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HISTORY Centralia was incorporated in 1866 , but it had existed since 1841 when the Bull's Head Tavern was opened by Johnathan Faust. In 1854 , Alexander W. Rea, a civil and mining engineer for the Locust Mountain Coal and Iron Company moved to the borough and laid it out into streets and lots. It was known as Centreville until 1865 when the name was changed to Centralia when the Post Office was established. The Anthracite Coal industry was the principal employer in the community. Coal Mining continued in Centralia until the 1960s , when most of the companies went out of business. Bootleg Mining continued until 1982 . Strip and Open-pit Mining is still active in the area, and there is an underground mine employing about 40 employees three miles to the west. The borough was also a hotbed of Molly Maguire activity during the 1860s and 1870s . The borough's father, Alexander Rea, was one of the victims of the secret order when he was murdered just outside of the borough on October 17 , 1868 . Three individuals were convicted of the crime and hanged in the county seat of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania on March 25 , 1878 . Several other murders and fires of incendiary origin also occurred during this period. The borough was served by two railroads, the Philadelphia And Reading and the Lehigh Valley , with the Lehigh Valley being the principal carrier. Rail service ended in 1966. The borough operated its own school district with elementary schools and a high school within its precincts. There were also two Catholic Parochial School s in the borough. At one time the borough had seven churches, five hotels, twenty seven saloons, two theatres, a bank, post office, and fourteen general and grocery stores. THE MINE FIRE A trash fire was lit in the borough landfill located in an abandoned mine pit in the southeast portion of Centralia in 1962. The fire ignited an exposed vein of Coal , and spread throughout the mines beneath the borough. Several unsuccessful attempts were made to extinguish the fire. It continued to burn throughout the 1960s and 1970s . During this time, several people reported experiencing adverse health effects from the Carbon Monoxide produced by the fire. During the 1970s, people became aware of the scale of the problem when a gas-station owner happened to insert a stick into one of his underground tanks to check the fuel level. When he withdrew it, it seemed hot, so he tried lowering a thermometer down on a string and was shocked to discover that the temperature of the gasoline in the tank was 180 degrees Fahrenheit (82.2 degrees Celsius ). Shortly after this incident, attention to the fire began to increase. In 1981 , 12-year-old Todd Domboski fell into a sinkhole that suddenly opened beneath his feet. He was saved after a relative pulled him out of the hole, which was estimated to be hundreds of feet deep. The incident brought national attention to Centralia, and in 1984 , Congress allocated more than $40 million for relocation efforts. Most of the residents accepted the buy-out offers and moved to nearby Mount Carmel and Ashland . A few families opted to stay, despite warnings from state officials. In 1992 , Pennsylvania claimed Eminent Domain on all properties in the borough, condemning all the buildings within the borough. A subsequent legal battle waged by residents with the state was unsuccessful. In 2002 the US Postal Service revoked the borough's Zip Code , 17927. CENTRALIA TODAY Only a handful of homes remain in Centralia, and are still occupied. All the other homes and buildings have been razed, and at casual glance the area now appears to be a meadow with several paved streets through it, and some areas are being filled with new-growth forest. Most of Centralia's roads and sidewalks are overgrown with brush, although most areas are mowed. See this TerraServer aerial image of the town, taken in April 1999. The remaining church in the borough holds weekly Saturday night services, and the borough's four cemeteries are still well-maintained. Centralia's cemeteries now have a far greater population than the town, including one on the hilltop that has smoke rising around and out of it. The only signs of the fire, which underlies some 400 acres (1.6 km&2), 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 State Route 61, which was closed in the 1990s after several large cracks appeared on the road, as well as from the area just behind the hilltop cemetery, and from various other cracks in the ground scattered about the area. However, the underground fire is still burning, and will continue to do so for at least 100 years. There are no current plans to extinguish the fire, which is consuming an eight-mile seam with enough coal to fuel it for 250 years (Krajick 2005). The State of Pennsylvania did not renew the relocation contract at the end of 2005, and the fate of the remaining residents is uncertain. (2006 newspaper article.) It is expected that many former residents will return in 2016 to open a Time Capsule buried in 1966 next to the veterans' memorial (Krajick 2005). MINERAL RIGHTS Several current and former Centralia residents believe the state's Eminent Domain claim was a ploy to gain the Mineral Rights to the anthracite coal beneath the borough. Residents estimate its value to be in the billions of dollars, although the exact amount of Coal is not known. State officials have stated that Pennsylvania does not own the mineral rights and has no interest in acquiring them, and no further mining has been done in the area. GEOGRAPHY Centralia is located at (40.803291, -76.341741). According to the United States Census Bureau , the borough has a total area of 0.6 Km&2 (0.2 Mi&2 ), all land. DEMOGRAPHICS As of the Census of 2000, there were 21 people, 10 households, and 7 families residing in the borough. As of late March, 2004, there were 18 people residing in 9 dwellings. The Population Density was 33.8/km&2 (87.5/mi&2). There were 16 housing units at an average density of 25.7/km&2 (66.7/mi&2). The racial makeup of the borough was 100.00% White . There were 10 households out of which 10.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.0% were Married Couples living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.0% were non-families. 30.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.0% 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 with 4.8% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 19.0% from 25 to 44, 33.3% from 45 to 64, and 38.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 62 years. For every 100 females there were 110.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.0 males. 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 for the borough was $16,083. None of the population is below the Poverty Line . CENTRALIA IN MEDIA This town is included in a short documentary on the '' Broken Saints '' DVD set. The town seems to be the direct inspiration for the setting of Dean Koontz 's short novel Strange Highways. Bill Bryson , in his humorous travel guide to the Appalachian Trail , ''A Walk in the Woods'', describes a visit to the town. Centralia was the inspiration for the Movie Adaptation of the game Silent Hill . A Short Documentary on Centralia was produced by Penn State Film Student Garrett Rhodes in 2003. SOURCES
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