True stories, Myths, and Tales of the Paranormal

Centralia, Pennsylvania (A True Silent Hill)

(Centralia, Pennsylvania) A true silent hill

*This may not be a paranormal story exactly but it still intrests me. If you have ever seen the movie Silent Hill you will know somewhat about this town. Now there is no demon possessed child or town of zombies but the fire beneath the surface is real.*

Centralia is now a ghost town in Columbia County Pennsylvania, United States. Its population has gone from just over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 10 in 2010, as a result of a mine fire burning under ground since 1962. Centralia is one of the least-populated places in Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania in 1992 all buildings were condemned and Centralia's ZIP code was revoked by the Postal Service in 2002. However, a few people continue to live anyway.

Centralia was incorporated as a borough in 1866. The anthracite coal industry was the employer in the community. Coal mining continued in Centralia until the 1960s, when most of the businesses shut down but the bootleg mining continued until 1982.

Strip mining is still occuring to this day and there is an underground mine employing about 40 people three miles west.

"This was a world where no human could live, hotter than the planet Mercury, its atmosphere as poisonous as Saturn's. At the heart of the fire, temperatures easily exceeded 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Lethal clouds of carbon monoxide and other gases swirled through the rock chambers." - David DeKok, Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986

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Author

Like I said I know it's not paranormal but it's still creepy anyway. Check out the picture posted to the side.

I dedicated this story to killerqueen101 because of her strong interest in this town and because she thought I should put it in my book. So all thanks goes to her.