Centralia

Images of America: Pennsylvania

by Deryl B. Johnson

Centralia is the saga of a Pennsylvania community consumed by an underground mine fire. The town, founded in 1866, has often been embroiled in tragedy and controversy. Beginning with the infamous Molly Maguires, Centralia was confronted with the murder of its founder and an assault upon its Catholic priest, who cursed the town, saying, "One day this town will be erased from the face of the earth." Almost one hundred years later, a vein of coal that ran underneath the town caught fire and has burned since 1962. In the 1990s, the state of Pennsylvania declared eminent domain and forced most of the town's sixteen hundred residents to leave. Ten people remain in Centralia today. This book chronicles many of the images and stories from this fascinating and colorful Pennsylvania community.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 27, 2004

Reviews

[M.C. Ryder]

If you want to learn some history of Centralia with plenty of pictures included, this book is for you and profits are donated to Centralia Fire Department (run by all volunteers) and the Library of Mount Carmel, PA.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a single sitting book for me. Generally I really like that as an idea, but somehow for this book it didn't work. I had difficulty with the pictures. I understand that many of the actual photos would not be easy to see - but having them reproduced in this volume somehow managed to make them even harder to see clearly.

I think I wanted more of a timeline based series of pictures. Some of the photos are doubled up in here and they don't always progress chronologically. The author mentions at least 3 times the play that he wrote... once would have been enough, particularly given the brevity of the written word in here.

The story of Centralia is certainly an interesting one and for that I'm glad to have taken this quick peek back in time. IF it were anything more than a quick peek I would have been very disappointed. As it is, one sitting works for me and I'm moving along.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

3* for written history stuff (I was expecting more of it when the author said he had talked to several current and former residents) even though I know this is supposed to be more pictorial. I thought perhaps more history stuff written with the pictures.
4* for the photos themselves though. very interesting overall.