Safety Dance posted:

My wife and I went out to Centralia, PA last weekend. It's a coal mining town that was abandoned in the 1960s when they managed to light the coal underground on fire. The coal will continue to burn for the next 150-200 years. A few people chose to stay, and their homes stand in stark contrast to the vacant lots around them. We didn't walk anywhere that explicitly said "No Tresspassing", or looked like it was somebody's property.

I love how you can see a wind farm from near the St. Ignatius Cemetery at the south edge of town.



Centralia used to be famous for it's "Graffiti Highway". It was a section of PA Route 61 that was too difficult to maintain due to the active fire beneath it, so Pennsylvania blocked it off and built a new Route 61 around it. People used to come here and graffiti up the street. Unfortunately, it was covered up by the company that owns the land, ostensibly because too many people were using the Graffiti Highway as a gathering place during the summer of last year.

Anyway, here's another graffiti'd up street, plus the volvo I rented.



Rainwater collects in the mines, and exits through this old ventilation shaft. It's now known as the Big Mine Run Geyser. Depending on how much rain has fallen, the geyser can get as high as 15 feet. It's located in a valley to the south of Centralia, at the end of Big Mine Run Rd.



Now that we're familiar with the area, we're planning another trip.