So Far North Texas Has No Modern Day Ghost Towns Like Centralia Pennsylvania

In North Texas we have the Barnett Shale.

In Pennsylvania they have the Marcellus Shale.

Many of the same Shale drillers who poke holes in North Texas are also doing so in Pennsylvania, like Chesapeake Energy.

Some people are of the opinion that Texas is an Environmental Wasteland, that reputation earned by things like the world's biggest experiment in urban gas drilling, that being the thousand of Barnett Shale Natural Gas Wells that have been poked in Fort Worth and Tarrant County.

While some may think Texas is a bit irresponsible, methinks Pennsylvania outdoes Texas in the Environmental Wasteland area.

Pennsylvania actually has a town named Frackville. No, it was not named to honor all the fracking taking place in the Marcellus Shale.

Frackville sprang up at the time of the start of the Civil War, 1861, and was incorporated in 1876, the year of America's 1st Centennial, well over 100 years before Aubrey McClendon's greedy beady eyes started looking for places to do damage to the planet.

A very short distance from Frackville, walking distance if your idea of walking distance is around 8 miles, is the former town of Centralia.

Centralia is a rarity in America. A modern day Ghost Town.

Centralia was doing just fine as a mining town, with, at times in its history, up to a couple thousand residents.

The Sprawling Centralia Mine Fire

And then, in 1962, a fire began. No one knows what started the fire. There are several theories. The fire continues to burn to this day, 50 years later.

The fire that turned Centralia into a Ghost Town is burning in a coal vein under that town.

People continued to live in Centralia, though the earth under them was burning.

Eventually the fire got too big and too hot, to the point that Centrailia was no longer fit for human habitation.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in 1992, began condemning Centralia property by eminent domain. Some fought having their property taken.

The most recent count has 10 or 11 people still living in Centralia.

I had not heard of this particular ecological disaster til a couple days ago.

Read the Wikipedia article about Centralia, Pennsylvania to get a much better idea than I can convey of how bad it can get if underground ignitables get inflamed.