Centralia Pennsylvania Home Page

Centralia Pennsylvania Home Page, submitted by James Sunderland.

Have your heard of Centralia, Pennsylvania? Well many refer to it as "the town that is trying to be swallowed by hell" and/or "where the living have lower property values than/envy the dead." But I'll let our budz at Wikipedia explain.

A trash fire was lit in the borough landfill 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.

...In 1984, Congress allocated more than $40 million for relocation efforts. 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.

Centralia also has its own webpage which is just as much of a showcase of human misery as the town is itself. Full of empty tables, broken images, and what I assume are pictures of the webmaster's dog(?), you will hope for an internet garbage fire hole to suck Centralia's web page into the pits of internet hell, which is where I'm guessing MySpace is hosted. Please note the "stress management course" announcement, which is appropriate for people living in a place where geysers of soiled diapers from the 1970s threaten to spray up into their faces at any given moment.

– Bob "BobServo" Mackey