Byrnesville was a town located in Conyngham Township,

Columbia County, Pennsylvania Columbia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Northeastern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 64,727. Its county seat is Bloomsburg. The county was created on March 22, 1813, from part ...

, United States. It was located about halfway between

Centralia Centralia may refer to: Places Australia *Central Australia, sometimes called "Centralia" Canada * Centralia, Ontario ** RCAF Station Centralia, a former Royal Canadian Air Force training base ** Centralia (Essery Field) Aerodrome United State ...

and Ashland. In 1985, the population of Byrnesville was approximately 75 people living in 29 homes. Byrnesville was founded in 1856. Most of the residents were Irish Catholics who worked in the local anthracite coal mines. It was made up of Upper and Lower Byrnesville. The first homes were built in Lower Byrnesville around 1856 and in Upper Byrnesville around 1865. An elementary school was located in Byrnesville but was discontinued in the 1930s. Byrnesville was one of the casualties of the

Centralia mine fire The Centralia mine fire is a coal-seam fire that has been burning in the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines underneath the borough of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States, since at least May 27, 1962. Its original cause and start date are st ...

. In late 1983, the 98th United States Congress approved $42 million to help move families impacted by the fire. Relocation offers were extended to residents in Byrnesville and Centralia. The last home in Byrnesville was torn down in 1996, which spelled the end for the town. The only remaining structures there as of July 2019 are a religious Shrine to the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

on a hillside by the side of Route 61, an

intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...

, and the structural remains of a garage now reclaimed by nature. The present-day routing of

Pennsylvania Route 61 Pennsylvania Route 61 (PA 61) is an state highway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The route is signed on a north–south direction, running from U.S. Route 222 Business (US 222 Bus.) in Reading northwest to US 11/ US 15 ...

follows the two-lane Byrnesville Road — originally an old logging road through Byrnesville — bypassing a long section of the original route of the four-lane highway which has been heavily damaged by subsidence caused by the underground fire.

References

External links

Pictures, History about Byrnesville

{{coord, 40.7959, -76.3392, region:US-PA_type:city, display=title Geography of Columbia County, Pennsylvania Ghost towns in Pennsylvania Destroyed towns

See also

References

External links