Centralia, PA. The Town That Was

I'm taking a break from writing about Marion's condition as really at this point she's just been getting various testing done in an effort to stage the cancer. She had her Pre-Op blood work done yesterday along with a chest X ray. Monday she had a PET/CT scan done. She'll be going into Cooper on Tuesday to get a cystoscopy and proctosigmoidoscopy done. It's a hour procedure that will take about 5 hours overall from pre-op to recovery and discharge. It's a fairly straightforward procedure, and she should do well. Her EKG came back fine. After these tests are done, we can finally come up with a treatment plan that will most likely be a Cisplatin based chemotherapy with concurrent radiation treatment. It will be pretty intensive.

Moving along, the title of the post is "Centralia, PA: The Town That Was". I wanted to pass along a few links about a fascination of mine. I first heard of Centralia from my cousin Johnny on some innocuous facebook posting about 2 years ago now. Since then, I researched the town and its history. At its core, the story of Centralia is a look into what can happen when government doesn't act quick enough and allows suffering in the wake of its slow moving policies.

The story of Centralia starts in 1962 when the annual Labor Day fire was done in the local fire pit. Trouble was the shaft led to a whole lot of anthracite coal long buried underground. This local tradition ignited a fire and unleashed a Hell that still burns today. For years, Centralia was pretty much left alone until more and more people were affected either by dropping unconscious due to the high levels of C0 or almost falling down sinkholes that were caused by the fire burning underneath.

The people were told they could stay by then Gov. Dick Thornberg. Pennsylvania later reconsidered and called in eminent domain, condemned the remaining towns, and are currently in the process of wiping the existence of Centralia of the map. People that still live there believes there is more to the story, such as rights to the mounds of coal that still lie below the ground. Pennsylvania's stance is that it's a dangerous place that can not be inhabited by human life. The few remaining residents (the population was over 1600 in the 80's down to 5 or so now) say it's safe and want to be allowed to stay. They are currently appealing the eminent domain claim and just want to be allowed to stay.

With that backstory, my friend Anthony, Marion, myself, and Faresh went to Centralia this past summer to have a look ourselves. What struck me when we entered the town was that it's not so much a ghost town as it is just an open expansive field with a few remaining buildings left. It seems that when PA demolishes the buildings, they backfill it so there really isn't much that you can tell there used to be a dwelling there. What's kind of spooky is the town's three cemeteries are still there and maintained. An eerie church overlooks you from afar. And, the town's municipal building survives with an American flag still flying proudly over a town that no longer exists for all purposes.

There's an overwhelming sadness that overcomes you as you walk down an abandoned Interstate (I-61) that used to serve as the town's main artery until the fire caused the street to be impassable in the early 80's. When you look at pictures from the 50's, 60's, even the 80's what's left there now and what was there just makes you shake your head. Centralia was the proverbial small American town and is perhaps a metaphor for what has happened to those small town ideals where you could sleep with your doors unlocked and walk in confidence without fear of being attacked by nameless assailants.

I posted a Video on YouTube with the pictures from our trip.


There's also a great documentary about the town called "The Town That Was" available for viewing on hulu.


Sadly, since the filming of the documentary, John Lokitis has been forcibly removed from his grandfather's house and relocated to a nearby town. The house was demolished within a week or so after he left. When we were there, there was maybe five houses left, one of which isn't actually within Centralia's borders.

Centralia is just a sad document to how government can fail its people.