We drove up on Feb 2nd, it was 45 deg and overcast so I figured it would have been great for photos and general creepiness.
About Centralia, quoted from this site http://www.offroaders.com/album/central ... istory.htm :
The fire is projected to burn for another 100 yrs or so.The borough was situated over a large vein of anthracite coal, a rare and valuable form of coal, which drew many miners to the area. By 1962, more than 1,100 people lived in Centralia, many of whom were coal miners. That year, on Memorial Day, a trash fire was lit in an abandoned mine pit outside of town. The fire traveled down a mine shaft, igniting a vein of coal. The fire spread throughout the coal mines underneath Centralia throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Some efforts were made to extinguish the fire, but were unsuccessful. Some people who lived near the fire reported the smell of coal fumes and emissions of carbon monoxide in their homes. In 1982, 12-year-old Todd Dombroski was playing in a backyard when a sink hole opened up beneath him. A relative pulled Dombroski from the hole, which was estimated to be 150 feet (45 meters) deep. The incident brought national attention to Centralia, and in 1983, the Pennsylvania government offered a buy-out for the residents. Most of the borough's residents opted to move, and today, many of them live in the nearby communities of Ashland and Mount Carmel. The remaining residents have refused all buy-out offers from the state. Their reasons are varied, but some residents believe the state has ulterior motives in forcing them out, such as claiming the mineral rights to the 3,700 acres of coal beneath the borough.
Anyhow, I was rather disappointed on how it wasn't isolated at all. In fact, there's a ton of thru-traffic going from Ashland to Mt.Carmel as a highway used to run through Centralia but a section had to be blocked off and the highway rerouted due to pavement damage from the fire (pics of that highway below).
There were a few groups of people checking the place out too. There was a guy in a Jeep that kept driving around the mounds of rock/gravel in circles, it's a place popular with off-roaders I guess. In the same area there was a guy taking pics with a cool infrared camera. The ground was 119 deg in some places...definitely warm to the touch! There was also a hint of sulfur in the air but not too bad ( I heard in the summer it's worse).
We drove down some of the streets that go to nowhere and they really demolished the town well; there are no foundations or sidewalks...some streets had curbs and steps leading to nothing but if you didn't tell someone a town used to be there they'd just wonder why the hell there were all these streets with stop signs for no reason. There are about 4-5 houses left in Centralia with people living in them and they'll be allowed to live there until they live out their lives and the state will demolish their homes afterward.
The highway (Rt.61) leading up to Centralia (cement barriers block this off, you have to park and walk around):
Same highway, Centralia-side:
Street I parked on, you can make out the steps behind the two big trees and some curbs:
Empty streets:
The mine-pit-old-landfill/where the fire started and is still burning:
The creepy cemetery RIGHT next to the landfill/pit. The grass was yellow-green, soggy and felt like walking on a mattress.
Pretty old town, headstone reads 1923, some weren't legible at all:
We met a couple walking back on the shut down section of highway and they were asking us where the "ghost town" as if there were going to be just vacant houses sitting around. They were pretty disappointed that I told them the big four way stop was the town; how do you know about the place but never looked it up on the internet?
Anyhow, I recommend checking it out but not when we did...the ice and snow made for treacherous hiking and I think in the summer it has to be fairly creepy with overgrown vegetation in the streets and the trees taking over. I'm more curious about the shut down highway from seeing pics like this:
If anyone wants to drive up there with us again, let me know! :bigthumb
PS:
Here is the documentary I watched a couple of years ago:
http://www.snagfilms.com/films/title/the_town_that_was
