This is a pix I took yesterday (2/3/2011). It was taken in Centralia PA and yes, if you look hard enough you can see green grass in the background, just below the smoke that is coming from the ground. For anyone who's not familiar , Centralia has had a mine fire burning underground since I think 1961. Check youtube to see vid's that ppl have from there to see some neat stuff.

Nice Pic.
And Cool info on the area too.
Thats wild

A bunch of us went there after ECXC last year and did some wheelin.

I first heard about the mine fire years ago, but didn't believe it and eventually forgot about it.

Just did some searching, and damn! That's crazy! 2007 census reported just 7 residents still living in Centralia, despite every property in the town being claimed under eminent domain.

Something about modern-day ghost towns really intrigues me, haha.

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Another pix taken Near Centralia PA. This one is on what used to be Route 61. This section of the road was shut down in the early 80's due to the fire causing it to sink in places, at first they tried just putting new blacktop down on top of the old to get rid of the dips in the road, but it kept sinking a few weeks later. At one time when driving on this section at night, you could look at the bank on the side of the road, where they tried to backfill it with stone, and it was like looking into a coal stove the way the stone was glowing so bright. This section of road is about a half mile south of the town of Centralia. If you look close at the pix you can see smoke/steam coming out from the crack in the road. The one thing this pix doesnt do justice , is how far the road sank here, if you look from the X to the side of the road, the shoulder of the road has actually sunk about 3 feet there, which is what caused the crack. It took about 8 months for the crack to get that big from the time it started to crack. Over the last few years, it doesnt look like it got much bigger.

Also, for anyone who uses Google Earth, you can actually get a good idea of the size of this crack in the road by zooming in on it. Just go to Centralia PA and follow RT. 61 South . There are also some pix on there from other ppl of that area.

No, you wont see my X in the image from Google Earth though !!

Cool. I'd like to see this place in person one day. I've seen pics from various people in the club.

It's a cool place. We went there a few years ago during ECXC and it is a strange place to visit. Amazing! An underground fire burning for over thirty years and some people still won't leave.

Somewhere in here there are several other pictures.