A Short History of Pennsylvania’s Ghost Towns

Pennsylvania’s ghost towns are the ruins of an industrial empire rather than a gold rush. Across the anthracite fields of the northeast and the bituminous seams of the west, entire communities were built, owned, and abandoned by the coal and coke companies that employed them. Centralia is the most haunting of them all. Once a thriving borough of more than a thousand people, it was doomed by a mine fire that ignited in 1962 and spread through the abandoned coal tunnels beneath the town. Decades of smoke, sinkholes, and toxic gas forced a government buyout, and by the twenty-first century almost every building had been razed, leaving a grid of empty streets slowly returning to forest while the fire still burns underground.

Getting There & Access

Centralia lies in Columbia County along Route 61, reachable by ordinary car from the Interstate 81 corridor. The townsite is a strange, quiet place: a few streets, a handful of remaining residents, and cemeteries that are still maintained and visited. The famous graffiti-covered stretch of abandoned highway once known as the “Graffiti Highway” has been buried and closed, so do not count on seeing it. Ground temperatures and venting gases vary, and steam can rise from cracks in the earth in cold weather. Come prepared for an ordinary walk on public roads, respect that people still live here, and do not wander onto unstable or steaming ground.

Public Land & Responsible Visiting

Centralia is not a park or an attraction — it is a former town where a few people still make their homes, and the surrounding land conceals genuine hazards from the ongoing underground fire. Never dig, probe, or enter any opening in the ground; subsurface temperatures and carbon monoxide can be lethal. Stay on the paved roads, keep off private lots and the fenced areas the state has closed, and treat the cemeteries as the sacred, actively used spaces they remain. Take only photographs, leave no trash, and remember that the story here is a cautionary one about what happens when a community loses the ground beneath it. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania’s coal country, similar respect applies to company-town ruins on private and reclaimed mine land.