Centralia and the 'graffiti highway’ through the years: photos

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An underground mine fire in the borough of Centralia in Columbia County started burning on May 27, 1962.

Firefighters had set the town landfill on fire to clean it up for the Memorial Day holiday.

The fire spread to an old strip mining pit under the landfill. The fire eventually spread under the town and the state began a voluntary relocation of residents in 1983.

Seven residents who remained there in 2013 were permitted to stay in their homes until they die.

The “Graffiti Highway,” that informal landmark / ATV trail / hangout that has been one of Centralia’s calling cards for the last generation, is getting erased from the map of Pennsylvania curiosities.

Centralia, Pa., through the years

Centralia's population of more than 1,000 in the mid-1950s is down to a handful because of a fire that originated in 1962 in a refuse dump in an abandoned strip mine in adjoining Conyngham Twp. The fire spread beneath the borough through an underground coal mine. This is the abandoned section of Route 61. 10/31/2013 Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.comPENNLIVE.COM

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