The Fire Down Below

There is an interesting place about a half hour from my home. It is the town of Centralia. The interesting thing about this town is that it is a true ghost town. The reason it is a ghost town is even more interesting. It is directly over a mine fire.

This little town was like any town in the early sixties. A small community town. They even had a little pit outside of town where they burned their garbage. The only trouble was the pit sat directly on a vein of Anthricite coal which was exposed. The garbage fire lit the coal, and the rest is history.

As late as the 1980s the town was still thriving. Sure there was the ocasional cave in, or death by carbon-monoxide poisining, but people where happy. See the picture, see how happy the place looks

Well doing what governments do, they decided to relocate Centralia and offered to buy the town out. It was no longer safe in town, especially when the temperature in the gas tanks at the local gas station was reading in the mid 100s in January.

The town is now mostly abandoned. Route 61 now bypasses the town. All the trees in town are dead, and they only thing left is a house and a cycle shop. It is very freaky since all the roads are still there.

Smoke rises from cracks in pavement, and the place has a smell of sulfer. It is like the aftermath of a bad war, or maybe where the devil spends his summers.

It is a strange place indeed, and if you get to eastern PA, take a trip to Centralia and see the famous mine fire.

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Posted by tbux at November 8, 2003 08:48 AM