Latest / The Grim: Haunted Cemeteries & Graveyard Tales / Graves in a Ghost Town | Odd Fellows Cemetery, Centralia PA

Transcript

Graves in a Ghost Town | Odd Fellows Cemetery, Centralia PA · The Grim: Haunted Cemeteries & Graveyard Tales

0:13
Kristin: Grim morning and welcome to the Grim.
0:16
Kristin: I'm your host, Kristen.
0:18
Kristin: On today's episode, we'll be opening the gate and entering Oddfellow Cemetery, located in Centralia, Pennsylvania.
0:25
Kristin: The aroma of coffee mingles in the air.
0:28
Kristin: The gates stand open.
0:29
Kristin: Step carefully.
0:30
Kristin: It's time to descend into the hauntings of history.
0:34
Kristin: It's not often you find a cemetery in better condition than the town surrounding it.
0:39
Kristin: But in Centralia, Pennsylvania, even that strange inversion somehow deepens.
0:44
Kristin: Because the town itself is a ghost town, not by choice, but by necessity.
0:49
Kristin: The government-mandated evacuation, driven by the underground minefire that still burns today, reads like something pulled from a horror script.
0:58
Kristin: It's no surprise that Centralia would go on to inspire the movie Silent Hill.
1:02
Kristin: Yet everything about this place feels as though it exists just outside the world we know.
1:07
Kristin: Abandoned, unsettling, otherworldly, emotional.
1:11
Kristin: A destination for the curious, the mournful, and those drawn to the eerie, and yet not entirely empty.
1:18
Kristin: A handful of residents, fewer than five, still refuse to leave, holding on to a place the rest of the world was forced to abandon.
1:25
Kristin: But what makes Contralia truly unsettling isn't just the silence of its streets.
1:30
Kristin: It's for what remains cared for.
1:33
Kristin: Three cemeteries still stand within the town that are not forgotten.
1:36
Kristin: They're maintained, visited, loved.
1:39
Kristin: Flowers still appear, grass is still cut.
1:42
Kristin: Names are still remembered by families who now live miles away, but they're also active.
1:47
Kristin: It creates a quiet contradiction, an oxymoron for cemetery enthusiasts, because here it isn't the graves that have been abandoned, it's everything else.
1:57
Kristin: An active cemetery in a ghost town is a lure for anyone, and with that lure comes questions.
2:02
Kristin: But in Centralia, the answers never arrive cleanly.
2:06
Kristin: They scatter, circle, and lead somewhere else entirely.
2:09
Kristin: And at the midst of it all sits Oddfellows Cemetery, a burial ground belonging to the independent order of Oddfellows, a name that feels almost too fitting for a place like this.
2:19
Kristin: A society built on friendship, love, and truth, its symbol bound together in an unbroken chain.
2:25
Kristin: The order traces its origins back centuries to England, born in a world rigidly divided by class, and yet according to one telling, it welcomed those it wasn't supposed to.
2:35
Kristin: Not just the wealthy or well-born, but the working-class men as well.
2:40
Kristin: At the time, that kind of openness was unusual, odd, and the name stayed.
2:44
Kristin: For an organization shaped in such a rigid era, the Oddfellows carried a quiet kind of progressiveness.
2:50
Kristin: The American branch was formally founded in 1819 in Baltimore by Thomas Wideley, for breaking away and reshaping itself into something distinctively its own by the 1840s.
3:01
Kristin: And in 1851, it became the first national fraternal order to formally meet both men and women, an inclusion that set it apart, even as other boundaries still remained.
3:11
Kristin: Their presence spread steadily across the United States, finding a strong foothold in Pennsylvania's coal region.
3:18
Kristin: Centrally among them, they built lodges, communities, and eventually cemeteries, places where members could remain together even in death.
3:26
Kristin: Places that reflect what they were known for above all else, caring for their own.
3:30
Kristin: And yet, like many organizations of its time, it carried contradictions.
3:34
Kristin: It spoke of unity while limiting who could belong, preaching charity while drawing careful lines.
3:40
Kristin: But here in Centralia, those divisions feel distant.
3:44
Kristin: The town has emptied, the streets have gone silent, but the cemetery remains.
3:48
Kristin: Still tended, still visited, still refusing to disappear.
3:52
Kristin: As if the Oddfellows are keeping one final promise, that no one among them would ever be truly abandoned.
3:58
Kristin: The first peril on these grounds was Sarah Buchanan in 1858, though her headstone now seems lost to time, untraceable among the markers that remain.
4:07
Kristin: As visitors walk the cemetery, they'll notice something else.
4:10
Kristin: The plots feel irregular, almost unplanned, as if order was never the intention.
4:16
Kristin: No clear explanation survives why it was laid out this way, and still continues.
4:21
Kristin: The most recent burial in 2013, Charles Michael, proves that this is not just a relic of the past, but an active resting place, one that isn't quite finished yet.
4:31
Kristin: Records of those laid to rest than odd fellows are scarce.
