The ghost town of Centralia is the prototype of Silent Hill! Centralia, a ghost town in Pennsylvania

Centralia is a small mining town in Pennsylvania. In 1981 it was home to a thousand people. In 2007, only 9 of them remained. What made the population of this small town leave forever?

The reason for the departure of all local residents was the flames raging in the mines under the city for more than half a century. Continuing our series of stories about ghost towns and abandoned metro stations, we will supplement their list with Centralia. Let's start with history:
In 1841 Jonathan Faust opened a tavern called Ox's Head in a small community in Pennsylvania. In 1854, Alexander V. Rhea, a civil mining engineer, was sent here to design a road. The city was known as Centerville until 1865. But by that time a city with that name already existed, and the post office forced them to change the name. This is how Centralia was born.

Anthracite mining was the main industry in the community. The coal industry developed in Centralia until the 1960s, after which most of the companies went bankrupt. The mining industry continued until 1982, after which it ceased completely.

It is not known for certain how the fire started that turned Centralia into a ghost town. One theory claims that in May 1962, the City Council hired firefighters to clean out the city's garbage dump, located in an abandoned quarry next to the cemetery. This procedure was done in previous years, when garbage dumps were destroyed in other parts of the city. The firemen, following previous experience, set fire to the landfill and let it burn for a while. But due to the location deep in the quarry, the fire fell into abandoned underground mines.

There is evidence to support this theory. According to the story of one of the two garbage collectors, they dumped red-hot coals into a trash pit. The city, by law, was responsible for creating a fireproof clay barrier between each layer of debris, but fell behind schedule, leaving the barrier unfinished. This allowed hot coals to penetrate layers of debris into the ground, sparking an underground fire.

The fire remained burning underground, spreading through all the coal mines under Centralia. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful and it continued to burn throughout the 1960s and 1970s. No one paid attention to this until the headaches among the locals became more frequent. Harmful by-products of combustion began to enter the air through holes in the pavement and cracks in the ground.

Locals got the full extent of the problem when a gas station owner and later mayor, John Coddington, inserted a dipstick into one of his underground tanks to check the fuel level. When he pulled out the dipstick, it was hot. Dropping a thermometer into the vault, he discovered that the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was 80 degrees Celsius.

Statewide attention was drawn to the fire when, in 1981, 12-year-old resident Todd Domboski fell into a 150-foot-deep crack that suddenly formed in the ground. The quick reaction of his cousin Eric Wolfgang saved Todd's life, as the hot steam from the crack carried a deadly dose of noxious gases.

In 1984, the United States Congress appropriated $42 million for the resettlement of residents. Most residents accepted the government's proposals and moved to neighboring communities. Today, only a few houses remain in Centralia, the city looks like a scorched field with cracked roads. The only signs of fire raging under the city are wisps of smoke oozing from all the cracks, as well as a few signs warning of the dangers of underground fires and carbon monoxide. The underground fire is still burning and will continue to burn for the next 250 years.

Some residents will return to the city in 2016 to open a time capsule that was laid in 1966 near the Veterans Memorial.

Many former residents of Centralia believe that the burning of the mines was the result of a conspiracy to gain full rights to the minerals beneath the city. Their value was once estimated in the billions of dollars, although the exact amount of coal is not known. At the moment, the addresses and streets of the city have been removed from the state register. In 2002, the postal code of Centralia was liquidated.


Centralia is traditionally included in all ratings of creepy attractions, where it always occupies a leading position.

Centralia is an unusual ghost town, mainly because of its sad and in many ways ridiculous history, which does not have much precedent.

The entire state of Pennsylvania hides huge deposits of anthracite coal in its bowels. In the nineteenth century, almost all the cities in the northeastern part of the state were founded on the basis of coal mines, and Centralia is no exception. Coal was mined until the 50s of the last century, after which the mines were abandoned due to increased competition from other regions of the country with cheaper labor. In May 1962, several city department workers set fire to the local dump to get rid of the accumulated rubbish. The procedure was standard, but this time everything went wrong. In the process of burning, the fire fell into the lower layers of the soil, and gradually spread into abandoned mines, fueled by huge reserves of anthracite coal.

In 1962, the population of Centralia was approximately 2,000 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 worsening health from carbon dioxide emissions, and sometimes smoke streamed from the cracks in the sidewalk, but both the residents themselves and the local authorities somehow turned a blind eye to this. The extent of the problem first came to light in 1979, when a local gas station owner discovered that the temperature in his underground gas storage was nearly 80 degrees Celsius. The cracks in the pavement were growing, the smoke from there was no longer in streams, but in clubs. In 1981, a 12-year-old resident of Centralia decided to explore a fresh crack that appeared in the morning in the courtyard of his house and fell into a hole that suddenly formed in the ground, almost 50 meters deep. He was miraculously saved by his brother, who happened to be nearby.

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

In 1984, Congress appropriated $42 million to purchase land and resettle residents. Most gladly agreed and left the smoky Centralia, but some still live in the city. Although Centralia is no longer officially considered a city, 18 people and 9 households are still registered there. The houses of those who moved out were demolished, and now Centralia resembles an empty map from SimCity - even squares of roads with emptiness inside. An important highway passing through Centralia - Route 61 - was directed to a detour. Now it is no longer possible to drive into the ghost town by car - in the middle of the former Route-61, an earthen rampart and signs "Dangerous" block the way. Locals use detour paths, but you can also enter Centralia on foot, simply by crossing the same rampart. The fire will burn as long as it has enough coal. And coal deposits, according to experts, will last for a long time - about 250 years.

The North American province, the country of good roads and cozy cottages, is very nice and just as boring. Therefore, holidays, dates, anniversaries are celebrated here with great pleasure. And they try to maintain order, and behave culturally, even if only 7 people live in the city, and they live in constant anxiety.

200 kilometers from the center of American culture, New York, in the central part of wooded Pennsylvania, the town with the fabulous name of Centralia is marked on the map. In the center of the city of Centralia lies a stone, and under it is a time capsule with a message to posterity. A letter to the future was buried in honor of the centenary of the town in 1966, and it should be opened in the not too distant 2016. And then if the letter by that time does not absorb what has been destroying everything in the district for almost half a century - a slow, treacherous and unquenchable underground fire in layers of anthracite.

The Yankees learned about high-quality coal, with which the local lands are rich, in the middle of the 19th century. A turbulent life began with a tavern, which was opened on the site of the future suffering city by a gentleman with a speaking surname Faust. Then the coal miners came, drew up a building plan, and by 1866 Centralia was already a full-fledged city with its own post office, schools, hotels, bars and a bank. And even then, mining engineers calculated that the local anthracite reserves would last for a thousand years.

And this means that the current fire can last for centuries.

Because of what it broke out in May 1962, no one really knows. There is a version that this is the work of firefighters from a voluntary brigade, which is on the balance sheet of every American town. For every holiday (and they loved to “celebrate” here), the mayor’s office sent firefighters to deal with garbage. Another city dump was located in the pit of an exhausted mine and looked like an iceberg: most of the rubbish was rammed deep into the ground. Regardless of this, the firemen showed fatal bungling, and set fire to the old junk adjacent to the anthracite. It was not possible to extinguish: decay "took root" in the bowels and soon the fire flared up in other abandoned mines. According to another version, someone somewhere unsuccessfully threw out a cigarette butt.

For several years, no one was afraid of anything: well, just think, it smokes from under the ground. True, the townspeople began to cough more often, and already in 1969, three families left Centralia forever because of health problems.

True hell began 10 years later, when it was discovered that in the underground tanks of gas stations the temperature reaches 80 degrees Celsius. And after a while, a nightmare of a fantastic kind broke out in Centralia - people began to fall into the hot cracks opening in the asphalt.

The government has finally begun to evacuate thousands of mortally frightened citizens.

... So you get into your long American car, you want to go onto a wide American road, but there is no road, and instead of it, a black abyss obscures your eyes with smoke and steam. Doesn't it remind you of Silent Hill from the famous game?

It seems as if the devil himself from hell is scraping the earth from the inside with huge claws, releasing hot clouds of hellish stench from the bowels.

In many photos and videos from Centralia, this house with chimney-shaped props is clearly visible. But it was demolished two years ago - it became too dangerous to be in it.

Today, the city is still ruled by a mayor and a few of his stubborn wards live. The fire was abandoned from Washington itself, and ghosts and mutants often seem to brave tourists in an empty city. Not without reason, Centralia, with its terrible history, became the prototype of the place from the horror film of the same name. At the entrance to the city instead of "Welcome!" guests are greeted with an inscription: "Attention - danger!". And below: "The earth can slip out from under your feet." If you stand in one place for a long time on the street in Centralia, then the soles of your shoes begin to melt. And the hair turns gray from the ashes and ... quiet horror.

