Hello Steem community. Today's daily nature fix is a story about the abandonment of a once-thriving Pennsylvania town. The town known as Centralia.
^^^Looking down the abandoned section of US Route 61 through Centralia.
Centralia is a small town in central Pennsylvania, or more accurately, it WAS. It was established in 1866 and, like many towns in Pennsylvania, was founded on the discovery of a rich anthracite coal supply, to which mining started immediately. By the 1960's the town had over 1,000 residents and life was pretty good. In 1962, however, a fateful decision was made by the borough council to clean up the town's landfill. They hired members of the volunteer fire company to perform the clean up, and on May 27th the crew lit a fire to burn some of the rubbish they had accumulated. The problem was that the landfill was located on an abandoned strip-mine pit and the fire had accidentally ignited an exposed vein of coal. What followed was the fire spreading into the underground mines, to depths of over 300ft below the surface and over an 8 mile stretch encompassing some 3,700 acres.
^^^Another section of the old Route 61.
Life went on as normal for almost 20 years after the initial fire was started. The scale of the problem started to come to light around 1980. A local gas station owner dropped a measuring stick into one of his underground fuel tanks to check the fill level and when he pulled it back out, it seemed hot. He was concerned, so he then dropped a thermometer into the gasoline reservoir and was shocked to see it was reading a 172˚F!
^^^A section of the original landfill location. There is intense head coming from those hole and steam can be seen in the colder winter months.
The fire situation gained major national attention in 1981 when a 12 year old boy was playing in his backyard and a sinkhole opened beneath his feet. A nightmare come to life. This hole was 4 feet wide by 150 feet deep. The boy clung to the edge and his 14 year old cousin pulled him to safety. Hot smoke and gas spewed from the hole and was tested to contain lethal amounts of carbon monoxide. The entire town began to test high for CO and a campaign was made to have residents voluntarily move out. Congress allocated $42,000,000 to buy out residents and help with their relocation, but some refused.
^^^A time capsule made by the town that was supposed to be opened 50 years later.... this year.
In 1992, the governor tried to use eminent domain on all of the remaining properties, but the residents fought it and the action failed. In 2002 the US post office deactivated Centralia's zip code. Today, there are only 10 residents in the town. They have reached an agreement with authorities to let them live the rest of their days in the town, but forfeit their properties after their passing.
The fire beneath Centralia has been burning for 54 years and at the burn rate, it has been estimated it will burn for another 25o years. One of the writers from the Silent Hill film revealed that he was inspired by stories of Centralia that his father told him, who was a mine engineer. Today, there isn't much to see at Centralia if you were to visit. Almost all structures have been demolished years ago. There is about an 1/8 mile stretch of Route 61 that remains, and that's sure to be the highlight of your trip. The fire under the highway started to soften the asphalt and it began breaking apart. They tried to repair it several times but eventually, the detour route around these repair jobs became the permanent route.
^^^Standing at the intersection of what was once city blocks.
It is pretty amazing how mother nature has taken back this property is some 30 years. Trees and grasses have grown in so thick that it's almost impossible to imagine the community that once lived here. Nature is essentially my religion and it burns me up inside to see how we, as a people, treat it. It's somewhat comforting to see a forest on what was once main street though. It makes me feel that despite our shitty habits and ecosystem-destroying addictions, the world is just waiting for us to drive our own species to extinction and will be just fine once we're out of the way. Nothing can stop nature... we're just wounding it.
^^^Centralia in 1986, close to where the photo above this one was taken. PHOTO and CREDIT
Thanks for reading, everyone! See you tomorrow. - Adam
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P.S. - That times capsule ended up being opened 2 years early in Oct 2014. It was done early due to visitors and travelers trying to dig it up themselves, as well as residents and former residents. It ended up being severely water damaged and most contents were completely unrecognizable.