Ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States (33 pics + text) Bashny.Net

Centralia - a prototype of the city from the game «Silent Hill».

A bit of history:
Centralia - an unusual ghost town, mainly because of its sad and largely absurd stories, which has a large number of precedents.

All Pennsylvania hides in its bosom vast deposits of anthracite coal. In the nineteenth century almost all of the city north-eastern part of the state were founded on the basis of coal mines and Centralia - is no exception. Coal was mined up to the 50s of the last century, after which the mines were abandoned because of increased competition from other regions of the country with cheaper labor. In May 1962, several workers set fire to the city Department of the local dump to get rid of the accumulated debris. The procedure was standard, but this time everything went wrong. In the process of burning fire was in the lower layers of the soil, and gradually spread in the abandoned mines, fueled by huge reserves of anthracite coal.





1962 Centralia population was about 2000 people.

The fire burned almost without consequences, and remained unnoticed until the first half of the seventies. Of course, some residents complained of headaches and deterioration of health from emissions of carbon dioxide, and sometimes from cracks in the pavement streamed smoke, but it somehow turned a blind eye, and the people themselves, and the local authorities. The scale of the problem first started talking in 1979, when the owner of the local gas stations found that the temperature in its storage underground gasoline has almost reached 80 degrees Celsius. Cracks in asphalt increased, the smoke there was not trickle, and clubs. In 1981, 12-year-old decided to explore Centralia appeared in the morning in the courtyard of his house a fresh crack and suddenly fell into the resulting hole in the ground a depth of about 50 meters. He miraculously saved brother were close.

After this incident, we started talking seriously about the resettlement of Centralia.

In 1984, Congress appropriated $ 42 million for land acquisition and resettlement of residents. Most agreed with pleasure and left the smoky central, but some who live in the city now. Although officially Centralia is no longer considered a city, there are still 18 people registered and 9 households. Houses of those evicted have been demolished, and now Centralia reminds unfilled card from SimCity - equal squares roads emptiness inside. Important highway passes through Central - Route 61 - was sent to the detour. Now a ghost town on the machine is not to call - in the middle of the former Route-61 blocks the path of an earth mound and signs "Danger". Locals use the bypass paths, but you can go in the central and foot, just going through the same shaft. The fire will burn as long as he has enough coal. A coal deposits, according to experts, will suffice for a long time - about 250 years.