History Buffoons Podcast, We Are Buffoons! Now on YouTube!
Nov. 26, 2024

We Didn’t Start The Fire: Centralia

We Didn’t Start The Fire: Centralia
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Season 1

Ever wondered why a small town in Pennsylvania became the real-life inspiration for a horror movie? Grab a cold one and join us for some History Buffoons fun, as we unravel the mystery of Centralia with our trusty sidekick, Mo, the one-eyed wonder cat, causing mischief in the background. We’re sipping on some unique brews—Pirate's Cove Hell's Lager and Ninja Dust Hazy IPA—as we spill the beans about the quirky beer-naming process and tease some upcoming topics that we’re quite excited about.

Our trip through Centralia's smoky past will have you on the edge of your seat, from the harsh realities and dangerous days of coal mining to the underground fire that’s been burning since 1962. Imagine a town where the ground beneath your feet might just be on fire; it’s the stuff of nightmares, and yet, it's real! Along the way, we laugh about modern fireplaces, reminisce about the simpler, warmer days, and ponder how Mo might be plotting his next great escape through an imaginary chimney passage.

As we wrap up, we lighten the mood with some math musings and the hilarity of misunderstood idioms—a reminder that not all challenges need to be taken too seriously. Plus, we're eager to hear from you! Send us your thoughts, stories, or even a voicemail via our website. With a delightful mix of history, humor, and heart, this episode is sure to leave you entertained and curious for more tales of the bizarre and the brilliant.

CENTRALIA, PA - America's Burning Ghost Town (Documentary)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj5LjacccJ0
https://www.history.com/news/mine-fire-burning-more-50-years-ghost-town
https://energyhistory.yale.edu/coal-mining-and-labor-conflict/#:~:text=Coal%20miners%20worked%20long%20hours,increasingly%20depended%20on%20heavy%20machinery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anthracite_coal_mining_in_Pennsylvania
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-05-11-vw-1347-story.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/fire-in-the-hole-77895126/
https://www.centraliapa.org/about-centralia-pa-mine-fire/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania
https://www.abc27.com/digital-originals/history-of-centralia-a-pennsylvania-ghost-town/
https://uncoveringpa.com/visiting-centralia
https://www.wgal.com/article/watch-videos-missed-october-3/62502882
https://www.dep.pa.gov/Business/Land/Mining/AbandonedMineReclamation/AMLProgramInformation/Centralia/Pages/default.aspx
https://pabucketlist.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-centralia-pas-toxic-ghost-town/
https://breckhistory.org/hello-world/


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Chapters

00:09 - History Buffoons Beer Banter

05:21 - Centralia, Pennsylvania Eternal Flame

16:41 - Coal Mining Conditions and Risks

27:13 - Centralia, Pennsylvania Mining History Discussion

35:12 - Centralia Underground Fire Disaster

50:40 - Centralia

01:00:50 - Centralia, Pennsylvania

01:04:58 - Idiom Interpretation Exchange

Transcript
WEBVTT

00:00:09.814 --> 00:00:10.634
Oh, hey there.

00:00:11.779 --> 00:00:12.282
Oh, hey there.

00:00:12.282 --> 00:00:13.707
How are you, Kate?

00:00:14.167 --> 00:00:14.570
I'm good.

00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:18.330
Excellent Welcome to History, buffoons.

00:00:19.100 --> 00:00:20.064
Do we say that every time?

00:00:20.064 --> 00:00:21.088
Because I really don't remember.

00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:23.047
I feel like there's times where we forget.

00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:24.678
Well, hey, we're History Buffoons.

00:00:24.678 --> 00:00:25.179
Yeah, we're buffoons.

00:00:25.179 --> 00:00:26.501
We don't even I feel like there's times where we forget.

00:00:26.521 --> 00:00:27.923
Well, hey, we're history buffoons, yeah, we're buffoons.

00:00:27.923 --> 00:00:29.585
We don't even remember to say our own name.

00:00:29.585 --> 00:00:31.847
Yeah, but that's okay.

00:00:31.847 --> 00:00:34.771
I mean, at least the picture says it.

00:00:34.771 --> 00:00:37.655
Yes, and it's worth a thousand words.

00:00:37.655 --> 00:00:41.042
Sure, so we're told.

00:00:41.444 --> 00:00:43.107
So we're at my house today.

00:00:43.389 --> 00:00:44.091
Hello house.

00:00:44.091 --> 00:00:49.024
And all my cats are out, so we'll see how long that lasts.

00:00:49.024 --> 00:00:53.820
Um, usually the only one that's the culprit is the current one sitting on the table oliver.

00:00:53.820 --> 00:00:56.527
He is the one that likes to.

00:00:56.527 --> 00:00:57.871
He's looking at you like what.

00:00:57.871 --> 00:01:01.201
He's the one that plays with the chords the most.

00:01:01.201 --> 00:01:01.521
Usually.

00:01:01.561 --> 00:01:05.349
The other ones are pretty good yeah, yeah, except for Bonnie and Amos tend to like.

00:01:05.349 --> 00:01:10.028
Their hair tends to collect, like all over my microphone and it's in my mouth.

00:01:10.260 --> 00:01:11.284
That's an understatement.

00:01:11.284 --> 00:01:16.447
I've literally said before on a podcast that did I just pick up my pod bag or did I pick up a cat?

00:01:16.447 --> 00:01:18.292
It's true, it's true.

00:01:18.292 --> 00:01:25.861
The only other and it's involves Oliver is he likes to fight with Frankie sometimes when yeah, and it's involves oliver?

00:01:25.861 --> 00:01:28.646
Is he likes to fight with frankie sometimes when yeah, but it's still.

00:01:28.646 --> 00:01:31.570
I'll blame it on oliver still, because he's 50 of that.

00:01:32.072 --> 00:01:41.311
Yes, either way at least yeah, okay, so I got a new beard from mcfleshman's is that what it is?

00:01:41.391 --> 00:01:42.254
mcfleshman's?

00:01:42.254 --> 00:01:42.713
I didn't.

00:01:42.713 --> 00:01:44.545
I just saw the name of the beer.

00:01:44.545 --> 00:01:45.861
I didn't actually look at the company.

00:01:45.861 --> 00:01:50.430
I'm sorry yes, but that's the one out of oshkosh I said right um.

00:01:50.570 --> 00:01:52.962
You said that, but I can't tell.

00:01:53.143 --> 00:01:58.933
Based on looking at it no, it says appleton oh, which one did I?

00:01:58.933 --> 00:02:05.111
Mcfleshman's brewing company in appleton w oh maybe that was a different one I was looking at.

00:02:05.111 --> 00:02:06.114
Yeah, my apologies.

00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:09.430
So I travel to Appleton every once in a while.

00:02:09.430 --> 00:02:11.186
It's not very far away from my house?

00:02:11.186 --> 00:02:12.741
No, it's not so.

00:02:12.741 --> 00:02:14.723
This is the Pirate's Cove.

00:02:14.723 --> 00:02:20.073
Hell's Lager, helless, helless, yeah, helless Lager.

00:02:20.073 --> 00:02:21.175
It's a style of lager.

00:02:27.960 --> 00:02:28.401
Oh, I didn't know that.

00:02:28.401 --> 00:02:34.131
Yeah, okay, cool, yeah, and I have a, uh, a ninja dust hazy ipa, it's from one barrel in wisconsin where is?

00:02:34.131 --> 00:02:35.954
One barrel in wisconsin, I don't remember.

00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:58.151
Oh, of course, the sticker is covering up some of it so my beer, the image that you said you really liked is kind of like a Mayan colorful Mexican image, but it's abstract, so the artist that made it is from Oshkosh.

00:02:58.280 --> 00:02:59.344
Oh, maybe that's what I read.

00:02:59.344 --> 00:03:01.588
Yes, okay, that's probably what I read.

00:03:01.609 --> 00:03:09.763
Then, yes, his name is Leif Larson, leif L-E-I-F, le leaf larson from oshkosh.

00:03:09.763 --> 00:03:15.204
All right, and then the mcfleshman's brewing company is in appleton okay, so they're like within 15 minutes of each other.

00:03:15.324 --> 00:03:16.186
Yeah, they're super close.

00:03:16.186 --> 00:03:17.027
Yeah, that's super cool.

00:03:17.027 --> 00:03:20.524
I I guess I just misread and read the artist.

00:03:20.524 --> 00:03:21.705
So yeah, let's.

00:03:21.705 --> 00:03:23.751
Uh, yeah, open that beer.

00:03:23.751 --> 00:03:30.768
Oh, it went all over my shirt, all right, well, cheers cheers.

00:03:30.768 --> 00:03:46.175
Okay, I like mine I like mine that's pretty good, I, like mine's got a little penguin with a mascot, penguin ninja, anyways I wonder how they come up with these names.

00:03:47.100 --> 00:03:59.312
Well, I used to work with a guy who is part owner of a brewery in Madison and we won't say the name of the brewery because maybe we'll do a future.

00:03:59.312 --> 00:04:01.246
He does a lot of sours.

00:04:01.246 --> 00:04:04.370
I like sours but I just can only have so many.

00:04:04.370 --> 00:04:13.169
I know they have other stuff but they are very sour, heavy, but they pick the most random shit.

00:04:13.169 --> 00:04:22.771
And I was asking him one time I saw him I don't know a while ago and he just basically cats are at it.

00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:31.951
He basically just like they'll have a random conversation and say something like that'd be a good beer name, so I mean it literally can come from anywhere, kind of thing.

00:04:32.374 --> 00:04:39.971
So well, we knew that might happen and if you heard that that was amos playing with a ball, he's.

00:04:39.971 --> 00:04:42.103
He's a sweet boy, but he's not.

00:04:42.103 --> 00:04:46.182
He's not super playful, so when he is like, it's just cute and I don't want to stop.

00:04:46.182 --> 00:04:48.187
No for sure and he doesn't cuddle.

00:04:48.187 --> 00:04:54.783
So when he does cuddle in the middle of the night, I will wake up and I will cuddle with him until he's done and then I'll go back to sleep because it just doesn't happen.

00:04:55.163 --> 00:04:56.406
There you go, yes, um.

00:04:56.406 --> 00:05:02.367
So, speaking of names, we already have our next two podcasts yeah, we've, we've been.

00:05:02.387 --> 00:05:06.875
I don't brainstorming, they just kind of fell into our lap with conversation.

00:05:06.875 --> 00:05:09.108
So, yeah, we won't say them now.

00:05:11.244 --> 00:05:16.538
Oh no, but I would like to put them in the works, but it's obviously very, very fresh in our minds.

00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:21.673
Yeah, we have to develop them first, as we're still trying to grow this one.

00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:27.362
Because, thanks to the people that have listened to our podcast, we greatly appreciate you.

00:05:27.362 --> 00:05:36.668
Uh, again, feel free to go to our website, history buffoons podcastcom, and leave us a voicemail, send us a message, whatever, interview us, please.

00:05:36.668 --> 00:06:02.266
We, we want to interact with all of you because, you know I know it's unfortunately right now I know I shouldn't say unfortunately right now I know it's just a small group of people and, yes, we know a good chunk of them, but we greatly appreciate everyone who actually listens to our episodes Because we have fun making these, we have fun trying new beers, we have fun learning new stories that Kate brings to us and I like making fun of her.

00:06:02.266 --> 00:06:04.692
That Kate brings to us and I like making fun of her.

00:06:07.997 --> 00:06:22.567
My husband and I have a mutual friend in Illinois and she told me recently that she had been catching up on them and every new episode she listens to, she'll text me something that I said, and I'll be like I texted you and I'm like did I say this?

00:06:22.567 --> 00:06:23.966
I don't remember saying that.

00:06:24.160 --> 00:06:25.827
Well, yeah, like the one you actually sent me that yesterday.

00:06:25.827 --> 00:06:25.952
And I'm like I texted you.

00:06:25.952 --> 00:06:26.036
I'm like, did I say this?

00:06:26.036 --> 00:06:26.309
I don't remember saying that.

00:06:26.309 --> 00:06:28.670
Well, yeah, like the one you actually sent me that yesterday, and I'm like I have no idea.

00:06:28.670 --> 00:06:33.163
And then I'm like wait a minute, I think you did mention something like this and I don't know if I'm right.

00:06:33.163 --> 00:06:38.312
I don't know Because obviously I listen to the podcast a lot while I'm editing.

00:06:46.100 --> 00:06:50.636
I listen to it when it's released and then I don't usually re-listen because I've listened to it probably a hundred freaking times by the time it gets released through editing.

00:06:50.636 --> 00:06:53.863
Maybe not all in a row, obviously, but I'm like, did we say?

00:06:53.903 --> 00:06:58.480
that I know like she'll be like oh yeah, this, this, this, I didn't know about this.

00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:00.103
I'm like I don't remember either.

00:07:02.286 --> 00:07:16.163
Well, and it's funny too, because our our first listener, al he, uh, he listened to the last episode and he texts me because we were talking about how we took pills with like cool whip and stuff and whatever he's like.

00:07:16.163 --> 00:07:18.307
Yeah, I feed my dog pills with peanut butter.

00:07:18.307 --> 00:07:21.540
He just texts me that like that's awesome.

00:07:21.540 --> 00:07:23.244
So thank you, al.

00:07:23.244 --> 00:07:24.827
Appreciate that feedback.

00:07:24.827 --> 00:07:29.302
Love it, so I just thought that was great all right.

00:07:29.362 --> 00:07:31.065
Well, I was wondering.

00:07:31.065 --> 00:07:33.069
So you like?

00:07:33.069 --> 00:07:40.790
You've mentioned to me before that you like fireplaces and you like stoking fires- I do well, can I?

00:07:40.850 --> 00:07:41.411
can I interject?

00:07:41.411 --> 00:07:48.192
Something to that so my parents are up there in years because, as as you said all the time, how?

00:07:48.252 --> 00:07:48.613
old, I am.

00:07:49.380 --> 00:07:51.348
So clearly my parents are way older.

00:07:51.348 --> 00:07:55.423
The house they currently live in.

00:07:55.423 --> 00:08:07.088
I only lived there for, I don't know, a year or two, whatever it was Because we moved in when I was a senior in high school to the new house not the house I grew up in, but in the house I grew up in too, I also had one.

00:08:07.088 --> 00:08:12.122
They had a fireplace built as part of the living room and I don't know.

00:08:12.122 --> 00:08:16.072
It's probably been five, six or so years already now, if not more.

00:08:16.072 --> 00:08:27.369
They had it converted to a gas and I miss going over there on Thanksgiving and even though I'm warm all the time and fires don't help with that.

00:08:28.050 --> 00:08:30.634
I like putting another log in the fire, stoking the fire.

00:08:30.634 --> 00:08:31.744
I just like maintaining it.

00:08:31.744 --> 00:08:33.985
I don't know, it's relaxing.

00:08:33.985 --> 00:08:40.407
I guess we'll say yeah, and so I really enjoy that I miss having because I don't unfortunately have one.

00:08:40.407 --> 00:08:43.692
I really miss having a real fireplace.

00:08:44.254 --> 00:08:44.494
Yeah.

00:08:44.594 --> 00:08:44.794
Yeah.

00:08:48.100 --> 00:08:49.062
Well, that and Santaus can't come down.

00:08:49.082 --> 00:08:57.207
Yeah, that creepy bastard comes in a different way, doesn't he wow?

00:08:57.488 --> 00:09:05.392
through the hole in your basement where all the raccoons and opossums get in we've never had a raccoon, only possums, thank God.

00:09:06.282 --> 00:09:14.105
Or where my cat goes to get stuck in a cistern under my house I mean same spot, but apparently possums are a little more nimble than cats.

00:09:14.105 --> 00:09:17.182
Or have weird creepy paws that can crawl out of cisterns.

00:09:17.182 --> 00:09:17.745
I don't know.

00:09:18.847 --> 00:09:20.784
I would think cats would be much more limber.

00:09:20.784 --> 00:09:27.662
Yeah, well, tell that to mo.

00:09:27.662 --> 00:09:28.063
Mo only has one eye.

00:09:28.063 --> 00:09:28.846
Yeah, he's special, we're gonna play.

00:09:28.846 --> 00:09:29.571
Well, let's just believe it on that.

00:09:29.571 --> 00:09:32.322
He fell into the cistern underneath the house because he only had one eye.

00:09:32.461 --> 00:09:40.081
We can do that because sarah found uh, I don't remember the whole origin story of mo, but it was basically she rescued him.

00:09:40.081 --> 00:09:51.370
They found him, but like in a dumpster, behind a dumpster, behind a dumpster, whatever it was, when she lived down south and I think he was at a local shelter, whatever it was.

00:09:51.370 --> 00:10:00.557
And she, being the person that she is very sweet to animals especially, she's like, well, I can't just let him here because he's probably going to get put down or something.

00:10:00.557 --> 00:10:05.346
So she adopted him and he is crazy.

00:10:05.346 --> 00:10:08.898
He bounces off the wall all the time.

00:10:08.898 --> 00:10:09.340
It's weird.

00:10:09.340 --> 00:10:11.524
He's got this weird snot thing all the time.

00:10:11.524 --> 00:10:12.047
It's gross.

00:10:12.047 --> 00:10:13.890
He's got one eye, like you said.

00:10:13.890 --> 00:10:18.850
Um, yeah, he's always under my feet these days too, which is weird.

00:10:18.850 --> 00:10:27.644
But I also think, because I've brought up my we've brought up my dog before on the podcast, we unfortunately had to put him down what was that?

00:10:27.644 --> 00:10:29.610
Three, four weeks ago now?

00:10:29.610 --> 00:10:32.840
Because he was old, he had a tumor.

00:10:32.840 --> 00:10:35.604
What's the word metastasize?

00:10:35.663 --> 00:10:36.466
is that the right word?

00:10:37.865 --> 00:10:39.109
and, yeah, he wasn't doing good.

00:10:39.109 --> 00:10:50.004
So I think Mo misses his buddy because, as much as they were mortal enemies, they were also very good friends, which is weird, but he's always under my feet right now, but anyways.

00:10:51.660 --> 00:10:56.312
Well, what if your fire like never went out?

00:10:57.561 --> 00:11:00.149
Oh, like the eternal flame.

00:11:00.149 --> 00:11:03.067
Yeah, that would be pretty impressive.

00:11:03.067 --> 00:11:12.870
I mean, it's not gas, it's literally like a burning flame so would I have to stoke it still, because I feel like no, you leave it alone.

00:11:13.251 --> 00:11:32.866
Oh, you leave the fire alone and it just continues on like would you freak out yeah, because you would try to put it out, but it doesn't go out that'd be weird, like even if you splash some water on it, kind of thing it wouldn't go out oh, that would be almost kind of freaky yeah right, uh-huh well that that's what happened with centralia pennsylvania what, what?

00:11:33.327 --> 00:11:34.831
centralia, pennsylvania.

00:11:34.831 --> 00:11:34.990
What's?

00:11:34.990 --> 00:11:41.671
Centralia, that's a town it is a town in pennsylvania that's always on fire it is on fire like to this day?

00:11:42.172 --> 00:11:42.873
yes, so.

00:11:42.873 --> 00:11:44.927
Is it like a natural gas thing that shoots up through the ground and it's just on fire?

00:11:44.927 --> 00:11:44.952
I to this day.

00:11:44.952 --> 00:11:45.034
Yes, so.

00:11:45.034 --> 00:11:47.394
Is it like a natural gas thing that shoots up through the ground and it's just on fire?

00:11:47.796 --> 00:11:48.357
I will tell you.

00:11:48.357 --> 00:11:48.820
Okay.

00:11:48.820 --> 00:12:03.886
Okay, first of all, it is a town right centralia, yes, centralia, centralia, centralia, right.

00:12:03.886 --> 00:12:05.331
How many people do you think live there?

00:12:05.331 --> 00:12:11.274
I will tell you eventually, but I want to start off the story without you knowing any context other than the town is on fire.

00:12:11.440 --> 00:12:14.049
How many the town is on fire?

00:12:14.049 --> 00:12:19.211
How many people live in Centralia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania?

00:12:19.211 --> 00:12:23.250
I'm going to go with 250.

00:12:23.451 --> 00:12:26.525
Okay, I'm going to write that down so I don't forget.

00:12:26.525 --> 00:12:36.730
Okay, so we're gonna talk about anthracite okay so it is a hard black coal yeah um.

00:12:36.730 --> 00:12:46.094
So it's a natural mineral with a high carbon and energy content that gives off light and heat, produce energy okay and when burned, it's it.

00:12:46.094 --> 00:12:48.687
It's used as fuel, essentially, sure.

00:12:48.687 --> 00:13:00.750
So an interesting fact about anthracite it is 20, or excuse me, it is 98 carbon, two percent away from being a diamond really yeah that's crazy.

00:13:00.750 --> 00:13:01.610
I know right.

00:13:02.631 --> 00:13:06.015
So it's just not quite enough cool to be the diamonds.

00:13:06.015 --> 00:13:08.066
Aw, poor anthracite.

00:13:09.500 --> 00:13:15.440
So anthracite was possibly first used in Pennsylvania as fuel in 1769.

00:13:15.760 --> 00:13:19.888
What would they fuel with that, like trains and stuff like that?

00:13:19.888 --> 00:13:21.908
Or what would they use the fuel for?

00:13:22.441 --> 00:13:24.408
It would be mostly industrial uses.

00:13:24.408 --> 00:13:25.224
Okay, sure Makes sense.

00:13:25.224 --> 00:13:25.727
What would they use?

00:13:25.748 --> 00:13:26.816
the fuel, for it would be mostly industrial uses.

00:13:26.836 --> 00:13:30.447
Okay, sure, so anthracite coal was primarily used for domestic heating.

00:13:30.447 --> 00:13:32.471
Oh, and then industrial purposes.

00:13:32.471 --> 00:13:38.250
Like I said, it was primarily, primarily fuel for heating homes and buildings okay um.

00:13:38.250 --> 00:13:43.287
It's high heat output and clean burning properties made it popular.

00:13:43.287 --> 00:13:44.149
Sure, sure Okay.

00:13:44.288 --> 00:13:44.870
That makes sense.

00:13:45.150 --> 00:13:49.028
So, um there, I'll get to it.

00:13:49.028 --> 00:13:53.746
But there's another coal in Pennsylvania.

00:13:53.746 --> 00:13:57.277
I can't remember the name of it Bit, bit, bit.

00:13:57.297 --> 00:13:58.460
You, minnius, I believe you.

00:13:58.460 --> 00:14:01.804
Can you try and say that one more time, because I just like hearing you say that.

00:14:02.407 --> 00:14:13.091
But you Nimius let's go with yes so that one that type of coal is much more prominent in pennsylvania.

00:14:13.371 --> 00:14:18.423
Okay, okay oh, so anthracite is there, but it's not as abundant.

00:14:18.484 --> 00:14:38.860
Yes, yes, the b word so so anthracite also fueled steam engines and chips, and then anthracite was used in blast furnaces to produce iron and steel, and it was also used in textile manufacturing and glassmaking.

00:14:41.086 --> 00:14:44.784
So, and obviously you might get to this, was it, I'm sure, anthracite?

00:14:44.784 --> 00:14:52.726
Obviously in other locations than just Pennsylvania, but was it rather abundant there, you said the other one was more.

00:14:53.280 --> 00:14:54.888
It's really not super abundant.

00:14:54.960 --> 00:15:17.628
There's only like a specific area of Pennsylvania and if I had to, if I believe I'm right, it's like the upper east corner of pennsylvania gotcha, and like the southern western part of pennsylvania is the, but god damn it that's why I haven't even attempted to say it, because I haven't even heard it properly yet but immune.

00:15:18.870 --> 00:15:22.525
How does that go anyways?

00:15:22.525 --> 00:15:24.570
Should I ask google how to pronounce it?

00:15:24.570 --> 00:15:43.269
No, just keep going, because I like you messing it up more than knowing okay, so fantastic early production of anthracite um in 1810 only had about 350 tons um and it was mined due to transportation difficulties and industrial immaturity.

00:15:43.269 --> 00:16:15.653
So um the war of 1812 increased anthracite usage as british and virginia coal supplies were disrupted due to the british blockade and virginia shortage okay, so the war of 1812 helped anthracite out compete virginia's outcompete virginius bituminous coal say, say b-coal the b-coal, I'll say bit coal bit coal I like.

00:16:15.734 --> 00:16:20.701
It all right, let's do that one um, thankfully I don't have to say it very much more, but oh, thank god um.

00:16:21.663 --> 00:16:22.602
You're welcome listeners.

00:16:25.365 --> 00:16:29.448
Bit coal doesn't produce as much heat as anthracite.

00:16:29.448 --> 00:16:31.049
Yeah, and it's quite smoky.

00:16:31.590 --> 00:16:32.010
Oh really.

00:16:32.010 --> 00:16:34.192
Whereas the anthracite burns cleaner.

00:16:34.432 --> 00:16:37.235
It's smoke less oh like completely.

00:16:37.235 --> 00:16:40.057
Yeah, and has a high amount of heat, wow.

00:16:40.256 --> 00:16:40.437
Yeah.

00:16:41.220 --> 00:16:41.360
Okay.

00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:56.765
So the opening of major canals facilitated anthracite transportation to urban markets, so it became valuable fuel for domestic heating, cooking and small businesses okay makes sense yeah, so the life of a coal miner?

00:16:56.765 --> 00:16:59.951
Them, poor deers oh man they.

00:16:59.951 --> 00:17:12.276
They had a rough life they had a really rough life, yeah, so coal camps often failed to deliver on their promises, which included prosperity and opportunity.

00:17:13.402 --> 00:17:16.190
That was hard-ass fucking work going down in those mines.

00:17:16.330 --> 00:17:33.527
Yeah, so they faced really low pay and company control over their living expenses through company-owned housing and stores Okay, over their living expenses through company-owned housing and stores and conflicts frequently arose over the process of weighing coal and impacting miners' earnings.

00:17:33.847 --> 00:17:34.549
Gotcha Okay.

00:17:35.580 --> 00:17:40.731
So the cynical nature of the coal industry led to unstable and precarious employment.

00:17:40.731 --> 00:17:44.490
Sure, and a lot of times, coal camping.

00:17:44.589 --> 00:17:57.690
living conditions were unsanitary and overcrowded well, yeah, I mean probably because they had to live near the mine or whatever, and you have quite a big pocket of people all of a sudden, and 18, whatever.

00:17:57.690 --> 00:17:59.613
There's not like plumbing.

00:17:59.613 --> 00:18:01.843
You know there's not any plumbing that they can.

00:18:01.843 --> 00:18:03.867
Oh yeah, yeah, I got to go flush the toilet.

00:18:03.867 --> 00:18:05.109
No, you're just going to shit behind a bush.

00:18:05.109 --> 00:18:06.553
Pretty much yeah.

00:18:07.803 --> 00:18:10.170
And it was also very, very dangerous.

00:18:10.570 --> 00:18:10.790
Right.

00:18:11.740 --> 00:18:17.907
Between the years 1880 and 1923, over 70,000 miners died on the job.

00:18:18.188 --> 00:18:20.310
Holy shit, 70,000?

00:18:20.310 --> 00:18:21.813
Yeah, over 70?

00:18:21.813 --> 00:18:24.076
Wow, that's crazy.

00:18:24.096 --> 00:18:30.461
Yeah, all right.

00:18:30.461 --> 00:18:30.982
Yeah, over 70.

00:18:30.982 --> 00:18:31.444
Wow, that's crazy.

00:18:31.444 --> 00:18:31.786
Yeah, all right.

00:18:31.786 --> 00:18:34.256
So major mine disasters um killed hundreds of mine, like even just a single disaster can kill, kill hundreds.

00:18:34.336 --> 00:18:35.380
Oh yeah, because usually what that would?

00:18:35.380 --> 00:18:38.548
Just the mine would implode, and there's all those miners in there.

00:18:38.548 --> 00:18:43.830
It's not like they could just take an expert excavator and be like we'll get you out in a couple minutes, right?

00:18:43.991 --> 00:18:50.240
not that it takes a couple minutes today then, but wow so I'm gonna kind of tell you like a day in the life of a coal miner.

00:18:50.740 --> 00:19:06.749
Um now, this was taken from, I believe, uh, new york city or new york state, um mine, but this is very similar after you take us through a day in the life of a coal miner, do we get to learn about a coal miner's daughter?

00:19:06.749 --> 00:19:09.633
No, did you ever hear that song?

00:19:09.633 --> 00:19:12.604
No, I think it's a song Was that like Patsy Cline or something.

00:19:12.604 --> 00:19:13.286
Probably, I don't know.

00:19:13.286 --> 00:19:15.971
I'm not sure, I just know of it.

00:19:15.971 --> 00:19:19.663
I don't really know it, sorry, anyways, continue.

00:19:19.923 --> 00:19:22.625
Okay, okay, so early mornings, late nights.

00:19:23.126 --> 00:19:23.366
Right.

00:19:23.446 --> 00:19:25.148
And that was the norm for miners.

00:19:25.148 --> 00:19:31.815
Yeah, and mining companies expected employees to be underground by 7 am.

00:19:32.236 --> 00:19:33.297
Okay, that's not so bad.

00:19:36.621 --> 00:19:36.983
It forced miners?

00:19:36.983 --> 00:19:38.111
Well, no, because you get up at 3.30.

00:19:38.131 --> 00:19:38.534
I know it sucks.

00:19:38.534 --> 00:19:41.227
I'm like fuck 7 o'clock.

00:19:41.227 --> 00:19:43.848
I could sleep in until 6 and be there by 7?

00:19:44.340 --> 00:19:54.642
I'd love that right now, jeez so before descending miners would change into their work clothes, which typically included sturdy pants.

00:19:54.642 --> 00:19:58.288
Really, overalls undershirt, heavy shoes.

00:19:58.387 --> 00:20:26.596
Sure, a felt hat hardened with resin or linseed oil protected their heads so like a makeshift hard hat, basically okay and they would have essential tools like drill steels, hammers, sledges, candles and their lunch and their lunch, because they're going to be down there literally all day, right all day yeah some companies made each miner carry a brass.

00:20:27.597 --> 00:20:45.871
It was a metal token with their unique number on it oh, so they could identify them basically this was used for safety tracking so in a way it was like their version of dog tags yes, however, um, when you came back up from underground, you would give, you would give them tag and if there was a tag missing.

00:20:45.871 --> 00:20:46.721
They would know.

00:20:46.721 --> 00:20:47.786
A miner is missing.

00:20:47.987 --> 00:20:48.608
Yes, yeah.

00:20:48.608 --> 00:20:53.971
So in the late 1800s, candle provided the only light in the mines.

00:20:53.971 --> 00:20:54.613
That's crazy.

00:20:54.613 --> 00:21:03.315
These nine-inch and three-quarter-inch diameter candles burned slowly and produced minimal smoke.

00:21:03.315 --> 00:21:09.252
They were made of hard tallow and maintained their shape in the mine's humid and warm conditions.

00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:12.630
Yeah, I say it probably was pretty warm in those mines.

00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:20.347
They also bought their candles for five cents each, like the miners had to purchase them.

00:21:20.367 --> 00:21:21.920
Mm-hmm, oh, that's a dick move.

00:21:22.082 --> 00:21:27.592
And one might Be secured to the brim of their hat.

00:21:27.612 --> 00:21:31.008
Yeah, I mean, that's what I was picturing because I've seen old like where they got.

00:21:31.008 --> 00:21:31.990
You know it's belted off.

00:21:31.990 --> 00:21:34.807
Yeah, they use clay to like stick it on there.

00:21:34.807 --> 00:21:35.529
Okay, yeah.

00:21:36.580 --> 00:21:42.413
And if a miner didn't attach a candle to their hat, they could use a raw iron like candle holder.

00:21:42.752 --> 00:21:42.993
Sure.

00:21:43.220 --> 00:21:45.307
And that could be wedged into the mine walls.

00:21:45.307 --> 00:21:50.823
Oh, yeah, I suppose that makes sense that could be wedged into the mine walls.

00:21:50.823 --> 00:21:51.544
Oh yeah, I suppose that makes sense.

00:21:51.544 --> 00:21:56.700
So miners typically descended into the mine via a ladder, okay, and it is a process they refute for two as walking to work.

00:21:56.700 --> 00:22:17.637
Oh god, that sounds terrible many preferred this way to the swaying bucket that lowered them into the darkness well, yeah, I mean, at least you have some control over that, once underground, the horrendous task of drilling holes for explosives begin?

00:22:17.657 --> 00:22:28.809
yeah because that's how they mined it basically as they blew it up so the mines offered a variety of conditions, from warm and humid to cool and humid.

00:22:28.809 --> 00:22:37.013
So, below the water table, moisture seeped into the walls and ceilings, creating slippery and hazardous standing water.

00:22:37.013 --> 00:22:43.152
Sure, so they would also use a single and double jacking technique.

00:22:43.152 --> 00:22:45.688
Single and double jacking, mm-hmm.

00:22:45.688 --> 00:22:54.806
So single jacking is using a four pound hammer okay and it was ideal in narrow spaces or overhead drilling.

00:22:55.688 --> 00:23:04.250
One miner held the drill steel, striking it 50 times per minute oh my god while rotating it, so then the next person would do it.

00:23:04.250 --> 00:23:05.353
That's crazy.

00:23:05.353 --> 00:23:26.253
Double jacking involved one minor holding and turning the steel well, two others well, another swung okay an eight pound sledge 25 times per minute oh, that had to be hard fucking work and they switch positions every 15 minutes yeah, because your arms are gonna be like jello by the end of the day in larger areas.

00:23:26.253 --> 00:23:31.530
Triple jacking was possible with two miners swinging sledges and one rotating the seal.

00:23:31.652 --> 00:23:33.179
Okay, so that's what I thought the double was.

00:23:33.199 --> 00:23:38.631
But yeah, that makes sense, okay, yep so before dynamite minor, you miners use black powder.

00:23:38.631 --> 00:23:43.346
It was a mixture of saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal.

00:23:43.346 --> 00:23:49.959
Okay, black powder was unreliable, often misfiring or causing hang fires what's a hang fire?

00:23:49.980 --> 00:23:56.934
I don't know okay, cool, there's the first one, all right should we tally?

00:23:56.934 --> 00:23:58.758
Maybe we should.

00:23:58.758 --> 00:23:59.799
I got a notebook right here.

00:23:59.799 --> 00:24:03.723
Hold on, I'm just gonna put a little tally mark, all right?

00:24:03.743 --> 00:24:15.296
So in 1831, william Bickford invented a fuse for black powder made of black powder wrapped in jute, twine and waterproof tape.

00:24:15.296 --> 00:24:16.037
What's jute?

00:24:16.037 --> 00:24:17.845
It's a type of rope.

00:24:18.346 --> 00:24:18.647
Oh, okay.

00:24:19.681 --> 00:24:22.929
And it burned at a rate of one inch per 30 seconds.

00:24:23.730 --> 00:24:24.051
Gotcha.

00:24:25.663 --> 00:24:26.145
So no time.

00:24:27.361 --> 00:24:30.328
I mean, it took a while because, one inch 30.

00:24:30.328 --> 00:24:34.586
Seconds yeah 10 inches, that's, you know, 300 seconds.

00:24:34.586 --> 00:24:36.028
How many minutes is that?

00:24:37.330 --> 00:24:46.710
I don't know math, genius five, that's right that's right.

00:24:46.769 --> 00:24:54.259
Great job, bradley well, you know, I math well so the invention of dynamite replaced black powder.

00:24:55.122 --> 00:25:00.718
One pound of dynamite was equivalent to two and two-thirds pound of black powder, okay.

00:25:00.718 --> 00:25:10.295
Although dynamite caused headaches and nausea, its biggest issue was instability at temperatures above 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:25:11.299 --> 00:25:12.846
So it worked better below that.

00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:17.630
So mines used metal dynamite warmers.

00:25:18.291 --> 00:25:18.593
Okay.

00:25:19.961 --> 00:25:24.851
And they would often take their dynamite home with them and sleep with them.

00:25:24.911 --> 00:25:25.632
What the fuck?

00:25:25.632 --> 00:25:26.374
To keep it warm?

00:25:26.374 --> 00:25:28.261
Did anyone blow up doing that?

00:25:28.261 --> 00:25:29.782
Because I feel like that should have happened.

00:25:29.782 --> 00:25:30.804
Holy shit, fuck.

00:25:30.825 --> 00:25:31.144
To keep it warm.

00:25:31.144 --> 00:25:32.605
Did anyone blow up doing that?

00:25:32.625 --> 00:25:34.367
Because I feel like that should have happened.

00:25:34.367 --> 00:25:35.209
Holy shit, it's not on fire.

00:25:35.209 --> 00:25:38.712
I get that, but I mean, doesn't dynamite have nitroglycerin in it or something like?

00:25:38.752 --> 00:25:39.374
that I don't know.

00:25:39.374 --> 00:25:40.454
That's not part of my research I know.

00:25:40.494 --> 00:25:41.817
Okay, tally number two.

00:25:42.119 --> 00:25:42.864
It's got TNT in it.

00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:51.421
It's dynamite.

00:25:51.421 --> 00:25:53.364
Yeah, okay, I, I shouldn't I.

00:25:53.364 --> 00:25:54.666
I called for that one, that's on me fuck.

00:25:54.686 --> 00:25:57.009
Oh, my bad, my bad, okay, so all right.

00:25:57.111 --> 00:25:59.173
Would you go to bed with a stick of dynamite?

00:25:59.173 --> 00:25:59.755
I wouldn't.

00:25:59.755 --> 00:26:03.186
Holy christ, okay, but it's not lit.

00:26:03.186 --> 00:26:09.948
I understand that I might be, though you go to bed with your kids.

00:26:10.650 --> 00:26:13.208
Yeah, you don't know what they're going to do in the middle of the night.

00:26:13.299 --> 00:26:21.184
They're not dynamite, although Vesper does blow up a lot, or blow out, for that matter.

00:26:21.204 --> 00:26:22.750
Oh, gross, moving on.

00:26:26.540 --> 00:26:51.746
So mining was not like a continuous process, so significant time was spent drilling, blasting, removing debris basically it was setting it up, then you had the removal yeah so, like the, did they have like setup crews and then removal crews, all right tally I'm in the day in the life of one coal miner, not the company.

00:26:51.746 --> 00:26:54.307
I get that.

00:26:54.307 --> 00:26:57.669
Anyways, I apologize for asking you questions.

00:26:58.621 --> 00:27:01.989
So unsanitary conditions caused by waste.

00:27:01.989 --> 00:27:03.291
What now?

00:27:06.902 --> 00:27:08.647
Where did they go to the bathroom in the mine?

00:27:10.032 --> 00:27:11.859
if you would let me continue talking.

00:27:11.859 --> 00:27:16.126
They use a bucket fuck it use the bucket?

00:27:17.228 --> 00:27:19.151
oh gross did they?

00:27:19.151 --> 00:27:22.402
Did they wheel that up on the pulley to empty it?

00:27:22.402 --> 00:27:23.384
Or what they do with that?

00:27:23.484 --> 00:27:28.498
they assigned the lowest ranking worker oh, sucks to be that guy that's literally a peon they assigned the lowest ranking worker.

00:27:28.617 --> 00:27:29.220
Oh sucks to be that guy.

00:27:29.220 --> 00:27:33.246
That's literally a peon, oh man.

00:27:33.326 --> 00:27:37.795
So at the end of the day, miners rode the bucket up to the surface Like different bucket.

00:27:38.221 --> 00:27:40.539
I hope they used a different Up to the surface.

00:27:40.539 --> 00:27:41.643
Is this the piss bucket or?

00:27:41.703 --> 00:27:46.468
is this the lift, bucket, the lift bucket Fuck, so they were often crammed in together with others.

00:27:46.468 --> 00:27:49.769
So the swing bucket could cause injuries as well.

00:27:49.769 --> 00:27:55.393
But upon returning, miners turned in their brass and tools and proceed, proceeded to the drying room.

00:27:55.393 --> 00:28:15.441
While companies claimed this was to keep clothing warm and dry, no, the real reason was to prevent high grading, which is stealing valuable minerals so they basically kind of like in the down in the radium girls, where they went to that room and they had to dust them off or whatever that was to save the minerals.

00:28:15.541 --> 00:28:19.349
This is to prevent stealing well, wouldn't that be stealing?

00:28:19.349 --> 00:28:29.730
Not if you didn't know that was on you like but it's the same concept as I'm saying I suppose they're just trying to make sure it doesn't leave the area, if you will.

00:28:29.809 --> 00:28:32.969
Yeah, instead of I mean, what would those miners do?

00:28:32.969 --> 00:28:35.047
It's like ooh, I got like two specks of coal on me.

00:28:35.047 --> 00:28:35.608
I'm rich.

00:28:35.608 --> 00:28:36.943
I mean, what the fuck?

00:28:36.943 --> 00:28:38.769
But I guess whatever.

00:28:40.863 --> 00:28:44.452
So high grading was less prevalent when miners worked independently.

00:28:44.779 --> 00:28:45.101
Okay.

00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:49.192
But it became more common when miners became employees of large mining companies.

00:28:49.192 --> 00:28:52.849
Sure, so, men, they were gold at times.

00:28:52.849 --> 00:29:05.339
So they would hide gold in various places, including secret pockets, boot heels, lunch pails, hat bands in uneaten food, in their hats and even under their fingernails.

00:29:05.500 --> 00:29:09.209
So they were under their fingernails, so they, oh, under their fingernails.

00:29:09.209 --> 00:29:17.513
I say that right now too, because I recently yesterday or day before cut under my fingernail and it fucking hurts, it does.

00:29:17.513 --> 00:29:29.835
I would not want to shove a piece of gold under my fingernail, I don't care how malleable it is well, this high grading was seen as a way to supplement their ridiculous average daily wage of $3.

00:29:29.835 --> 00:29:32.567
That's all they made per day.

00:29:32.567 --> 00:29:33.141
And what?

00:29:33.141 --> 00:29:35.930
Can you refresh my memory on the time frame of this?

00:29:35.930 --> 00:29:37.444
This was early 1800s, right?

00:29:37.444 --> 00:29:38.248
Yes?

00:29:38.800 --> 00:29:43.406
Yeah, late 1700s early 1800s, $3 fucking dollars a day.

00:29:43.406 --> 00:29:45.203
What's that in today's money?

00:29:45.203 --> 00:29:47.009
I didn't look it up, god damn it.

00:29:47.009 --> 00:29:47.931
There's another tally.

00:29:47.931 --> 00:29:55.622
You were doing so good on that.

00:29:55.622 --> 00:29:58.166
I know how could I forget to look at the inflation rate?

00:29:58.166 --> 00:30:02.980
I don't know, but I'm gonna look it up now all right, go get another beer okay, so how much is that in today's money?

00:30:04.403 --> 00:30:13.482
we don't know why, because inflation calculators only go back to 1913 I mean, but I don't know why that is I don't either.

00:30:13.522 --> 00:30:14.003
That's strange.

00:30:14.003 --> 00:30:15.326
I get that.

00:30:15.326 --> 00:30:19.801
I still feel like they could have a educated guess thereabouts.

00:30:19.801 --> 00:30:24.491
Yeah, like I'm not saying exact, but you know just a random guess.

00:30:24.491 --> 00:30:25.433
But okay, fair enough.

00:30:25.433 --> 00:30:27.425
That's odd, it doesn't go before that.

00:30:27.425 --> 00:30:29.050
At least nothing you found.

00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:36.358
The interwebs say that it's because data is less reliable before 1913.

00:30:36.358 --> 00:30:37.019
Sure, I mean.

00:30:37.642 --> 00:30:38.323
I understand that.

00:30:38.323 --> 00:30:40.346
Yeah, all right, no worries, yeah.

00:30:40.586 --> 00:30:40.846
Okay.

00:30:41.048 --> 00:30:41.608
I was just curious.

00:30:41.608 --> 00:30:56.579
So, so Okay, wow, wow.

00:30:56.579 --> 00:30:59.308
The first mines in pennsylvania was established around 16, 1761.

00:30:59.308 --> 00:31:00.973
The first mines like is that a company or is that just like the?

00:31:00.993 --> 00:31:01.695
first ones, the first ones, okay.

00:31:01.695 --> 00:31:29.773
So they had the mine run, railroads construction in 1854 and that led to continued coal discovery throughout the lands across the lands, we discovered coal mining engineer alexander ray planned and developed the village of centralia and he named it in 1865 do you know what it's named after?

00:31:31.482 --> 00:31:50.906
so centralia was actually called like bullhead or something like that bullhead, yeah, and then they changed it to central, something centralville okay but there was literally another town in pennsylvania called central, so they changed it to Centralia Shit we need to change that man.

00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:52.404
Yeah it had a progression.

00:31:52.404 --> 00:31:54.465
Okay Well, I mean, at least we know why.

00:31:54.707 --> 00:32:08.839
Yeah, so according to the numbers of the federal census records, the town of Centralia reached its maximum population of 2,761 in 1890.

00:32:09.579 --> 00:32:10.545
I was 10 times less.

00:32:10.640 --> 00:32:12.486
That was not the question I asked you, though.

00:32:12.526 --> 00:32:13.208
No, that is true.

00:32:13.469 --> 00:32:15.625
Yes, I asked you what it would be like now.

00:32:15.625 --> 00:32:18.505
Oh yeah, you said 250 now.

00:32:18.605 --> 00:32:18.806
Yeah.

00:32:18.987 --> 00:32:26.089
Yeah, so back in 1890, the peak that it was at was 2,761.

00:32:26.089 --> 00:32:46.467
Okay, okay, so at its peak the town had seven churches, wow, five hotels, jesus, 27 saloons that's a lot of saloons two, we'd probably go to all of them I mean, we'd probably make another one fair uh two theaters, really a bank

00:32:47.228 --> 00:33:02.203
well a post office and 14 general and grocery stores for 2700 people that is a shit ton for that small of a population okay, so the town that I live in, is a gas station, has a gas.

00:33:02.203 --> 00:33:04.028
It has a church.

00:33:04.028 --> 00:33:11.685
Well, it does it's got I don't pass it really, but it's a and there's like a little element pass it well shit.

00:33:11.685 --> 00:33:16.440
There's a little um elementary school and right but and there's what?

00:33:16.599 --> 00:33:26.946
two, two bars, yeah, and they're like right next to each other, yeah, so that's even weirder so not even like one in the end of each town, and the population is what?

00:33:27.008 --> 00:33:27.448
a third?

00:33:29.050 --> 00:33:29.951
oh, it's got to be right.

00:33:29.951 --> 00:33:31.654
From what would you say?

00:33:31.654 --> 00:33:32.921
2700, 27?

00:33:32.921 --> 00:33:42.943
Yeah, my town is like 700 something 720 I kind of want to look it up now yeah, so that's a lot for a town of 2700.

00:33:43.003 --> 00:33:45.126
I think that's a lot of businesses.

00:33:45.627 --> 00:33:49.013
No, I mean how many grocery stores slash general stores?

00:33:49.013 --> 00:33:50.195
You say like 14?

00:33:50.195 --> 00:33:50.195
.

00:33:50.681 --> 00:33:52.247
That's insane Uh-huh.

00:33:52.247 --> 00:33:56.580
But general stores, it could be like this is Tate and Tackle, no.

00:33:57.604 --> 00:33:59.671
I totally get that However.

00:34:01.461 --> 00:34:02.865
This is your hardware store.

00:34:03.949 --> 00:34:11.163
Yeah, I mean, you get everything you need here, but that's why it's like how did you need so many of those, though?

00:34:11.182 --> 00:34:18.865
all right, maybe it's just like people coming from the outskirts of centralia coming to the mines and so like that's their hub.

00:34:19.045 --> 00:34:24.563
Yeah, no that, that would I guess make sense um all right, my phone's finally starting to work.

00:34:24.563 --> 00:34:32.840
Here it says wow, in the 2020 census the population was 737.

00:34:33.701 --> 00:34:38.570
Yeah, that's crazy that's what it says on my welcome to town, does it?

00:34:38.730 --> 00:34:45.085
yeah, um, I mean, that's, that's like almost a fourth of wow, that's crazy.

00:34:45.085 --> 00:34:53.244
Okay, that, yeah, that's, that's a lot of stores and saloon 27 saloons I mean, holy shit, you got two.

00:34:53.244 --> 00:34:59.242
Even if you multiplied it by four, you'd only have eight, and that's how much the population is.

00:34:59.242 --> 00:35:01.226
That's fucking wild.

00:35:01.226 --> 00:35:05.934
Okay, okay, sorry that, just that that threw me for a loop.

00:35:05.934 --> 00:35:08.762
That's a lot of fucking places for that, okay.

00:35:08.762 --> 00:35:11.123
Anyway sorry, let's get back on track here.

00:35:12.284 --> 00:35:16.806
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00:35:34.239 --> 00:35:39.971
So 37 years later the production of anthracite coal had reached its peak in Centralia.

00:35:39.971 --> 00:35:45.389
Because they went to the big coal In the following years production declined.

00:35:45.610 --> 00:35:45.911
Okay.

00:35:46.621 --> 00:36:11.335
As many young workers from Centralia enlisted in the military oh, okay when the us entered world war one oh sure yeah and then the wall street crash of 1929 resulted in coal companies closing sure several centralia mines okay, did you ever have a total number of mines in centralia?

00:36:11.335 --> 00:36:14.771
I believe I do have the answer to that down the road?

00:36:14.771 --> 00:36:22.632
I think so okay, cool I want to say it was like 14, all right, something like that, stay tuned so bootleg miners actually continue to mine?

00:36:22.632 --> 00:36:26.789
In several miners in idle mines like they were abandoned.

00:36:26.809 --> 00:36:38.001
Mines are like we're gonna keep mining well, I mean, I guess if, like, you're trying to make a living for yourself, especially in those hard times when the stock market crashed and everything, how are they going to keep up with their beer habit?

00:36:38.001 --> 00:36:43.420
Well, there's so many saloons and like, fuck, I want to go to that one today, but I don't have enough money.

00:36:43.420 --> 00:36:44.123
Let's go mine.

00:36:44.664 --> 00:37:05.324
I mean, that's what I would do so the bootleggers would use techniques called pillar robbing okay where miners would extract coal from the coal pillars left in the mines to support their roofs that sounds like a terrible fucking idea sounds like a horrible plan because all that's going to do is I don't know collapse.

00:37:05.344 --> 00:37:06.927
collapse the mind, I mean.

00:37:06.927 --> 00:37:08.331
Did they reinforce it?

00:37:08.331 --> 00:37:11.159
I don't know, because I understand what they're.

00:37:11.219 --> 00:37:15.284
I would imagine they would, but You're probably 100% wrong.

00:37:15.304 --> 00:37:16.769
My imagination also sucks.

00:37:16.769 --> 00:37:22.306
Oh, don't make me laugh so hard.

00:37:22.306 --> 00:37:27.630
Oh dear, I get why they would do that because it's right there.

00:37:27.940 --> 00:37:29.346
But guess what it resulted in?

00:37:29.646 --> 00:37:39.242
death, I mean right collapsed, my yeah and if you're down there which most likely you were even even if you're exploding shit, you're probably pretty close.

00:37:39.242 --> 00:37:40.844
You are fucked.

00:37:40.844 --> 00:37:43.106
Wow, okay, idiots.

00:37:43.106 --> 00:37:45.987
Anyways, good Lord.

00:37:46.007 --> 00:37:46.528
Okay.

00:37:46.528 --> 00:37:58.719
So in 1950, Centralia Council acquired the rights to all anthracite coal beneath Centralia Okay, Through a state law that was passed in 1949.

00:37:58.719 --> 00:38:06.954
That year the federal census counted 1,986 residents in Centralia.

00:38:07.039 --> 00:38:09.371
And this was in 1950?

00:38:09.371 --> 00:38:09.371
.

00:38:11.579 --> 00:38:14.327
Yes, okay, 18,986 residents in centralia, and this was in 1950.

00:38:14.327 --> 00:38:23.692
Yes, okay, coal mining continued in centralia until the 1960s okay, so not that much longer after that bootlegging oh god continued until 1982 really so.

00:38:23.711 --> 00:38:26.474
They just hey, there's still some mines that were made.

00:38:26.715 --> 00:38:33.793
Let's go fuck them up, basically, but strip and open pit mining are still active.

00:38:33.793 --> 00:38:41.668
So you're coming from the top down, you're creating like this huge quarry almost In one of my many trips to Colorado that.

00:38:41.688 --> 00:38:43.092
I've told you I go there a lot.

00:38:43.092 --> 00:38:44.364
I've gone there a lot over my life.

00:38:44.364 --> 00:38:46.628
I don't remember exactly where this was.

00:38:46.628 --> 00:38:49.746
I think it was on my way to breckenridge from denver.

00:38:49.746 --> 00:38:57.744
I believe I could be wrong, but I actually passed because, like they're still golden in their hills, kind of thing.

00:38:59.809 --> 00:39:02.393
That was great, did you bring your painting with you I did.

00:39:03.902 --> 00:39:14.923
But uh, for the first time I saw like the strip mining cause it's literally just shaving off a layer, shaving off a layer, and it's like, well, that's depressing, you're taking the mountain away, man.

00:39:15.445 --> 00:39:16.148
What the fuck?

00:39:16.148 --> 00:39:17.291
But it's safer.

00:39:18.340 --> 00:39:19.385
Which I totally understand.

00:39:19.385 --> 00:39:25.429
But like that's a big part of like a lot of Colorado, cause there's a shit ton of mines, abandoned mines, old mines.

00:39:25.429 --> 00:39:31.626
You can't go in mines because you're gonna die like those dumb fucks doing the bootlegging mining.

00:39:31.626 --> 00:39:34.791
But, um, I had never seen that before.

00:39:34.791 --> 00:39:44.445
I'm like, well, that's kind of really depressing because they're literally like shaving down the mountain it's like oh, that's sad because I love mountains, as you know, and it's like, well, don't do that.

00:39:44.905 --> 00:39:45.126
Yeah.

00:39:45.126 --> 00:39:51.815
But anyways, so in 1950, there were updated trash laws.

