Centralia has long been a bit of personal obsession of mine, so I had to double take seeing it on HN. I travel between northern Virginia and the Poconos fairly often and always hop off 81 to drive through Centralia whenever I have the chance--my most recent visit was actually earlier this week on Monday afternoon.
It's an eerily beautiful place. There's hardly any infrastructure to explore, but walking through the overgrown streets and sidewalks and seeing the concrete steps and wrought iron railings is quite sobering. The town has three fairly large cemeteries, all of which are kept in excellent condition. The Odd Fellows cemetery is adjacent to the dump where the fire started in the 60's and really paints a picture of how far back many of the families that lived there go. There are a number of Civil and Revolutionary War graves in Odd Fellows as well, easily identified by the small American flags planted at their base.
If you walk down the dirt road (2nd St), you'll encounter a number of 10 foot poles surrounded by iron cages intended to keep people away from what used to be extremely hot exhaust gases. Locals used to toss trash into the cages to watch it melt, but it's difficult to encounter an exposed hot spot anymore. There's some debate about whether the fire is actually still burning in the coal seams as the terrestrial evidence (steam rising from the rocks, barren patches of land that melts snow, etc) has become less visible in the past couple decades, but there are certainly still "warm" areas. I brought an infrared thermometer with me on a trip last year and found a spot in a rocky outcropping that topped out near 150*F. If you go looking, the most active areas are now located just off Big Mine Run Rd just before it turns up the hill towards town.
I'd encourage anyone who's interested to stop through if you're traveling along the I-81 corridor. The surrounding towns of Shenandoah, Ashland, and Mt. Carmel are hauntingly beautiful in a way that can only be found in Pennsylvania Coal Country. Most of the original inhabitants of Centralia relocated to these neighboring towns and many will gladly share their tales, often from first-hand experience. There's an incredible amount of history in the region that dates back hundreds of years. Some of it has been overshadowed by the fire, including the crash of United Flight 624 back in 1948[1]. The Disaster Area podcast has an excellent episode that covers the birth and eventual decline of Centralia, and the host is herself a resident of Carbondale where a smaller but active fire has been burning for about as long.
I'd be happy to share some recent photos if anyone's interested. Some of the more captivating images I've taken are of Big Mine Run, a small mine-fed creek that is bright orange, visible even at night, from all the iron oxide in the water.
Have you ever checked out the old school amusement park Knoebels[1] that's about 20 minutes away? I highly recommend it. We lovingly refer to it as "Chernobyls" (not b/c of the park itself, but b/c it rhymes with the park's name and b/c it's near Centralia).
Knoebels IS the best! Ride the cyclone and you’ll know what it’s like to get a free chiropractic adjustment from an amateur.
I grew up going there in the 70s. That place was magic to a teenager. I met a girl there once with my brother and she ate a whole cigarette and proceeded to vomit soon after. A number of times we jumped off the cars in the middle of the haunted house. And there was a time we bought stink bombs, little glass vials, filled with a putrid, smelling chemical, and busted it open in the middle of an arcade.
There is no entrance or parking fee to this amusement park as well. You only pay for the rides. And that’s still to this day true.
The last time I went there, they were still building this interesting new ride that has no mechanics, it’s almost like a slide and it’s all hand made out of wood. I think you’re going to ride carts down it.
And if you go there, 100% get the pierogies. you will not find any better anywhere.
> The surrounding towns of Shenandoah, Ashland, and Mt. Carmel are hauntingly beautiful in a way that can only be found in Pennsylvania Coal Country.
As I said in another comment, this are is where my mother was born (Kulpmont) but I have relatives in Shamokin and Mount Caramel as well.
This is a Polish side of my family and the culture that was very strong. I really miss those towns. We could walk into the polka hall and just watch people. Some of them would know us and give us a shot of vodka.
In Mt Carmel, we used to walk on the old slag heaps and look for crystals. There was a mountain. We actually called “Crystal Mountain“. And on the way to that site we used to walk over the creeks that are filled with sulfur and stunk like you couldn’t imagine.
it used to make me happy to remember these things but now it just makes me depressed since I know there’s probably nowhere left like that anymore.
How is the creek visible at night? I'd like to see pictures as well. This is the kind of niche writing blogs are/were great for, for some reason reading this reminded me of the bluefire/otherhand site.
https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hu...
The orange creek bed stands out vividly against the background and reflects light extremely well compared to the shale. It doesn't glow per se, but it gives that impression. I uploaded a few pictures if you're interested:
It's an eerily beautiful place. There's hardly any infrastructure to explore, but walking through the overgrown streets and sidewalks and seeing the concrete steps and wrought iron railings is quite sobering. The town has three fairly large cemeteries, all of which are kept in excellent condition. The Odd Fellows cemetery is adjacent to the dump where the fire started in the 60's and really paints a picture of how far back many of the families that lived there go. There are a number of Civil and Revolutionary War graves in Odd Fellows as well, easily identified by the small American flags planted at their base.
If you walk down the dirt road (2nd St), you'll encounter a number of 10 foot poles surrounded by iron cages intended to keep people away from what used to be extremely hot exhaust gases. Locals used to toss trash into the cages to watch it melt, but it's difficult to encounter an exposed hot spot anymore. There's some debate about whether the fire is actually still burning in the coal seams as the terrestrial evidence (steam rising from the rocks, barren patches of land that melts snow, etc) has become less visible in the past couple decades, but there are certainly still "warm" areas. I brought an infrared thermometer with me on a trip last year and found a spot in a rocky outcropping that topped out near 150*F. If you go looking, the most active areas are now located just off Big Mine Run Rd just before it turns up the hill towards town.
I'd encourage anyone who's interested to stop through if you're traveling along the I-81 corridor. The surrounding towns of Shenandoah, Ashland, and Mt. Carmel are hauntingly beautiful in a way that can only be found in Pennsylvania Coal Country. Most of the original inhabitants of Centralia relocated to these neighboring towns and many will gladly share their tales, often from first-hand experience. There's an incredible amount of history in the region that dates back hundreds of years. Some of it has been overshadowed by the fire, including the crash of United Flight 624 back in 1948[1]. The Disaster Area podcast has an excellent episode that covers the birth and eventual decline of Centralia, and the host is herself a resident of Carbondale where a smaller but active fire has been burning for about as long.
I'd be happy to share some recent photos if anyone's interested. Some of the more captivating images I've taken are of Big Mine Run, a small mine-fed creek that is bright orange, visible even at night, from all the iron oxide in the water.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Air_Lines_Flight_624