I won't include the whole history of the town, since you can just read about it on Wikipedia, but here are the basics. Centralia, PA used to be a normal* little coal patch town (*as normal, of course, as any PA coal town can be...) when the huge vein of anthracite coal beneath it was ignited. Unable to extinguish the blaze, the government deemed the town unlivable and ordered its evacuation - because APPARENTLY when the ground beneath your home cracks open and starts to spew carbon monoxide fumes into it, it's not very healthy. Or, you know, the government just wanted to steal the citizens' mineral rights. Tough call.
Today, there are only a few stubborn folks living in the town while the rest of the buildings have been mostly demolished. Centralia is visited frequently by curious folks with cameras, so Will and I decided to take a drive out to the steaming ghost town and take some photos of our own.
Above is a shot of steam rising from a chasm in what was once Route 61 created by the heat of the fire burning below the ground. A section of the highway was destroyed by the fire, so traffic is rerouted around the damaged section, but you can still walk around old 61.
There's Will walking in the northbound lane of old 61. The twigs toward the center of the image are growing from what was once the highway's median.
In the town itself, my trusty car, The Blue Bomber hangs out on what used to be a public road running through a neighborhood of row houses.
Something, perhaps, is missing from this photo.At the end of Wood Street, you can see the entire hillside venting steam from the fire.
So, there you have it, my photos of the mine fire. Go visit Centralia and get some of your own since every high school student in the coal region already does.
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