December 8, 2012 — Five and a half years ago, I visited Centralia, Pennsylvania. It was the early days of my OTIS adventure, back when I was still learning how to leave my living room and the big-screen tube TV I had splurged on at the expense of any other furniture in my apartment (and, almost, my apartment itself). It was my ninth post, just after the Dark Crystal Skeksis and right before the Cave of Kelpius.
Since that time, a lot has happened to me. I moved to New England. Got a wife. A kid. A cancer. Published two books. Quit four jobs. Seen more fascinating things than a guy as ferociously suburban as myself deserves to.
Meanwhile, Centralia kept burning. As it has for the past 50 years. As it will for the next couple of hundred.
But I went and visited it again just a few days ago, just to make sure.
If you think of the shape of Pennsylvania—like I do and I assume the nearby Hershey’s candy company does—as a giant chocolate bar with a bite for an eastern border, then Centralia is located just 80 miles directly west of that bite mark.
It was established in the mid-1800s, and, like many towns in the region, started out as a mining town. Anthracite coal was what it was built on then, and anthracite coal is what it burns on now. In 1962, a simple trash fire at the local dump ignited a bit of exposed coal that happened to be just the tip of the coalberg.
It ignited a coal mass that stretched for miles beneath the town and the surrounding areas. The fire spread slowly and stealthily over the next couple of decades, until it became obvious that something was wrong. Really wrong. Hell had added a few more stories to its roof, and Centralia was in its way.

After various futile attempts to put it out, Pennsylvania invoked eminent domain and evacuated and razed the town. They just let it go. Because you can’t live on top of fire, man. Scientists estimate that the massive underground conflagration will run out of fuel in maybe two more centuries or so. But nobody really knows for sure.
Short version: Centralia is a ghost town….on fire.
Since that time it has gotten a reputation as a toxic horrorland full of winking sinkholes and carcinogenic clouds of death vapor.
Honestly, though, it’s kind of the opposite. Heck, I took my wife and toddler to it this time. But even though it doesn’t live up to those extreme expectations, it’s still a fascinating, haunting place.
On my previous visit, the weather had been “sunny as Sesame Street,” but on the morning of my most recent jaunt it was foggy. Real foggy. Like Silent Hill foggy. Perfect.
You get to Centralia by merely following Route 61. It cuts directly through what remains of the site. Takes you right downtown.
Or, at least, what passes for a downtown for such a place.
Centralia is pretty much just a grid of overgrown streets. Here and there along those streets you’ll see a bit of curb or a section of stone fence or an orphaned stretch of sidewalk, but mostly it’s just a field with some trees. People do still live there, though, and a couple of houses and a bland-looking municipal building can be found at points within and around that immediate grid. One of the houses, with its flat, windowless flank, looked to have originally been part of a row in those nostalgic days before tragic mine fires.
Eventually, I did find the stone marking the time capsule, but the bench was gone, as was the house across the street. Not even a foundation stone was left for future archeologists. The veterans memorial had been reduced to a crumbling stack of cinderblocks, the bell nowhere to be seen. The whole tableau blended pretty well with the rest of the desolation. A small section of rusty chain-link fence lined by a couple of trees is the nearest landmark to it.
This time, a pair of homemade signs welcomed us to that part of the town…by excoriating the state governor for faking the fire to get rid of the town and gain access to the lucrative coal underneath. I don’t know if the A-Team ever had an episode like that, but it's exactly the kind of injustice that got B.A. Baracus so angry.
While we walked the black mounds of ash and dirt and scrub brush, the smoke wafted in small plumes like ghosts that blended into the slate sky. Due to the weather conditions, the smoke was more tenuous on this visit and sometimes we had to really focus [our cameras] to see it. But it was there, no doubt. The forever incense of a town sorry for its sins. Somebody bet me I wouldn’t write that line. I win. I think.
But I’m not telling you that from experience. The way I arrived at the fissure last time and this time is by simply getting back in my car and heading south on the current Route 61 about a mile to where it intersects with the other end of the abandoned route. It’s a lot easier than I’m explaining it. Just look at Centralia on Google Maps and it’ll show you the abandoned stretch of road that starts at the south end of the town. It’s less than a mile long, and Google Maps calls it Pennsylvania 61 Destroyed. It’s the name of the album Bob Dylan should have written.
Of course, that said, I actually missed the other end of it a couple of times this time around. Five years ago, where they met was pretty obvious. A large four-foot-tall dam of dirt just off the road blocked vehicular entry, and a warning sign said horrible things about your future health if you continued exploring.
Today that sign is gone, and the road now curves away from the abandoned stretch. To find it now, just look for the sharp curve marked by about half a dozen orange signs with black arrows. At the end of that curve is a small entrance you can drive through if you don’t care too much about the undercarriage of your car. After a few feet it stops at a flat bit of asphalt where you can park. That’s where the dirt mound is, and that’s where old route 61 is.
They sped past us in the direction of the crack using the wavy sections of asphalt as ramps and making black streaks across the bright graffiti. When we finally got there, they were all just hanging out, sweaty and helmet-less, their bikes angled on kickstands as they stared down in awe at the massive road damage.
The fissure wasn’t really smoking on this visit, but it was still impressive, sinuating itself a good 100 feet or so along the right lane, about two feet deep and five feet wide at its broadest. Disaster movies always make sure to show roads disintegrating in all the chaos of destruction. It’s a metaphor that means “no escape.” Disaster movies are deep, man.
By the time the dirt bikers left, a group of young geocachers came by, who nicely offered us a can of spray paint to sign our names on the road. We didn’t. It’s not an OTIS article without at least one regret. Instead, we somberly walked back the way we came, got into our car, and headed through the still-lingering fog around Centralia into the real world.
A lot of people, including myself, are slightly disappointed with their first experience in Centralia. But you know what? Now that I’ve visited it twice, I can tell you. It sticks with you. It really does.
As a child I lived in Wilkes-Berre Pa. some 55yrs. ago. I remember hiking out of town with my older brother and comming across fisures in the ground from which smoke was eminating. We soon learned that there were fires burning in former coal mines which reportedly had started many years before. I have returned several times in the years since to find the fires were still burning.
ReplyDeleteNice blog! My husband (now 65 yrs old) grew up in Mt Carmel, PA which is close to Centralia. Mt Carmel was a mining town, and his father was a......miner! Anyway, we took a ride through that area 10 (?) years ago. It WAS creepy. Like another-planet-creepy. There's a cool road that he showed me called the "up-down hill". No shit. You stop your car on this road, you can get out of your car and walk around it, and when asked which way the car would roll if you let off the brake, you would ANSWER WRONG. It's the best optical illusion I've ever seen! Anyway, thanks for sharing! Happy blogging!
ReplyDeleteIt is called "Gravity Hill" locally and there is a true explaination for it but I don't remember what it is. You put the car in neutral and it drifts opposite what you'd think. No illusion. I never googled it, might be up. A local..
Deletehttp://www.gravityhill.com/
DeleteEvidently it's a phenomenon - like water running the wrong way - and there is more than one location in the US. Really interesting, thanks for turning me on to it; I'll have to check out one of these sites next time I'm in the area.
Cool, there's one right here in Florida, called Spook Hill on Hwy 27 between Orlando and Tampa. Going to Disney World with our five yr old son and nephew in two weeks - going to check this out!
DeleteIm a local and its because of the magnetic pull from old underground railroad tracks. Its still really awesome!!!
DeleteHi! I'm trying to think of ONE person that I know who is funnier than you, and I honestly can't. I literally LOL'ed. (I'll have to remember about the "caterpillars" drawn on the road, in case my nieces & nephew encounter those with me.) You could earn BIG bucks as a professional comedian or a writer for The Simpsons! Thank you so much for writing this article because I hardly ever get to travel anywhere, and I'll probably never get to Centralia even though I would love to. It's amazing to learn the present situation of the bench and Vets Memorial, because in the other sites I've read, they were still there. Those sites must be outdated. Where do the people who still live there grocery shop? How far away is the nearest shopping center?
ReplyDeleteShopping at any number of Local towns w/in 5 mile radius, and several malls.
DeleteI should have added many farmer's markets, roadside stands and of course farms directly in warmer months are just over the mt. north towards Numidia and Catawissa or east in the Ringtown valley. There are malls w/in 10 miles or so in any direction and smaller local grocery stores closer yet. Mail is either Mt. Carmel or Ashland but is Ashland zipcode. Patches of Wilburton and Aristes are divided either way. 2 seperate counties, actually 3 come together at one point, several townships, school districts as well. Many who took the buyout relocated to Den Mar Gardens aka New Centralia. It is part of Mt. Carmel S.D. I believe. Those who took the buyout had to stay w/in a certain radius of the affected area and Den Mar got the moniker since a majority relocated there. That was if I remember correctly one of the sticking points among residents wanting to leave the area all together and the school districts arguing it over tax base. The time capsule is there, the bench may be in storage. Not sure what happened to the bell. I'm sure it's kept somewhere to be brought out in the future. A local..
DeleteAlso, I'm really sorry to hear about your cancer and hope you are much better now...
ReplyDeleteAn updated and detailed article that anyone interested in Centralia should read. Fine job mate!
ReplyDeleteAre Centralia's graveyards worth going out of my way to visit? I wish you'd posted more pictures of them. :-)
ReplyDeleteFind a Grave is a good website should you be looking for specific family members. It is not just the cems but individuals w/in...a cheap man's ancestry but still very good info can be had. All you need is the state, county, town, name of cem and name of who you search for. A local...
DeleteI'd say that in themselves they're not worth going out of your way to visit. But since Centralia certainly is, you might as well...
ReplyDeleteI just became aware of this story and I really appreciate you pictures and story. I mailed something to the post office before I realized it was now gone. In Google it appears to still be there. Thanks for the current story and Images
ReplyDeleteIt is under Ashland zipcode being the closest although 2 different counties.
DeleteGlad you did a lil homework. The town of Centralia as a whole was one of the few if not the only town in Pa. that owned it's mineral rights, not individual homeowners. This is what caused a rift among those who wanted to take the buyout as opposed to those who didn't want to move but be left alone having been born and raised in Centralia and still feel the gov. and coal co.'s are trying to force them out using "toxic gases, etc." slants to get at the vast amts. of virgin coal to be had under the town and surrounding areas. Yes, some of those homes were w/in the hot zone but much of the town was not or would not be affected. You got fair market value only if home was livable. I knew a fella w/a double, one side lived in the other no heat. He got robbed blind over it and even had a 4 ft. thick coal vein in his cellar exposed. I had one family member exhast all avenues monitarily to fight. A recently remodeled home, they weren't allowed to take anything. Didn't get back what was put into it as appraised. I will not bore you w/it as much can be found elsewhere. The hilly "landfill" you speak of is actually areas that attract the curious and are where most of any plumes surface. These areas are routinely bulled over to keep it at minimum. It was an area that bustled w/homes, stores, a gas station and St. Ignatius Church at one time not that long ago. Block parties and parades were common. The homes left that stand w/brick re-inforcements were part of rows and that for whatever reason is how they were made to stay stabilized..if in fact they ever needed it, all had this look abt. them. Maybe a contractor thing. The old closed Rt. 61 you speak of undulating is in fact where the highway is supported by pillars of coal and common in any mining practice to leave such to support anything above ground. Pick out any roadway in mining areas and you will see this. Just between Centralia and Ashland it is evident. Look closely at county road maps and they appear to follow coal seams. The atv/bikers-many come in from out of the area, state because they are told it's a good place to ride. Many are local but many do not know the lay of the land and God forbid someone is going to get hurt. Esp. night riding. They do tend to fly through at times. The graffiti has gotten very bad.There would appear to be much pent up anger vented. I have to take a slight objection to your charred corpse reference for the cems but I'm sure it was meant w/out disrespect. Other than that I wish you good health and check out my other replies to posts where I stumbled onto this site of old and new. Your approach to our area is honest and I hope my replies are as informative as well. I'm sure should you come back through again you will find much to do in the hard coal country. A local...
ReplyDeleteAny chance the cancer was caused by you nonchalantly standing in the coal fumes on your last visit?
ReplyDeleteHaving visited the Scranton/Duryea area numerous times about fifty years ago as a child with my family, I'm very familiar with the smell of what a coal-mining town, especially after a rain or snow. The coke piles had begun to burn and every time water hit them they would throw up a cloud of grey ash. Everything was grey, even on a cloudless day and it even make laundry on the lines grey, too. It was pretty depressing. The house next to my grandparents home on Elm Street even fell into a huge fissure one day. The place was etched into my very young memory. Now we're going to go and visit Centralia with my young nephew who has a fascination with the place for some reason. I appreciated your blog about your visits which alleviated some of the concern I had on going at all. We're camping in Hickory Run State Park for the long weekend, too. I'm confident that the look and smell of that town will renew my olfactory and visual memories of Duryea in the Spring, so many years ago.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if your allowed to drive on old 61 without getting fined
ReplyDeleteI was just there two weeks ago with my family. Not sure how you would get your car onto the road. It is blocked on one end, and the end by the cemetery has a little dirt path to the road. I found visiting Centralia fascinating. I stayed in Centralia in the early 80s and remember when it was a town. Now it is hard to find some of the streets. Everything is overgrown.
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog. I never really knew Centralia(silent hill) was real(not the movie, the place). It definitely sounds like someplace I'd like to visit when it gets a bit warmer. Appreciate all the information and describing exactly how to get there. http://haunted505.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog. I never really knew Centralia(silent hill) was real(not the movie, the place). It definitely sounds like someplace I'd like to visit when it gets a bit warmer. Appreciate all the information and describing exactly how to get there. http://haunted505.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete