The Town That Used To Be - A Town

So here's a little Thursday story that will work your mind...

Pennsylvania is a big mining state. It was also one of the leading producers of anthracite. One the biggest mines for anthracite was in a town called Centralia, which was founded in the 1800s. There were a lot of open pit and closed mines (in and out of the ground). If you drive around the area, the towns are almost nonexistent and so Centralia was actually a "bustling" city with a main downtown filled with banks, a post office, grocery store, gas station and other stores.

In 1962, there was a garbage dump right on the outskirts of town that was getting a little excessive and so the town sent some workers out to get rid of some of the trash. After gathering piles of it together they promptly lit it on fire. However, not thinking, the dump was located in an old open pit mine which had some open veins running into an underground anthracite mine. You guessed it - poof - the well-doers indirectly sparked a fire which lept into the closed mine. The thing about anthracite is that its a great fuel - which is extremely hard to light. But - once its lit - its near impossible to put out. Unbeknownst to these garabage men walked away from a spark that lit one of the underground mines on fire.

The fire department poured tons of water and thought that the fire was out, but - poof - it just lit up again. Pits were dug, other methods were used to try to extinguish the fire, but the ground continued to smoke.

In 1979, a gas station owner in the town went to check his tanks and found them to be hot. After checking his underground tanks and finding they were showing a temperatire of 172F, the government came in and put sensors in the ground, discovering that the temperature under the tanks was registering almost over 1000F!

There were smoke and toxic fumes always in the city and finally in 1981, a 12 year old boy was playing out in his grandma's yard and a sink hole popped open under him. He grabbed onto tree roots and was pulled out by a friend. He just missed death as if he had fallen just a few inches farther he would have fallen into temperatures over 300F. The sinkhole measure 80 feet deep.

At this point there were continually sink holes appearing around the town as the fire underground continued to catch and burn. There was sickness, there was continual danger. The federal government now stepped in and, with 42 million dollars bought the town of Centralia.... All of the homes were taken by eminent domain and homeowners were given money to leave their homes - and as they left, the town was bulldozed behind them leaving empty streets, driveways and vacant stores and lots. Within time, most of the remaining stores, churches, post office and other buildings either caught fire and burned or fell down in sinkholes.

Today, the town of Centralia has no more post code, has been bulldozed and now is merely an occassional name on a town marker, with a grid of streets that go nowhere except leading into wisps of smoke coming out of the ground as the anthracite continues to burn under the ground. With the amount of anthracite that is below the surface, experts estimate that it could still burn for another 1000 years.

Here's a video of some of the smoke coming up from the ground. If you didn't know any better, it could just be a forest fire slowly extinguishing itself. They say that there are some days that the smoke is so bad that you can't even see.

Enjoy some other pictures from the town that used to be Centralia, PA.

This is right on the outskirts - a time capsule and a veterans memorial (incidentally - Happy Veterans Day!). There are still 3 cemeteries that are full and are visited by locals on occassion.

A drive way that leads to - no house....

There are pipes sunk into the ground all around the town which are supposed to vent the fumes.
Another road that leads nowhere with a church in the far distance.

Vacant yards
One of the few houses that remain.

There are sink holes that appear all over the town. This is one of them that has been patched. One of the latest ones measure about 20 feet across - and it appeared about 8 feet in front of one of the remaining house on the Main street.

The Anthracite Museum in Ashland about 2 miles from Centralia.

The city of Ashland - sleeping soundly mere miles from the fires of Centralia.

Driving towards Buffalo through the hills of Pennsylvania. There was mist rising off the mountains as the sun set and the landscape frequently looked like the mountain in Tennessee.

If you want it -- here's a link to more info on Centralia....

http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm