Sometimes Interesting

Centralia was incorporated as a borough in 1866 when coal was discovered in the area. Coal mining gave birth to the town and it would prosper for almost 100 years. When energy demands started to shift more toward petroleum, the coal mining industry saw a decline.

The coal companies closed operations in Centralia in the 1960s, but bootleg mining of the abandoned mines would continue until 1982. For decades an undetected underground mine fire slowly burned through a major vein of a large coal deposit. By the mid-1980s the Pennsylvania state government finally realized the severity of the issue, and by 1992 it had ordered the forceful permanent evacuation of residents. Read more…