4

Life In A Ghost Town Is ... Interesting

Underneath Centralia, the endless fire has created an environment as deadly as the surface of Saturn. While the gases aren't lethal up above, they still play hell with the resident's health. Poison gas has even built up in some citizens' basements. Guy explained how that all simply became part of the weather in Centralia. "We always had the smoke, and my wife felt sick if she was near it. We stay away from it. It's bad news. Only the tourists go into the damn thing."

3

People Just ... Didn't Care About The Danger

People are remarkably good at ignoring imminent doom. For evidence of this, read absolutely any newspaper in the world today. It wasn't until 1984, after several kids were sucked into sinkholes and the underground tanks at a local gas station nearly exploded, that the U.S. government ordered a total evacuation of the town. People still stayed behind, so in 1992, the governor put the entire town under eminent domain. In 2002, the state took their zip code away, and in 2009, the governor announced that all holdouts would be evacuated for their own good.

There are still seven people living in Centralia.

Jack explains why many of those residents ignored the government back then, even when it was doing something as reasonable as evacuating Toxic Firetown, USA. "We had meetings with scientists explaining what was happening. They were talking to miners, some of whom had degrees, so they didn't have to go layman." The denizens of Centralia understood coal and the mines, but they still weren't able to accept that their hometown was now the abode of Satan himself. "The scientists, and even other miners, were telling them that the town could fall in piece by piece or get toxic gas, but they denied it, and said they'd continue to live here because they didn't see it. These were after pits started opening up, but they STILL said no."

Jack's father, Guy, isn't exactly on the same page. He's one of the few that stayed behind. And he did it largely to spite those damned scientists and government officials who rolled into town to talk down to him and his neighbors. "They thought they knew more than us, but they were wrong. How come the town hasn't collapsed like they said? It's not as bad as they said, and you see that now."

Jack and Guy's disagreement is nothing new. Back when the evacuation efforts started, Centralia itself was bitterly divided over whether the fire was a threat or not. Becky remembers: "My parents stayed, because they didn't think they could afford to move. But then they got an offer for double the value of their home, and they took it. My neighbor ([the one] who owned the cat), she stayed. She had seen the danger firsthand, and lost something she loved to it, but she wasn't budging. The last time I was there, she was shouting from her porch at some men in suits who obviously wanted her house."

2

The Government Is Trying to Erase Centralia

Jack pointed out that 20 years ago, while Centralia was emptying out, the town still looked more or less like it always had. But over the last two decades, the state government has been doing its damnedest to wipe the town away. "As soon as they bought houses, they tore them down and covered them with plants. Then they took out as much of the foundations as they could. Then they removed the lip in the curb. They don't exist, and it looks like they never did."

We took a picture of Becky's old house:

Cracked.com
"Oh, my god, look at that lot."

"See that? You can kinda tell where a driveway was. But that's it. No sign of the huge gate we had, or of the stairs, or anything."

Jack continues: "They took away the name. One day, all the signs were gone. All the signs showing nearby towns had been replaced, with 'Centralia' [left] off. They even later covered up an arrow showing a way to get to another city through Centralia, so people passing through can't get here."

Cracked.com
If you ask your phone's GPS to look it up, the voice starts whistling to feign ignorance.

1

Tourists Are Destroying The Town

Centralia had 1,000 residents in 1980. It was down to 63 in 1990, and ten in 2010. The coal industry left after the whole, uh, giant apocalyptic coal fire thing. But even with all that, Centralia could've survived. There's the tourism aspect, and the fact that it's kind of an ideal filming location.

Unfortunately, tourism's mostly benefited neighboring towns, since the state won't issue new business permits in Centralia. The places selling souvenirs, gasoline, and lodgings are all outside Centralia's old borders. Since the tourists don't bring money into town, residents have come to hate them. Jack explained: "They'll walk on lawns and property freely, thinking it's abandoned. They'll always be asking, 'Why do you live here?' They dump trash everywhere ... The worst are the tourists who leave graffiti."

Guy has some even more complaints: "They chipped at my house. For a souvenir, like they wanted a piece of the Lord's cross. Chip chip chip, and they took a part of my stairs. Then they wrote 'Let it burn' on it. Why would they do that?"

So what can he do about it? Basically nothing. Jack explains that staying in Centralia means living beyond a lot of modern conveniences ... like law enforcement. "We have no police anymore. [State and county] police come through town, of course, but for something routine, it's not a big deal."

The town has been beaten up so badly by these visitors that, according to Jack, Hollywood doesn't really have any interest in filming there anymore. He told us about one time that several location scouts came through town (likely working on The Road), but decided they just couldn't work there. "The movie people came here, looked around, decided it had too much graffiti, and shot on another abandoned highway out near Pittsburgh. Other Hollywood people talked to my father quickly (Centralia residents don't like the press), and they liked the look, but they said 'It might be too much graffiti,' and since they never came back, it probably was."

weible1980/iStock
Unless Bansky was directing, then yeah.

Becky adds: "For the last five years or so, [tourists have] been way more destructive than the fire."

Despite intermittent police crackdowns, trespassing has been on the upswing. A lot of that probably has to do with the fact that so many articles on the internet have spread the story of Centralia. So, uh, sorry about that?

Readers, trust us here: Don't visit Centralia. And if you do, don't draw on anything. And super duper don't break pieces off of people's houses. That's just messed up. Residents have enough problems.

Evan V. Symon is a journalist and interviewer for Cracked, who was on location in Centralia and didn't die. Have an awesome job/experience you'd like to see here? Hit us up at tips@cracked.com today!

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