Centralia

Downtown Centralia, PA circa 1962 (above)

Here is a better look at what Centralia, PA looks like today. Where this is, is looking back down toward what was the town, from atop a scrap coal hill. The smoke you see coming out of the ground is not steam, but actually smoke from the fire that still burns underground today. There were many holes like these throughout the "town", they actually helped out our hands on this chilly day...

To my knowledge, there are only about 6 residents still living in the town, one of the few remaining houses can be seen in the distance of my photograph. A majority of the families were asked to leave through the mid 1980's due to health and safety concerns, by 1997 there were only around 44 residents in the town.

More images to come from this weird, and somewhat sad story in Pennsylvania's mining history