Due in part to water power from the Lehigh River, Lehighton was an early center for U.S. industrialization.

At the time of the first European's encounters with historic American tribes, this area was part of the shared hunting territory of the Iroquoian Susquehannock and the Algonquian Lenape, also called the Delaware, after their language and territory along the Delaware River, peoples, who were often at odds.

[5] The Susquehannock confederacy's homelands were mainly along the Susquehanna River, from the Mohawk Valley in lower New York southerly to the Chesapeake and Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, but may have ranged into the empty lands[6] of West Virginia, Eastern Ohio, and Western Pennsylvania.

[5] The Dutch and Swedes first settled the Delaware Valley, and found the area north of the Lehigh Gap to be lightly occupied, probably by transients, but traveled regularly by the Susquehannock.

This tribe traveled quite a bit according to the American Heritage Book of Indians,[5] including being described in lofty terms by John Smith when a band visited the new Jamestown, Virginia colony.

[5] In the decades of the Beaver Wars in the mid-1600s, the Susquehannocks conquered and made the Lenape a tributary tribe — and also nearly inflicted an overwhelming defeat on the powerful Iroquois Confederacy,.

[5] Shortly thereafter, the Susquehannocks suffered a reversal, falling first to epidemic disease that raged for three years which killed off perhaps 90% of their population,[5] and a series of battles on most of their frontiers as various enemies took advantage.

Lehighton was built on the site of the German Moravian Brethren's mission station "Gnadenhütten" (cabins of grace) founded in 1746.

It was established as a mission to the Lenape by Moravians from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, lower on the Lehigh River.

[10] (During the American Revolutionary War in 1782, Pennsylvania militia raided another Moravian mission village, also called Gnadenhutten, in present-day Ohio.

Suspecting the Lenape of being allied with the British, the militia killed 96 unarmed men, women, and children in what became better known as the Gnadenhutten Massacre.)

Lehighton had silk and lace mills, a meat-packing house, shirt factory, automatic-press works, car shops, stoneworks, and foundries.

It was the area's largest company, employing several thousand workers at the repair facilities or operating and maintaining the railroad.

The Lehighton downtown declined after the Carbon Plaza Mall was built in nearby Mahoning Township.

After struggling for three decades, the downtown is experiencing a rebirth as people appreciate the qualities of a compact central location, royalty and historic architecture.

Rainfall is generally spread throughout the year, with eight to twelve wet days per month,[14] at an average annual rate of 43.52 inches (110.54 cm).

Pennsylvania Route 443 begins at US 209 in the southeastern portion of the borough and heads southwest along Blakeslee Boulevard.

Interstate 476, the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Northeast Extension, passes to the east of the borough and is accessible via US 209.

[24] Jake Arner Memorial Airport (22N) is located 3 miles (5 km) west-southwest of town, with a 3,000-foot (910 m) asphalt runway and two RNAV instrument approaches.