding the town.

included the villages that would later be the boroughs of Mauch Chunk, Summit Hill and Nesquehoning.

The township remained a nurturing organizational government through a number of additional divisions, children split off in the past to attain greater success and populations with ever diminished territory each time it suffered a division.

Today, the township is a narrow strip too small to effectively grow or split, wedged against the Luzerne-Carbon County border in rough country.

27.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 6.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

About 6.2% of families and 11.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.0% of those under the age of eighteen and 5.4% of those sixty five or over.