One of the few places in Centralia untouched by the underground fire is the Orthodox Peter and Paul Cemetery. Like everything that survived in this slowly dying city, the Russian churchyard is decorated with the Stars and Stripes American flags...

Centralia is a small mining town in Pennsylvania. In 1981 it was home to a thousand people. In 2007, only 9 of them remained. What made the population of this small town leave forever?

A ghost can become not only the restless soul of the deceased, but the whole city. Until recently, the town of Centralia flourished, but today ash falls from the sky all year round, and the air is poisoned.

The American state of Pennsylvania has always been famous for its industry, including coal mining: coal reserves on its territory will be enough for several future generations. On one of the most famous anthracite natural repositories in the state, the town of Centralia arose in the 19th century. In 1841, in a township, a small village called Roaring Creek ("Roaring Brook"), a certain Jonathan Faust opened the Bull's Head Tavern. We can say that he laid the first stone of Centralia, although he hardly suspected that in 13 years a real city would grow from a modest village.

In the meantime, this is what happened. In 1854, the Locust Mountain Coal and Iron Company, a large mining corporation, decided to take over the territory and sent Alexander Rea, a mining civil engineer, there. He designed the streets of the settlement and called his creation Centerville. However, it turned out that there was already a town with that name in Pennsylvania, and in order not to confuse the postal service, in 1865 the village was renamed Centralia. A year later, the town received the status of a city, in which schools, hospitals, churches, hotels, shops, theaters, bars, a post office and a bank appeared.

Coal mining gave two thousand people money work, their life proceeded calmly and without incident until October 17, 1868, a high-profile crime occurred - Alexander Ria was killed on the outskirts of the city. It was rumored that the murder was contract and related to the activities of the secret society "Molly Maguires", which, apparently, was not satisfied with the death of the city's founder alone, and in subsequent years there were several more murders and arson.

CLEANING WITH CONSEQUENCES

After a series of lawlessness, peace and tranquility came to the town, as if Centralia had exhausted the entire supply of negativity. But, as it turned out, the real nightmare was yet to come. In the meantime, life went on as usual, people were still engaged in coal mining.

Of course, mountains of garbage have accumulated over the entire century of the city's existence. Industrial and domestic waste, which was dumped into an old mine near the Odd Fellows cemetery, had to be disposed of. And in 1962, just the reason was found: the Day of Remembrance was approaching - the national holiday of the United States, dedicated to American soldiers who died in wars and armed conflicts. For qualified garbage collection, the government of Centralia hired five firefighters. They acted according to an already worked out plan - set fire to the waste, wait until it burns out, and then extinguish it. The imprudent firefighters, to put it mildly, did not do their job very well: the garbage continued to smolder until the coal in the mines ignited from it.

At least that's what the official version says. According to another, set out in Joan Quigley's book The Day the Earth Opened: A Tragedy of National Importance, the cause of the fire could well have been a cigarette butt thrown by a passing driver. However, what accuracy must be possessed in order to accurately throw the "bull" into the mine! Yes, and so that it does not go out in flight or when it hits walls and thrown objects (after all, there were not only leaves and paper).

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the fire, despite all efforts to eliminate it, continued. The abundance of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide seriously affected the health of local residents, and the lack of oxygen led to illness. They tried to extinguish the fire, but all attempts failed - the local catastrophe turned out to be too large-scale. True, according to some eyewitnesses, if the trench near the Odd Fellows cemetery had been dug more intensively and had not shied away from work during the holidays, the fire could well have been dealt with.

GEHENNA FIRE

Residents began to leave the city in May 1969, but many still harbored faint hopes for a favorable outcome. The mines continued to smoke, and the townspeople for a decade carefully pretended that nothing terrible was happening. The fact that Centralia is on the verge of disaster was discovered by accident. The owner of one of the gas stations, John Coddington, decided to check the level of gasoline in underground tanks and lowered the dipstick inside. When he took it out, the probe felt very hot.

Out of curiosity, John measured the temperature - the thermometer showed almost 80 ° C! The news quickly spread around the district, and the residents finally realized that they were living on the lid of a boiling underground boiler.

City Hall was forced to admit that they were unable to control the situation. And the incident, which occurred two years later, drew the attention of the whole country to the disaster. On February 14, 1981, under the feet of 12-year-old Todd Domboski, who was playing in his yard, the earth literally opened up - a hole about 45 meters deep was formed. The boy almost fell there, but managed to grab onto the roots of a tree, and his cousin came to the rescue in time and pulled Todd out.

A few years after this incident, the US Congress allocated 42 million dollars to Centralia to relocate residents to other cities. Most citizens took up the offer, but a few families refused despite government warnings. Then in 1992, state governor Robert Casey demanded that the government forcibly deprive residents of their property and force them to move, given the increased danger.

The townspeople tried to challenge this decision through the courts: they suspected that they were being relocated in order to be able to extract anthracite, large reserves of which are stored under the lower part of the city. Officials claimed that the Pennsylvania government never had coal mining rights and no mining company operates in the area. The court took the side of the governor.

In 2002, the postal code 17927, which belonged to Centralia, disappeared from the registers. Route 61, which led to the city, was allowed to bypass, and the settlement was removed from all maps of Pennsylvania and the United States. They stopped fighting the fire - it turned out to be a waste of money.

Some residents will return to the city in 2016 to open a time capsule that was laid in 1966 near the Veterans Memorial.

BEYOND POPULATION

By 2010, only five houses remained in Centralia - all the rest were demolished. Now several people live here, among them - the mayor of the city and a hereditary miner. They flatly refuse to leave their beloved city. Even despite the fact that the underground fire is still burning, according to various estimates, from 250 to 1000 years. Every day, the asphalt is covered with new cracks, holes in the ground have long become the norm, and the air is poisoned.

Thick smoke constantly pours out of the ground, ash can fall from the sky at any moment, and the four surrounding cemeteries have become the most “densely populated” areas. What could be worse?

Only ghosts that frighten tourists. Since the catastrophe happened and the news spread throughout the states, many adventurers and lovers of abandoned places have rushed to Centralia. Some were just interested in walking along the deserted streets, taking photos, soaking up the strange atmosphere of hopelessness and forgetting about the trip after a couple of years, others were “lucky” to remember it for the rest of their lives.

Sometimes tourists hear strange sounds, it seems that they are being watched, or it seems as if a figure flashed around the corner. The imagination knows how to viciously play its masters, but some cases when several people witnessed a paranormal phenomenon at once really deserve attention.

For example, in 1998, Ruth Adderson and a friend drove to Centralia. They swore that they had seen two men in mining helmets appear out of the mist not far from the cemetery. They seemed to come out of a huge hole behind the graves, walked a little, and then disappeared. It is unlikely that the frightened young people thought that they might not be ghosts, but a couple of local residents who were hard to see in the smoke. In the same year, Scott Sailor and two friends decided to go sightseeing in Centralia. Finding nothing interesting in the city, they went to the cemetery. The guys stopped at a hill from which smoke was pouring. While surveying the local flora, they were taken by surprise by a strange voice coming from the ground. The first time they couldn't make out the words, but the second time they heard "Get out of here" quite distinctly.

The hill began to smoke much more strongly and smelled of rotten eggs. Frightened friends ran to the car, and they were rushing after them: “Why? Why did you do it? There were no people or cars in the area. When Scott arrived home and looked at the map, he learned that they were near the fire.

Finally, the third story really makes you think about the existence of ghosts. In 1999, a young couple, Lori and Jim, went into one of the abandoned houses in Centralia. They adored such places and in their free time often explored abandoned villages and old cemeteries, not at all afraid of spirits, in which they simply did not believe. In the three-story mansion, Jim and Laurie went up to the second floor and stood next to the stairs.

Suddenly, the wooden steps above creaked. The young people decided that there was someone in the house, and they discussed with curiosity when another tourist would come down to them. The footsteps approached, and now they had already reached the second floor, but suddenly broke off as suddenly as they appeared. Laurie looked up - there was no one there. Jim looked down, but the stairs to the first floor were also empty.

STOP, CUT OFF!

Not surprisingly, Centralia, known for such incidents, attracted the screenwriter of the horror film Silent Hill, Roger Avery. The movie was based on the video game of the same name. At one time, Silent Hill made a splash and is still considered one of the best games in the horror genre. The virtual town of Silent Hill is somewhat different from Centralia. Its story begins not with a tavern, but with an Indian settlement imbued with supernatural power. During colonization, most of the Indians were killed and Silent Hill was founded on the site of their village. In punishment for the blood of innocent victims, misfortunes rained down on the city. First, its inhabitants were mowed down by a mysterious epidemic, then a penal colony was set up in the city, which turned into a prisoner of war camp during the Civil War. After the victory of the northerners, Silent Hill became a mining town, the prisoners were released, and the camp was turned into an ordinary prison.

Then sectarians took control of the city, hiding in the building of the old church, and Silent Hill itself was divided into two parts. The first, real, was not much different from the current Centralia: abandoned houses, quiet streets, empty roads. Another - the world of horrors - has become a haven for human nightmares and strange creatures hiding in the eternal fog.

The game's atmosphere and story were so well thought out that Hollywood took it upon themselves to bring them to the silver screen. Screenwriter Roger Avery stumbled upon a story about Centralia quite by accident, went there and realized that this is how the ghost town in the film should be.

Instead of a story about the wrath of the Indian gods, the script was based on real events that led to the death of Centralia. Even the air raid sirens and the church migrated to the film - Avery was so inspired by what he saw.

But what's next for the Pennsylvania town? Most likely, complete oblivion and despondency, occasionally disturbed by curious travelers - extreme people. After the prosperous Centralia turned into a smoldering monument of human stupidity due to criminal negligence, only its most devoted inhabitants remain faithful to it - the ghosts of a past happy life.

City of Centralia what's in the state Pennsylvania (USA) is Silent Hill prototype*, famous city from horror movies. Centralia has been burning for 47 years now and will continue to burn for at least 250 more.

We will probably not dwell on the description of the infrastructure of Centralia before the fire, but we will go straight to the most interesting.

It all started in 1962. It was the month of May outside, and the Centralia authorities ordered five firefighters to clean up the city dump, which was located in an open mine. Everything would be fine, because it was done before, but this time the landfill was located in a new place. The firefighters, already accustomed to this work and the destruction of landfills, did everything as they were used to: they set fire to the garbage, let it burn out for a measured time and extinguished the fire.

As it turned out fire was not extinguished to the end and because of this, deep deposits of garbage began to smolder, then the fire spread through the hole in the mine to other abandoned mines in Centralia. It is clear that the current attempts to extinguish the fire are simply useless - after all, the scale has become huge. The fire raged throughout the 60s and 70s. In the 70s, the first people began to complain of poor health, which was caused by the emitted carbon monoxide.

In 1979, everyone learned the true scale of the tragedy from the story that happened to the owner of a gas station:

Once the owner of a gas station decided to measure the level of gasoline in one of the tanks. The owner took a special stick, which should measure the level of gasoline, and lowered it into a tank located underground. Taking it out, he was simply dumbfounded ** (and low or high marks of gasoline had nothing to do with it) - the stick was very hot and as it turned out, the temperature of gasoline at the bottom of the tank was about 80 ° C (as soon as everything didn’t explode there ?!).

In 1981 the problem Centralia reached the level state. This happened thanks to another story:

Todd Domboskai is a 12-year-old boy who fell into an earthen well that suddenly formed right under his feet. The width of the well turned out to be a little more than a meter, and the depth was 45 meters. Everything ended well - the boy was saved by his older brother. But such an incident could not be ignored, especially since there was a representative of the state, a senator and the head of the mine security service, who were just walking near Domboski's possessions and saw with their own eyes how the boy simply fell into the ground.

Almost all residents were relocated from burning Centralia, For this, the authorities allocated huge sums of money. 61 highways were changed, which now bypasses the city. In 2002, the post office noted and declared the Centralia index - 17927 - non-existent. Most of the Buildings were demolished.

Centralia has become a burning ghost town.

Only a few houses remain in Centralia. The city itself began to overgrow with greenery, now grass and bushes can be seen right on the roads. However, there is only one church left in Centralia, which holds a night service every week.

The underground fire covers an area of ​​about 400 acres and spreads in 4 directions, in this area the ground has become unstable. Smoke can be seen from the cracks, which are located in different parts of the city, including on the closed part of the 61 route. And throughout the city you can see signs warning of an underground fire.

The underground fire is still raging, and according to scientists' forecasts, the coal in the mines will be enough to sustain the fire for another 250 years.

Pennsylvania- served as a prototype for a terrible city from movie: silent hill*. The city in the film turned out to be truly scary. Now we know what it could be a city that has been on fire for about 50 years.

* - Silent Hill - a fictional city from the universe of the Silent Hill game and movie of the same name. As conceived by the developers, it is located in North America. According to one version, in the state of Maine (in the film, the ghost town is located in West Virginia, next to a certain Brahams).