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Centralia ( ) is a
borough A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History ...
and near-
ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
in
Columbia County, Pennsylvania Columbia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States. 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 of Northumberland County. It ...
, United States. It is part of
Northeastern Pennsylvania Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA or Nepa) is a region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton (the area's largest city), Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Ha ...
. Its population declined from 1,000 in 1980 to five residents in 2020 because a coal mine fire has been burning beneath the borough since 1962. Centralia, part of the Bloomsburg–Berwick metropolitan area, is the least-populated municipality in Pennsylvania. It is completely surrounded by Conyngham Township. All real estate in the borough was claimed under
eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...
in 1992 and condemned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Centralia's ZIP Code was discontinued by the
Postal Service The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sy ...
in 2002. State and local officials reached an agreement with the then seven remaining residents on October 29, 2013, allowing them to remain in Centralia until their deaths, after which the rights to their houses will be taken through eminent domain. As of 2020, only five residents remain.


History


Early history

Many of the Native American tribes in what is now Columbia County sold the land that makes up Centralia to colonial agents in 1749 for £500. In 1770, during the construction of the Reading Road, which stretched from
Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of symbols, often specifically those of a written language, by means of Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifacete ...
to Fort Augusta (present-day Sunbury), settlers surveyed and explored the land. A large portion of the Reading Road was developed later as Route 61, the main highway east into and south out of Centralia. In 1793, Robert Morris, a hero of the Revolutionary War and a signatory of the
Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...
, acquired a third of Centralia's valley land. When he declared bankruptcy in 1798, the land was surrendered to the Bank of the United States. A Philadelphia based sea captain, trader and banker who had been born in France, named
Stephen Girard Stephen Girard (born Étienne Girard; May 20, 1750 – December 26, 1831) was a French-born American banker and philanthropist. Born in Bordeaux, Girard subsequently immigrated to the Thirteen Colonies where he established himself in the Banking ...
, purchased Morris' lands for $30,000, including 68 tracts east of Morris'. He had learned that there was
anthracite Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a lustre (mineralogy)#Submetallic lustre, submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy densit ...
coal in the region. The Centralia coal
deposits A deposit account is a bank account maintained by a financial institution in which a customer can deposit and withdraw money. Deposit accounts can be savings accounts, current accounts or any of several other types of accounts explained below. ...
were largely overlooked before the construction of the Mine Run Railroad in 1854. In 1832, Johnathan Faust opened the Bull's Head Tavern in what was called Roaring Creek Township; this gave the town its first name, Bull's Head. In 1842, Centralia's land was bought by the Locust Mountain Coal and Iron Company. Alexander Rae, a mining engineer, moved his family in and began planning a village, laying out streets and lots for development. Rae named the town Centreville, but in 1865 changed it to Centralia because the
U.S. Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...
already had a Centreville in Schuylkill County. The Mine Run Railroad was built in 1854 to transport coal out of the valley.


Mining begins

The first two mines in Centralia opened in 1856, the Locust Run Mine and the Coal Ridge Mine. Afterward came the Hazeldell Colliery Mine in 1860, the Centralia Mine in 1862, and the Continental Mine in 1863. The Continental was located on Stephen Girard's former estate. Branching from the
Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad in the Northeastern United States built predominantly to haul anthracite, anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeastern Pennsylvania to major consumer markets in Philadelphia, New York City, and ...
, the
Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad The Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad, originally the Quakake Railroad (pronounced quake-ache), was a rail line connecting Black Creek Junction in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania with Quakake, Delano, and Mount Carmel. Opened from Bla ...
was constructed to Centralia in 1865; it enabled transport and expansion of Centralia's coal sales to markets in eastern Pennsylvania. Centralia was incorporated as a borough in 1866. Its principal employer was the
anthracite coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highe ...
industry. Alexander Rae, the town's founder, was murdered in his buggy by members of the
Molly Maguires The Molly Maguires was an Irish people, Irish 19th-century secret society active in Ireland, Liverpool, and parts of the eastern United States, best known for their activism among Irish-American and Irish diaspora, Irish immigrant coal miners i ...
on October 17, 1868, during a trip between Centralia and
Mount Carmel Mount Carmel (; ), also known in Arabic as Mount Mar Elias (; ), is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The range is a UNESCO biosphere reserve. A number of towns are situat ...
. Three men were eventually convicted of his death and were hanged in the county seat of Bloomsburg, on March 25, 1878. Several other murders and incidents of
arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...
also took place during the violence, as Centralia was a hotbed of Molly Maguires activity during the 1860s to organize a mineworkers union in order to improve wages and working conditions. A legend among locals in Centralia tells that Father Daniel Ignatius McDermott, the first
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
priest to call Centralia home, cursed the land in retaliation for being assaulted by three members of the Maguires in 1869. McDermott said that there would be a day when St. Ignatius Roman Catholic Church would be the only structure remaining in Centralia. Many of the Molly Maguires' leaders were hanged in 1877, ending their crimes. Legends say that a number of descendants of the Molly Maguires still lived in Centralia up until the 1980s. According to numbers of federal census records, the town of Centralia reached its maximum population of 2,761 in 1890. At its peak, the town had seven churches, five hotels, 27 saloons, two theaters, a bank, a post office, and 14 general and grocery stores. Thirty-seven years later the production of anthracite coal had reached its peak in Pennsylvania. In the following years, production declined, as many young miners from Centralia enlisted in the military when the US entered
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 resulted in the Lehigh Valley Coal Company closing five of its Centralia-local mines. Bootleg miners continued mining in several idle mines, using techniques such as what was called "pillar-robbing," where miners would extract coal from coal pillars left in mines to support their roofs. This caused the collapse of many idle mines, further complicating the prevention of the mine fire in 1962. Efforts to seal off the abandoned mines ran into the collapsed areas. In 1950, Centralia Council acquired the rights to all anthracite coal beneath Centralia through a state law passed in 1949 that enabled the transaction. That year, the federal census counted 1,986 residents in Centralia.
Coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...
continued in Centralia until the 1960s, when most of the companies shut down. Bootleg mining continued until 1982, and
strip Strip, Strips or Stripping may refer to: Places * Aouzou Strip, a strip of land following the northern border of Chad that had been claimed and occupied by Libya * Caprivi Strip, narrow strip of land extending from the Okavango Region of Nami ...
and
open-pit mining Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique that extracts rock (geology), rock or minerals from the earth. Open-pit mines are used when deposits of commercially ...
are still active in the area. An underground mine about three miles to the west employs about 40 people. Rail service ended in 1966. Centralia operated its own school district, including elementary schools and a high school. There were also two Catholic parochial schools. By 1980, it had 1,012 residents. Another 500 or 600 lived nearby.


Mine fire


Triggers

Analysts disagree about the specific cause of the Centralia fire. David Dekok, author of ''Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire'', concluded that it started with an attempt to clean up the town landfill. In May 1962, the Centralia Borough Council hired five members of the volunteer fire company to clean up the town landfill, located in an abandoned strip-mine pit next to the
Odd Fellows Odd Fellows (or Oddfellows when referencing the Grand United Order of Oddfellows or some British-based fraternities; also Odd Fellowship or Oddfellowship) is an international fraternity consisting of lodges first documented in 1730 in 18th-cen ...
Cemetery just outside the borough limits. This had been done prior to
Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is observed on the last Monday of May. It i ...
in previous years, when the landfill was in a different location. On May 27, 1962, the firefighters, as they had in the past, set the dump on fire and let it burn for some time. Unlike in previous years, however, the fire was not fully extinguished. An unsealed opening in the pit allowed the fire to enter the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines beneath Centralia. By contrast, other sources claim that the fire had started the previous day, when a trash hauler dumped hot ash or coal discarded from coal burners into the open trash pit. The author of ''The Day the Earth Caved In'' noted that borough council minutes from June 4, 1962, referred to two fires at the dump and that five firefighters had submitted bills for "fighting the fire at the landfill area." The borough, by law, was responsible for installing a fire-resistant clay barrier between each layer of the landfill, but fell behind schedule, leaving the barrier incomplete. This allowed the hot coals to penetrate the coal seam underneath the pit and start the subsequent subterranean fire. Another theory proposes that the Bast Colliery fire of 1932 was never fully extinguished, and that fire reached the landfill area by 1962; however, a miner named Frank Jurgill Sr. disputes that theory. Jurgill claims he operated a bootleg mine with his brother near the landfill from 1960 to 1962. If the Bast Colliery fire had not been extinguished, the brothers would likely have been overcome or killed by the noxious gases via many interconnected tunnels in the area.


Immediate effects

In 1979, locals became aware of the scale of the problem when a gas-station owner, then-mayor John Coddington, inserted a dipstick into one of his underground tanks to check the fuel level. When he withdrew it, it seemed hot. He lowered a thermometer into the tank on a string and was shocked to discover that the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was . Statewide attention to the fire began to increase, culminating on February 14, 1981, when a 12-year-old resident named Todd Domboski fell into a
sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...
, wide by deep, that suddenly opened beneath his feet in his grandmother’s backyard, but saved himself by grabbing onto a tree root. His cousin, 14-year-old Eric Wolfgang, pulled Domboski out of the hole to safety. The plume of hot steam billowing from the hole was tested and found to contain a lethal level of
carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...
. At the time of the sinkhole collapse, U.S. Rep. James Nelligan and Governor
Dick Thornburgh Richard Lewis Thornburgh (July 16, 1932 – December 31, 2020) was an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 76th United States attorney general from 1988 to 1991 under presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. A ...
were visiting the town to assess the area. Although there was physical, visible evidence of the fire, residents of Centralia were bitterly divided over the question of whether or not the fire posed a direct threat to the town. In ''The Real Disaster is Above Ground,'' Steve Kroll-Smith and Steve Couch identified at least six community groups, each organized around varying interpretations of the amount and kind of risk posed by the fire. In 1983, the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Representatives, and an upper body, the U.S. Senate. They both ...
allocated more than $42 million for relocation efforts. Nearly all of the residents accepted the government's buyout offers. More than 1,000 people moved out of the town and 500 structures were demolished. By 1990, the census recorded 63 remaining residents. In 1992, Pennsylvania governor Bob Casey invoked
eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...
on all property in the borough, condemning all the buildings within. A subsequent legal effort by residents to overturn the action failed. In 2002, the
U.S. Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...
discontinued Centralia's ZIP code, 17927. Only 16 homes were still standing by 2006, which was reduced to eleven by 2009 when Governor Ed Rendell began the formal eviction of the remaining Centralia residents. Only five homes remained by 2010. The Centralia mine fire extended beneath the village of Byrnesville, a short distance to the south, and required it also to be abandoned.


Condemnation and abandonment

The underground fire is still burning, and in 2006 it was reported that it is expected to do so for another 250 years. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did not renew the relocation contract at the end of 2005. The only indications of the fire, which underlies some spreading along four fronts, are low round metal steam vents in the south of the borough. Additional smoke and steam can be seen coming from an abandoned portion of
Pennsylvania Route 61 Pennsylvania Route 61 (PA 61) is an state highway that is located in Pennsylvania in the United States. The route is signed north-south despite running in a northwest-southeast direction from U.S. Route 222 Business (Reading, Pennsylvania), U ...
, the area just behind the hilltop cemetery, and other cracks in the ground scattered about the area. Several signs warn of underground fire, unstable ground, and dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.


Town and residents

Few homes remain standing in Centralia. Most of the abandoned buildings have been demolished by the Columbia County Redevelopment Authority or reclaimed by nature. At a casual glance, the area now appears to be a field with many paved streets running through it. Some areas are being filled with new-growth forest. The last remaining house on Locust Avenue was demolished in September 2007. It was notable for a period for the five chimney-like support
buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...
es along each of two opposite sides of the house. The house had formerly been supported by a row of adjacent buildings. Another house with similar buttresses was visible from the northern side of the cemetery, just north of the burning, partially subsumed hillside. Residents John Comarnisky and John Lokitis, Jr., were evicted in May and July 2009, respectively. In May 2009, the remaining residents mounted another legal effort to reverse the 1992 eminent domain claim. In 2010, only five homes remained as state officials tried to vacate the remaining residents and demolish what was left of the town. In March 2011, a federal judge refused to issue an injunction that would have stopped the condemnation. In February 2012, the Commonwealth Court ruled that a declaration of taking could not be re-opened or set aside on the basis that the purpose for the condemnation no longer exists; seven people, including the borough council president, had filed suit claiming the condemnation was no longer needed because the underground fire had moved and the air quality in the borough was the same as that in Lancaster. In October 2013, the remaining residents settled their lawsuit, receiving $218,000 in compensation for the value of their homes, along with $131,500 to settle additional claims, and the right to stay in their homes for the rest of their lives.


Route 61

Pennsylvania Route 61 Pennsylvania Route 61 (PA 61) is an state highway that is located in Pennsylvania in the United States. The route is signed north-south despite running in a northwest-southeast direction from U.S. Route 222 Business (Reading, Pennsylvania), U ...
was repaired several times until it was closed. Smoke and steam caused extensive cracking in the pavement, which led to frequent closure. The current route was formerly a detour around the damaged portion during the repairs and became a permanent route in 1993. The damaged portion of Route 61 was abandoned, and became known as Graffiti Highway. Access berms were placed at both ends of the former route, effectively blocking off the area permanently to vehicular traffic. Pedestrian traffic was still possible due to small openings about two feet wide at the northern and southern terminus of the abandoned stretch of road. In April 2020, amidst the early part of the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, the property's current owners made the decision to cover over the graffiti on the highway section of old Route 61. Several hundred mounds of dirt were laid over the area, thus ending a decades-long fascination with the desolate stretch of road.
Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
overhead satellite-view imagery copyright-dated 2023 shows the former Graffiti Highway almost entirely buried under hundreds of access-denial
berm A berm is a level space, shelf, or raised barrier (usually made of Soil compaction, compacted soil) separating areas in a vertical way, especially partway up a long slope. It can serve as a terrace road, track, path, a fortification line, a b ...



Time capsule

The town's residents and former residents decided to open a
time capsule A time capsule is a historic treasure trove, cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy ...
buried in 1966 a couple of years earlier than planned after someone had attempted to unearth and steal the capsule in May 2014. The capsule was not scheduled to be opened until 2016 (50 years after it was buried). Items found in the footlocker-sized capsule, which had been inundated with about of water, included a miner's helmet, a miner's lamp, some coal, a Bible, local souvenirs, and a pair of
bloomers Bloomers, also called the bloomer, the Turkish dress, the American dress, or simply Victorian dress reform, reform dress, are divided women's garments for the lower body. They were developed in the 19th century as a healthful and comfortable a ...
signed by the men of Centralia in 1966.


Mineral rights

Several current and former Centralia residents believe the state's eminent domain claim was a plot to gain the
mineral rights Mineral rights are property rights to exploit an area for the minerals it harbors. Mineral rights can be separate from property ownership (see Split estate). Mineral rights can refer to sedentary minerals that do not move below the Earth's surfa ...
to the
anthracite coal Anthracite, also known as hard coal and black coal, is a hard, compact variety of coal that has a submetallic lustre. It has the highest carbon content, the fewest impurities, and the highest energy density of all types of coal and is the highe ...
beneath the borough. Residents have asserted its value to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, although the exact amount of coal is not known. This theory is based on the municipality laws of the state. According to state law, when the municipality can no longer form a functioning municipal government, ''i.e.'', when there are no longer any residents, the borough legally ceases to exist. At that point, the mineral rights, which are owned by the Borough of Centralia, would revert to the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryland to its south, West ...
.


Demographics

A sizeable minority of the population historically have been of Ukrainian or
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
descent, with the town once having both a Ukrainian Greek Catholic church (built 1911, still standing) and a
Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...
church (built 1916, demolished 1986).


2000 census

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 21 people, ten households, and seven families residing in the borough. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 16 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the borough was 100%
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
. There were ten households, out of which one (10%) had children under the age of 18 living with them, five (50%) were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, one had a female householder with no partner present, and three (30%) were non-families. Three of the households were made up of individuals, and one had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.10, and the average family size was 2.57. In the borough, the population was spread out as follows: one resident under the age of 18, one from 18 to 24, four from 25 to 44, seven from 45 to 64, and eight who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 62 years. There were ten females and 11 males, with one male under the age of 18. The median income for a household in the borough was $23,750, and the median income for a family was $28,750. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the borough was $16,083. All of the population was below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
.


2010 census

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2010, there were ten people (down 52% since 2000), five households (down 50%), and three families (down 57%) residing in the borough. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was (down 52%). There were six housing units (down 62.5%) at an average density of 0.4 units per square mile (.015 units/km2). The racial makeup of the borough was 100%
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
. Of the five households, none had children under the age of 18. Two (40%) were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
living together, one (20%) had a female householder with no spouse present, and two (40%) were non-families. One of those non-family households was an individual, and none had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.0 persons, and the average family size was 2.33 persons. There were no residents under the age of 18, one aged 25–29, one aged 50–54, one aged 55–59, four aged 60–64, two aged 70–74, and one aged 80–84. The median age was 62.5 years, and there were five females and five males in total.


2020 census

As of the census of 2020, there were five people residing in the borough. One resident (20%) was under the age of 18.


Public services

The Centralia Municipal Building still stands, along with its attached
fire station __NOTOC__ A fire station (also called a fire house, fire hall, firemen's hall, or engine house) is a structure or other area for storing firefighting apparatuses such as fire apparatus, fire engines and related vehicles, personal protective equ ...
garage. By the early 2010s, the building had fallen into disrepair, but new siding was installed in 2012. The building hosts the annual Centralia Cleanup Day, when volunteers collect illegally dumped trash in the area. Although past cleanup days avoided fire-impacted areas, the 2018 cleanup included areas around the landfill and the abandoned section of PA Route 61. Volunteers planted 250 apple trees around Centralia to restore the town's ecosystem and wildlife habitats in April 2021. The borough council still had regular meetings . It was reported that the town's highest bill at the meeting reported on came from PPL Electric Utilities at $92 and the town's budget was "in the black."


Religion

The remaining church in the borough, the town's Ukrainian Catholic church, the
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it on 1 November 1950 in his apostolic constitution as follows: It leaves open the question of whether Mary died or whether she was ra ...
, remains in use. It holds weekly services on Sundays and attracts worshippers from surrounding towns including people who were once residents of the town. It has not yet been directly affected by the fire. A geological survey found there was solid rock, not coal, under the church so it is not in danger of collapse due to the fire. The town's four cemeteries—including one on the hilltop which has smoke rising around and out of it—are maintained in good condition. Saint Mary's Orthodox Cemetery still stands on the northern edge of Centralia, and Saints Peter & Paul Church and Cemetery, Saint Ignatius Cemetery, and the Odd Fellows Cemetery still stand on the southern edge of the town.


Education

The school district is the Mount Carmel Area School District.


In popular culture

Centralia has been used as a model for many different fictional ghost towns and manifestations of
Hell In religion and folklore, hell is a location or state in the afterlife in which souls are subjected to punishment after death. Religions with a linear divine history sometimes depict hells as eternal destinations, such as Christianity and I ...
. Prominent examples include
Dean Koontz Dean Ray Koontz (born July 9, 1945) is an American author. His novels are billed as thriller (genre), suspense thrillers, but frequently incorporate elements of horror fiction, horror, fantasy, science fiction, Mystery fiction, mystery, and sati ...
's ''Strange Highways'' and David Wellington's '' Vampire Zero''. Screenwriter
Roger Avary Roger Roberts Avary (born August 23, 1965) is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for his work with Quentin Tarantino on the script for ''Pulp Fiction'' (1994), for which they won Best Original Screenpla ...
researched Centralia while working on the screenplay for the ''
Silent Hill is a horror media franchise centered on a series of survival horror games created by Keiichiro Toyama and published by Konami. The first four main games—'' Silent Hill'', '' Silent Hill 2'', '' Silent Hill 3'', and '' Silent Hill 4: The ...
'' film adaptation. While the movie took inspiration from Centralia, the original game series was not inspired by any town.


