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Centralia (, sen-TRAY-li-ə) is a borough and near-ghost town in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, United States, part of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Its population declined from 1,000 in 1980 to five residents in 2020 because of a coal mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962. Centralia, part of the Bloomsburg–Berwick metropolitan area, is the least-populated municipality in Pennsylvania. All real estate in the borough was claimed under eminent domain in 1992 and condemned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. State and local officials reached an agreement with the then seven remaining residents on October 29, 2013, allowing them to remain in Centralia until their deaths, after which the rights to their houses will be taken through eminent domain.

Several Native American tribes in what is now Columbia County sold much of the land in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Centralia valley, to colonial agents in 1749 for £500. In 1770, during the construction of the Reading Road, which stretched from Reading to Fort Augusta (present-day Sunbury), settlers surveyed and explored the land. A large portion of the Reading Road was developed later as Route 61, the main highway east into and south out of Centralia. In 1793, Robert Morris, a hero of the Revolutionary War and a signatory of the Declaration of Independence, acquired a third of Centralia's valley land. A Philadelphia based sea captain, trader and banker who had been born in France, named Stephen Girard, purchased Morris' lands for $30,000, including 68 tracts east of Morris'. The Centralia coal deposits were largely overlooked before the construction of the Mine Run Railroad in 1854. Rae named the town Centreville, but in 1865 changed it to Centralia because the U.S. The Mine Run Railroad was built in 1854 to transport coal out of the valley.

The first two mines in Centralia opened in 1856, the Locust Run Mine and the Coal Ridge Mine. Branching from the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad was constructed to Centralia in 1865; it enabled transport and expansion of Centralia's coal sales to markets in eastern Pennsylvania. A legend among locals in Centralia tells that Father Daniel Ignatius McDermott, the first Roman Catholic priest to call Centralia home, cursed the land in retaliation for being assaulted by three members of the Maguires in 1869. In 1950, Centralia Council acquired the rights to all anthracite beneath Centralia through a state law passed in 1949 that enabled the transaction.

David Dekok, author of Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire, concluded that it started with an attempt to clean up the town landfill. In May 1962, the Centralia Borough Council hired five members of the volunteer fire company to clean up the town landfill, located in an abandoned strip-mine pit next to the Odd Fellows Cemetery just outside the borough limits.

Only 16 homes were still standing by 2006, which was reduced to 11 by 2009 when Governor Ed Rendell began the formal eviction of the remaining Centralia residents.

Additional smoke and steam can be seen coming from an abandoned portion of Pennsylvania Route 61, the area just behind the hilltop cemetery, and other cracks in the ground scattered about the area.

Several current and former Centralia residents believe the state's eminent domain claim was a plot to gain the mineral rights to the anthracite coal beneath the borough.

Saint Mary's Orthodox Cemetery still stands on the northern edge of Centralia, and Saints Peter & Paul Church and Cemetery, Saint Ignatius Cemetery, and the Odd Fellows Cemetery still stand on the southern edge of the town.

Unseen Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia Mine Fire, University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 0-595-09270-5. Fire Underground: The Ongoing Tragedy of the Centralia Mine Fire, Globe Pequot, October 2009, ISBN 9780762754274. Slow Burn: A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986, ISBN 0-8122-1235-5.

Quick Facts

• State and local officials reached an agreement with the then seven remaining residents on October 29, 2013, allowing them to remain in Centralia until their deaths, after which the rights to their houses will be taken through eminent domain.
• Centralia, part of the Bloomsburg–Berwick metropolitan area, is the least-populated municipality in Pennsylvania.
• Several Native American tribes in what is now Columbia County sold much of the land in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Centralia valley, to colonial agents in 1749 for £500.
• Its population declined from 1,000 in 1980 to five residents in 2020 because of a coal mine fire burning beneath the borough since 1962.
• All real estate in the borough was claimed under eminent domain in 1992 and condemned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Source material: Wikipedia - "Centralia, Pennsylvania". Adapted and summarized for DiscoverScroll. Original contributors are credited through the linked Wikipedia article. Read original on Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes were made from the original.