4:35
Kristin: Fraternal burial society grounds often follow different practices than public or private cemeteries with their records, leaving behind fewer traces of the lives within.
4:45
Kristin: The cemetery is cared for by the First United Methodist Church in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, where visitors can send donations to help maintain the grounds.
4:54
Kristin: Because in a town that was forced to disappear, someone is still making sure the dead are not left behind.
5:01
Kristin: Yet as you take in the grounds, the question remains: why is Centralia a ghost town?
5:06
Kristin: What happened here?
5:08
Kristin: Was it simply human error in the 1960s or something more?
5:12
Kristin: If I hadn't told you from the beginning about the minefire, would you have known the truth behind Centralia's fate?
5:18
Kristin: It starts as a simple mistake, but one that cannot be contained.
5:22
Kristin: Not a fire that burns in the open, but one that moves unseen through tunnels, through veins of coal, and through the hollowed out earth beneath the town.
5:30
Kristin: The Centralia minefire has been burning since at least May 27, 1962.
5:36
Kristin: Its true origin remains a mystery.
5:38
Kristin: Some say it started when the borough attempted to clean up a trash-filled land pit near Oddfellow Cemetery, around a hundred yards away, setting the pile on fire.
5:47
Kristin: Others claim hot ash or coals dumped into the pit ignited the coal stream below.
5:52
Kristin: Local legend whispers of an older forgotten fire from 1932, the Bass Collery fire, that never fully died.
6:01
Kristin: Whenever the spark the fire found its way through cracks and openings, slipping into a labyrinth of abandoned mines beneath the town.
6:08
Kristin: Once it reached the coal vanes underground, it didn't stop.
6:12
Kristin: The fire traveled beneath homes, streets, and businesses, burning in silence.
6:17
Kristin: Steam and smoke began to rise through the cracks in the earth, seeping into basements, yards, and roads.
6:23
Kristin: Temperatures deep below soared over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and clouds of lethal carbon monoxide and other gases swirled through the tunnels.
6:32
Kristin: It was invisible, relentless, and unstoppable.
6:35
Kristin: Early attempts to fight it failed.
6:38
Kristin: The Burl tried excavation projects, flushing the mines with crushed rock and water, and using bulldozers to break the soil, but each effort only made the fire move faster, dinging open new paths for oxygen, pumping life into the flames while freezing winters and inadequate equipment slowed remediation.
6:56
Kristin: Costs skyrocketed, projects ran out of funding, and the fire continued, creeping deeper underground with each passing day.
7:03
Kristin: By the 1970s, investigative reporter David Decock was documenting the fire for the news item.
7:09
Kristin: Revealing its scale and danger to the public, residents began noticing strange occurrences, steam rising from the streets, subsidence in backyards, and foul odors seeping from the ground.
7:22
Kristin: Officials measured lethal levels of carbon monoxide enclosed by nearby mines.
7:26
Kristin: Despite warnings, the fire continued, moving silently beneath the town.
7:32
Kristin: By the 1980s, the fire was no longer just an underground threat.
7:36
Kristin: It became a surface hazard.
7:37
Kristin: There began to collapse in unexpected places, and the first sinkholes appeared.
7:42
Kristin: Backyards, streets, and even parts of Pennsylvania Route 61 became unstable.
7:48
Kristin: The danger was no longer invisible.
7:50
Kristin: It was real and it was waiting.
7:53
Kristin: And for a while the danger remained as something officials could ignore.
7:56
Kristin: Something beneath their feet but out of sight, until it wasn't.
8:00
Kristin: One of the most shocking and nearly tragic moments in Centralia's history occurred on Valentine's Day.
8:06
Kristin: In 1981, 12-year-old Todd Demboski fell into a steaming, collapsing hole caused by mine virus subsidence.
8:14
Kristin: He was lucky to survive.
8:16
Kristin: It was Saturday and something unusual was happening in town.
8:19
Kristin: A group of state politicians were touring Centralia, meeting with borough officials, and in a small town, world travels fast.
8:27
Kristin: Todd's mother, Florence Dembosky, sent him on a mission to find out what was going on.
8:32
Kristin: As he walked, he noticed thin wisps of smoke rising from the ground near a tree.
8:37
Kristin: Curiosity drew him closer, and then without warning, the earth gave way.
8:42
Kristin: Todd plunged into a muddy, smoky pit, sinking first to his knees and then deeper as gases from the fire poured up around him.
8:50
Kristin: He screamed for help, grasping blindly for something to hold on to.
8:54
Kristin: By chance, he caught an exposed root from a nearby tree.
8:58
Kristin: Clinging for his life, he continued to call out.
9:01
Kristin: In less than a minute, his cousin, Eric Wolfgang, arrived and pulled him free.
9:05
Kristin: Todd emerged covered in warm mud, shaken but alive.
9:09
Kristin: The incident was a terrifying reminder.
9:12
Kristin: The fire beneath Centralia was no longer hidden.
9:15
Kristin: It could strike anywhere at any time, swelling the ground beneath your feet.
