On Saturday afternoon I had the pleasure of traveling to Centralia, PA with fellow photographer Jessica Flax. She's working on a project about urban decay and abandonment and the remains of places that aren't functioning anymore. Pretty great stuff. So I went along, my camera included, not sure of what to expect. After discussing the area on the drive up, we were expecting the place to be super creepy, but upon arriving found it to be full of touristy-type people with SLR cameras. Apparently it wasn't as much of a secret as we thought. It was still extremely interesting.
Centralia is ghost town in Columbia county. Its population has dwindled from over 1,000 residents in 1981 to 12 in 2005 and 9 in 2007, as a result of a mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962.
Most people just abandoned their homes or were bought out by the state to relocate due to the dangerous conditions and harmful gases emitted from the smoke. The fire still burns underground today and will continue to do so for a predicted 250 more years. Pretty crazy right?
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