Centralia

Tucked away in the Center of Columbia County, Pennsylvania, is the little near ghost town of Centralia. This small mining town rose to critical acclaim in 1962 when a landfill somehow caught fire and ignited the coal mines that lay beneath the town, dwindling the population from 1000 people in the 80s to just 8 or 10 people that live there today. In an attempt to control the situation, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania purchased Centralia and initiated eminent domain, which did not bode well for keeping the residents of Centralia very happy. Through this agreement to eminent domain through the Commonwealth, the people that wanted to stay there and live out the rest of their lives were free to do so, and that is exactly what the remaining half dozen people have been doing. Once they leave or pass away, then their houses will also be claimed through eminent domain, and Centralia as it is known today will cease to exist. At the time of the writing of this article, the fires continue to burn, and will continue for approximately 200 years until the fuel is exhausted.

This was the first time that I ever went to Urban exploring in my life, taking some time over spring break my senior year of college to take the trip up. A two-hour drive from my house, Centralia itself wasn't initially all that impressive to look at. There were a couple of streets that were somewhat maintained, and a lot of shut down and boarded-up houses. A small Church lies up on the hill above Centralia and is still in use, so we weren't able to access that whatsoever. The main attraction to Centralia nowadays is the part of the All-American Interstate that got shut down, as the coal fires could still be seen coming out of the ground beneath the highway for years to come. The highway itself started to rupture, and people started spray-painting it with lots of graffiti. As such, it became Graffiti Highway.

Still feels like home!

Trying to be discrete as possible, as the town is on observation protocol from trespassers, we parked our car in the most inaccessible location we could find, behind a couple of trees. We first walked in the old cemetery, where many of the people who died due to the fires or whatever else were buried. There were a couple of others who were visiting the area, but they didn't bother us. We took some photos from the ridge above town, and then went on to hike through the forest to find graffiti Highway.

Because of its status as a fairly trafficked area, there is new graffiti on the highway nearly every month. There was a massive amount of graffiti, and many pictures were taken. The highway itself was probably a mile and a half long, and you could clearly see where it used to intersect with the main highway right beside it. There were lots of overgrown trees, so this sad little town has been all but forgotten in time and space.

Photo credits go to Uncovering PA.

My friend and I then decided to get super edgy and toppled to an abandoned building that had its Windows broken out. On the first floor, we saw empty beer bottles, used rubbers, photographs, cigarette ashes, and pretty much any other Errata that you can think of. We wanted to go upstairs but were afraid to do so, so then we departed from the area altogether after getting one last glimpse of the entire town.

I could use this time as a Shameless plug for renewable energy instead of coal, but it really is sad what happened to the town. What was once a flourishing little commune is now withering away, soon to be forgotten by the outside world. I'm so glad that I had the honor of seeing this quaint little town, Frozen in time and space.