Centralia (Pottsville, Shamokin, Jim Thorpe: mineral rights, houses, buying)

[omgsh]

I just heard about the town in PA called Centralia. That's crazy that there's been a fire underground since the 60's!









What started this fire anyway? Has anyone Ever been there?

[Gerania]

Have you been there?

[SorryIMovedBack]

As I recall, and you can look it up in the 'Net, it was something like burning trash at a dump ignited an exposed coal seam, and then people didn't get right on it like they should have, and it got too far out of control.

I drove through and around Centralia a few times in '79 and '80. Back then, Route 61 still ran right through town and all of the old downtown was still there, with lots of traffic. You didn't really hear much about the fire and condemning houses and such until the early '80s, when it made national news. It looked like a lot of eastern PA old towns: Kind of German-looking architectural influences.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Centralia PA Mine Fire - Coal Burning underground, Homes destroyed There's a little of the history of it.

even better: http://www.offroaders.com/album/cent...PA-History.htm

[Honest Bob]

We have covered this in the past.

Its all bogus.

There is a coal mining family that still lives in the town and most if not almost all of the fire has been put out a long time ago.
The coal mining family, as long as they have a town government can live there as long as they wish. They mine coal out of their mine every day.

In the next town there is a larger coal mine company that has bought up most of the property and would like to strip mine the entire community for it's coal. Maybe 5% of all the coal under the town was burned.

There is millions of tons of coal still under the town.

Kind of like a David and Goliath type deal where the big coal mine operation would like to run the little coal mine operation out of business.

The road subsidence was repaired a long time ago and there is no danger of living there anymore. As long as someone thinks that it is still like it was back in the 60's - 70's - people will believe all the half truths and rumors about the place. Its not going to fall in a big sink hole and not all the coal was ruined by the fire.

A better example of a town owned by a coal mining company was Helevatia PA. Helevatia was once a very large boom town and in the end all that was left was a couple of houses and a bar - The Peacock.
The coal company was going out of business and sold the coal rights to a subsidary of R&P Coal and they wanted the coal that was left from the deep mine and bought everyone out and forced them out of their homes and strip mined the whole place and now all it is is a abandoned strip mine with nothing but weeds growing in a field.
Helvetia, PA - Abandoned Town

[PeeAye Native]

Some of Honest Bob’s comments are to put it politely, far fetched.

But they do make for a good story, especially if you hear them in the local watering holes, like the local VFW’s, American Legion or volunteer fire company bars, where the local old timers hang out and spend their days talking and gabbing away … to whoever will listen. Sounds like Honest Bob might be party to some of those conversations, and the stories fall in the category if you hear them often enough, you just might believe them.

There is no coal company in the next town over that has bought up any of the properties. Nor is there any coal company that would like to strip mine the town. It would be great if there were, it would mean local jobs, local tax dollars, and all that. This is a bar room/old wives tale that has made the rounds locally there for years and years and years. To put that in perspective, the story has been around for 35 or 40 years. It hasn’t held true over 40 years, and it’s not so now, either.

The fire is not completely extinguished. There is still steam, and infrequently carbon monoxide, coming out of rock fissures there.

A few families still live in the town proper. Twenty plus years ago those families were holdouts from the relocation efforts. Today they seem like they are forgotten. I think everyone still there is retired, and no one that I’ve ever heard of is active in coal mining (although they might have been in the past).

I read the two links above. Here’s a better one from the local newspaper earlier this year describing the hold outs who still live there and their situation: Centralia's final days State officials push to finish demolition - News - News Item

[varmintblaster]

PeeAye - I don't know which large coal company is involved behind the scenes, but Honest Bob assessment of the situation is not far fetched at all.

The article link gave some BS excuse about the State beingconcerned about tourist safety as being their motivation for demolishing what remains of the town... Yeah right !!!!!!

There is alot of antracite coal left in that area, and someone wants it .....

[PeeAye Native]

Originally Posted by varmintblaster

PeeAye - I don't know which large coal company is involved behind the scenes, but Honest Bob assessment of the situation is not far fetched at all.

The article link gave some BS excuse about the State being concerned about tourist safety as being their motivation for demolishing what remains of the town... Yeah right !!!!!!

There is alot of antracite coal left in that area, and someone wants it .....

There is a big difference between someone wanting it, and a company actively buying up the coal/mineral rights.

All I can say is I've heard that story for 40 years, and it has never happened, and it is not happening now, either. Plus, you cannot keep things like that under wraps in a small town area like that for very long. Everybody knows everyone else's business, if some entity were buying up the rights, it would be well known and big news.

And one more point, there is not one anthracite coal company with the financial muscle to do something like that. If there were, it would be really big, big news to the area.

Post up a name and show some proof of someone, anyone, doing anything behind the scenes, and I'll change my tune and believe it. Otherwise, it's just a colorful bar room tale with some wishful thinking mixed in that's been making the rounds for years and years.

[Icy Tea]

I was reading a new book( at Borders) on Centralia and it gave a good account of what went on as the situation began and then snowballed. I drove through there last month and do so maybe once a year. I'm not sure if there are more than 10 people still living there. Its mostly gone( torn down) but the cemetary is still there.
Pa has huge amounts of coal so one mine isn't any more valuable than another. If you do go there, do some other things besides gawk at the ghost town and go looking for smoking holes in the road. Ashland has a great coal mine tour. Shamokin has the worlds tallest man made mountain, courtesy of the Glen Burne coal mine. Pottsville has a prison tour where some of the Molly Maguires were held and then hung. So does Jim Thorpe.

[varmintblaster]

PeeAye - I would like you to provide common sense reasons why the State of Pa would be involved with trying to remove the last residents of that town....since the fact of the matter is that they are in no danger.

Just because no "evil coal company" has actively been buying up property does not disprove that one is not waiting behind the curtain salivating at the chance to get the coal once the state clears the remaining hurdles.