The winding mountain streets of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania are rich in history. Back at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the town was known as Mauch Chunk, more millionaires lived here than in any other place in the country. Most made their fortunes through mining the rich anthracite coal deposits in the surrounding mountains, and their elegant Victorian mansions can still be seen at the bottom of Broadway Street. But if you follow Broadway further up the hill, you’ll find the Carbon County Jail standing sentinel above the town. Now home to the Old Jail Museum, this building was once at the center of the infamous Molly Maguires mining conflict. By the 1870s, Irish immigrants formed a large portion of the local workforce. They faced discrimination and dangerous conditions both in the mines and aboveground, as violence and conflicts were common in the area. As miners worked to unionize, the president of the Reading Railroad hired a Pinkerton detective to infiltrate the group and gather evidence against an alleged secret society of destructive Irish immigrants called the Molly Maguires. Ultimately, 20 men were sentenced to death based on the detective’s testimony, and 7 were hung on the gallows in the Old Jail’s courtyard. But the guilt of the Molly Maguires is still debated today. One of the condemned Irishmen put his left hand on the wall of cell 17 and proclaimed that his handprint would remain as proof of his innocence. Pay a visit to the Old Jail Museum to examine it for yourself! You’ll also be walking the same hallways as Sean Connery, who starred in a 1970 movie about the Molly Maguires that was filmed on the premises.