See also

* Coal seam fires **
Brennender Berg The Brennender Berg (Burning Mountain) is a natural monument located in a deep and narrow Canyon, gorge between Dudweiler and Sulzbach, Saarland, Sulzbach in Saarland, Germany. It is a smouldering coal seam fire, coal-seam fire that ignited in ...
(Saarland, Germany) **
Burning Mountain Burning Mountain, the common name for Mount Wingen, is a hill near Wingen, New South Wales, Australia, approximately north of Sydney just off the New England Highway. It takes its name from a Coal-seam fire, smouldering coal seam running underg ...
(New South Wales, Australia) ** Darvaza gas crater (Derweze, Turkmenistan) ** Jharia (India) ** New Straitsville mine fire ** Smoking Hills (Northwest Territories, Canada) * Arkwright Town * Involuntary park *
Love Canal Love Canal was a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, United States, infamous as the location of a landfill that became the site of an environmental disaster discovered in 1977. Decades of dumping toxic chemicals killed residents and harm ...
,
Niagara Falls, New York Niagara Falls is a City (New York), city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a total population of 48,671. It is adjacent to the Niagara River, across from the city of Niagar ...
* Namie, Fukushima *
Picher, Oklahoma Picher is a ghost town and former city in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, Ottawa County, northeastern Oklahoma, United States. It was a major national center of lead and zinc mining for more than 100 years in the heart of the Tri-State district, Tri ...
*
Pripyat Pripyat, also known as Prypiat, is an abandoned industrial city in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat (river), Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 1970 as the ninth ''atomgrad'' ...
,
Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
*
Times Beach, Missouri Times Beach is a ghost town in St. Louis County, Missouri, St. Louis County, Missouri, United States, southwest of St. Louis, Missouri, St. Louis and east of Eureka, Missouri, Eureka. Once home to more than two thousand people, the town was co ...
* Wittenoom, Western Australia


References


Further reading

* DeKok, David. ''Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire'',
University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press, also known as Penn Press, is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. History The press was originally incorporated with b ...
, . * DeKok, David. ''Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire'', Globe Pequot, October 2009, . * Jacobs, Renee. ''Slow Burn: A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennsylvania'', University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986, . * Johnson, Deryl B. ''Images of America: Centralia'', Arcadia Publishing, 2004, . * Kroll-Smith, J. Stephen, and Couch, Stephen. ''The Real Disaster Is Above Ground: A Mine Fire and Social Conflict'',
University Press of Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky (UPK) is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 194 ...
, January 1990, , . * Pitta, Terra. ''Catastrophe: A Guide to World's Worst Industrial Disasters hapter 3: Pennsylvania Coal Mine Fire, Centralia (May 1962)', Alpha Editions, July 2015, . * Quigley, Joan.
The Day the Earth Caved in: An American Mining Tragedy
',
Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
, 2007, .


External links


Fifty years of fire in the abandoned US town of Centralia
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...
, August 8, 2012
Tour The Pennsylvania Ghost Town That's Been Burning For 50 Years
Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...
, May 27, 2012
Centralia: ghost town church stronger than the fire
* , a 70-minute SnagFilms.com video {{authority control Bloomsburg–Berwick metropolitan area Boroughs in Columbia County, Pennsylvania Coal towns in Pennsylvania Ghost towns in Pennsylvania Environmental disasters in the United States Environmental disaster ghost towns Destroyed populated places Persistent natural fires Municipalities of the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania Populated places established in 1841 1841 establishments in Pennsylvania