9:19
Kristin: After that, it became impossible to ignore.
9:22
Kristin: Centralia wasn't just dying, it was collapsing into the fire beneath it.
9:26
Kristin: By the mid-1980s, it was clear that Centralia couldn't be saved.
9:31
Kristin: In 1984, Wilkes-Barr Representative Frank Harrison secured legislation approved by Congress, allocating more than$42 million for relocation efforts.
9:41
Kristin: Most families accepted the buy-outs, but a few families refused to leave, clinging to their homes despite repeated warnings.
9:48
Kristin: In 1992, Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey invoked imminent domain on all properties in the borough, condemning every building.
9:56
Kristin: Legal challenges failed, and in 2002, the U.S.
10:00
Kristin: Postal Service revoked Centralia Zip Code 17927.
10:05
Kristin: By 2009, Governor Ed Rendell began formally evicting the remaining residents.
10:10
Kristin: By 2010, only five homes were still occupied, inhabited by people determined to stay.
10:16
Kristin: They claimed they were victims of massive fraud, arguing that relocation efforts were driven primarily by the enormous value of coal beneath the town.
10:25
Kristin: The final legal battles continued until 2012.
10:28
Kristin: The last handful of residents lost their appeals, and in 2013, an agreement allowed the few who remained to live out their lives in Centralia, after which all property rights would be claimed through imminent domain.
10:41
Kristin: Centralia, though, wasn't alone in its fade.
10:43
Kristin: The minefire spread beneath nearby Burnsville, forcing that town to also be abandoned and leveled.
10:49
Kristin: Many question the motives of officials, relocating residents while allowing the fires to burn rather than take precautions with care or compassion.
10:58
Kristin: Coal miners have always lived dangerous lives, their families exposed daily to risk.
11:03
Kristin: Yet the threat of losing not just lives, but homes, memories, and an entire town seems to have been lost on those charged with protecting them.
11:12
Kristin: Today the ruins of Centralia have become a strange tourist attraction.
11:16
Kristin: Visitors wander the empty streets, watch smoke and steam curl from cracks in the earth, and walk the abandoned stretch of Pennsylvania Route 61, once called the Graffiti Highway, though in 2020 the road was covered with dirt to limit public access.
11:30
Kristin: Even now, the fire beneath Centralia continues to reshape the landscape.
11:35
Kristin: Increased air pressure from the underground blaze combined with rainfall has created Pennsylvania's only geyser, the Big Mine Run Geyser nearby Ashland, which continues to erupt as a form of flood control.
11:46
Kristin: Central may no longer be a town of people, but it is a town of stories, smoke, and fire, a place where the past and present continues to smolder together.
11:56
Kristin: Beyond science, the local folklore offers its own explanations of the fire's persistence.
12:01
Kristin: Beyond the science, local folklore offers its own explanations for the fire's persistence.
12:07
Kristin: It's said that the Molly McGuire's, an Irish secret society active in the 19th century across Ireland, Liverpool, and Pennsylvania's coal regions, once left a lasting mark on the town.
12:18
Kristin: Among Irish American and Irish immigrant miners, their activism was fierce and sometimes violent.
12:24
Kristin: In the 1870s, 20 suspected members were convicted of murder and other crimes and executed by hanging.
12:31
Kristin: According to legend, they once attacked a priest of the local church.
12:34
Kristin: In retaliation, the priest allegedly laid a curse on the entire town that it would one day burn, except for the church itself.
12:42
Kristin: And with one church still standing in Centralia, untouched by the fires, the story has only continued to grow.
12:49
Kristin: Separate from that story, other whispers surround the cemetery itself.
12:53
Kristin: Some believe the ground beneath places like Oddfellows simply doesn't hold the dead, but takes them.
12:58
Kristin: The caskets sink into the shifting earth and are consumed by the fire below, creating something closer to a living hell beneath the graves.
13:06
Kristin: But there's no evidence of this.
13:08
Kristin: Only the unease that comes from the fire still burning, hidden just out of sight.
13:13
Kristin: The events remain shrouded in mystery with historians still debating which parts are fact and which are legend.
13:19
Kristin: Yet in Centralia, the story endures, and twining the town's tragic reality with the shadows of the past.
13:26
Kristin: Sadly, the lives of those once laid to rest in Old Fellow Cemetery often fall silent to anyone who didn't know them.
13:33
Kristin: And a state where history takes center stage, where many have fought, died, and helped shape the nation we live in today.
13:40
Kristin: These stories can be easily forgotten.
13:42
Kristin: Their memory now competes with the louder story of an abandoned town, and the fire beneath Centralia is far from finished, continuing to burn.
13:51
Kristin: For now, though, the stories of Oddvello slip back into stone and the fire burns on.
13:56
Kristin: Thank you for walking with us through the veil into Oddvellow Cemetery, descending once more into the hauntings of history.
14:04
Kristin: The gate is sealed, the veil drawn, yet death keeps no calendar, and so we shall return, as we always do, on the grim.