00:39:51.815 --> 00:39:57.150
Okay, before there were illegal dump sites for garbage.

00:39:57.150 --> 00:40:11.067
Oh, so now they actually use an abandoned site from the 1930s and they transferred all this trash into this dump site Okay, which was approximately 50, into this dump site Okay, which was approximately 50 feet down.

00:40:11.467 --> 00:40:11.789
Okay.

00:40:12.349 --> 00:40:16.168
Okay, so then the course of history changed forever.

00:40:16.710 --> 00:40:17.150
Oh dear.

00:40:17.331 --> 00:40:20.288
Yeah, so rumor has it.

00:40:21.202 --> 00:40:22.168
Rumor has it.

00:40:22.900 --> 00:40:25.789
The city council of Centralia made a vote.

00:40:25.789 --> 00:40:27.365
Oh, what did they vote on?

00:40:27.365 --> 00:40:41.675
So on this day, may 27th 1962, the local firefighters set the town landfill on fire in order to clean it up.

00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:43.947
That seems like a terrible idea.

00:40:45.300 --> 00:40:56.045
And I won't lie, there is a giant mound of trash out at grandpa's farm sure in central illinois and is that?

00:40:56.045 --> 00:41:00.813
Because it's all right continue what are you gonna say I?

00:41:00.853 --> 00:41:05.286
wasn't gonna say nothing bullshit I call bullshit on you bullshit.

00:41:05.447 --> 00:41:06.027
Bullshit.

00:41:06.027 --> 00:41:14.045
So whenever we had like trash or shit that wouldn't be taken away from you know, into the dumpster or whatever.

00:41:14.045 --> 00:41:20.231
We would have this huge mound Sure and my husband would light it on fire every couple of weeks or months or whatever.

00:41:20.231 --> 00:41:22.364
Sure, you know what's super fun.

00:41:22.766 --> 00:41:22.947
What.

00:41:23.199 --> 00:41:24.885
Putting aerosol cans in there.

00:41:24.965 --> 00:41:26.010
Yeah, yes, yes.

00:41:26.010 --> 00:41:28.824
Are you fucking a teenager right now?

00:41:28.844 --> 00:41:34.990
I mean, well, no sounds like it was fun.

00:41:34.990 --> 00:41:37.885
I'm sure it was anyway, okay, so they let they.

00:41:37.885 --> 00:41:39.188
Let let it on fire, right?

00:41:39.188 --> 00:41:43.510
And this was all in preparation of the upcoming Memorial day holiday.

00:41:44.001 --> 00:41:45.347
They did this every year.

00:41:46.242 --> 00:41:47.085
They did it every year.

00:41:47.085 --> 00:41:58.324
Just this one year was different, because all the trash was collected and put in this like abandoned pit sure, okay, was this a pit to a mine or just happened to be a pit near a mine?

00:41:58.583 --> 00:41:59.206
is that what it was?

00:41:59.907 --> 00:42:02.112
it was by an abandoned mine.

00:42:02.112 --> 00:42:02.900
That's what I thought you said.

00:42:02.900 --> 00:42:08.364
Okay, yeah, yes, so I actually say what strip mining is.

00:42:08.364 --> 00:42:21.496
But it's a surface technique that involves removing layers of soil and rock to access the minerals, kind of like what you said, like kind of shaving the mountain, basically, yeah.

00:42:21.536 --> 00:42:22.876
Yeah, that's the gist of it.

00:42:24.181 --> 00:42:34.293
They have like shallow horizontal deposits of coal, then Okay, they have like shallow horizontal deposits of coal, then Okay, and the process creates long rectangular pits or strips that can fill with water to form strip pits.

00:42:34.293 --> 00:42:36.076
So that's kind of what this place was.

00:42:36.076 --> 00:42:40.889
Okay, gotcha, so the firefighters who were volunteers.

00:42:41.311 --> 00:42:41.731
Oh geez.

00:42:42.460 --> 00:42:43.786
Because hello tiny town.

00:42:44.019 --> 00:42:45.807
Well, yeah, I mean not many people.

00:42:45.807 --> 00:43:01.474
They let it burn for some time, Sure because they wanted to incinerate the whole pile, basically, but unlike previous years, the fire was not fully extinguished oh dear each time the fire would come back, they would put it out and it would come back.

00:43:02.322 --> 00:43:04.891
Then they put it out and it came back and it came back and it came back.

00:43:04.891 --> 00:43:08.824
So finally they like turned the trash over, like let's get the bottom trash up on the top, and try came back and it came back.

00:43:08.824 --> 00:43:12.338
So finally they like turned the trash over, like let's get the bottom trash up on the top and try and just bury it.

00:43:12.378 --> 00:43:15.764
Basically yeah and yeah, and essentially douse the underlying trash right.

00:43:15.764 --> 00:43:25.733
So when they were churning it like it's butter, this is when they realized that there was an unsealed opening in the pit.

00:43:25.733 --> 00:43:34.068
Yeah, that allowed the fire to enter the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines underneath centralia yep, that's not good.

00:43:34.469 --> 00:43:38.561
Yeah, so like, do they have free heating during the winter?

00:43:38.561 --> 00:43:44.072
Because I mean, I mean it's all burning under the ground.

00:43:44.072 --> 00:43:49.262
It's like, oh, this warm is this, is this land is nice and toasty I don't even need shoes.

00:43:49.262 --> 00:43:51.909
It's like walking on sand and the beach.

00:43:52.753 --> 00:43:57.143
What the shit so at one point, like I said, there were 14 active mines in town.

00:43:57.143 --> 00:44:00.972
So can you, can you literally imagine the lab labyrinth?

00:44:00.972 --> 00:44:20.909
Or like the ant or gopher tunnels that this created no kidding so no the town did know what was happening underground, but they dilly-dallied well, that seems like a fucking mistake they wasted two months two months when they finally decided to have a meeting about what they should do about it.

00:44:20.929 --> 00:44:21.411
I like that.

00:44:21.411 --> 00:44:25.186
They waited two months to decide to have a meeting.

00:44:25.186 --> 00:44:25.527
What Uh-huh?

00:44:25.527 --> 00:44:26.990
What the fuck is wrong?

00:44:26.990 --> 00:44:31.565
It's called government Jesus Christ.

00:44:34.764 --> 00:44:41.393
So a contract for $20,000, which is approximately $196,000.

00:44:42.315 --> 00:44:42.876
Good job.

00:44:42.876 --> 00:44:44.184
I'm proud of you.

00:44:44.224 --> 00:44:47.224
Thank you so much I'll bow when this is over.

00:44:47.224 --> 00:44:48.027
Please don't.

00:44:49.900 --> 00:44:51.063
I don't want you to put out your back.

00:44:51.063 --> 00:44:53.952
Yeah, that's fair, I know Okay.

00:44:56.085 --> 00:45:01.579
So that contract went to an excavation team to dig into the town and put out the fire, okay.

00:45:01.579 --> 00:45:06.646
But the state government restricted where they could work, oh Jesus Christ.

00:45:06.646 --> 00:45:26.268
Where they could work, oh jesus christ, they were not allowed to do any exploratory, digging or surveying to determine the damage or where most of the damage is why would they not allow that, because it's government well wouldn't you want to fucking know oh, oh, and they only allowed them to work monday through friday, eight hours a day.

00:45:27.230 --> 00:45:28.273
I mean 40 hours a week.

00:45:28.920 --> 00:45:32.730
But at this rate it's too slow for the fire.

00:45:32.730 --> 00:45:33.652
The fire's just.

00:45:34.344 --> 00:45:35.940
Well, because fire doesn't have a fucking timetable.

00:45:35.980 --> 00:45:39.947
They don't have a timetable, they don't got to check in, they're not clocking in and clocking out.

00:45:40.639 --> 00:45:41.686
Oh, got to go on my lunch.

00:45:41.686 --> 00:45:42.824
Fire's off for an hour.

00:45:43.405 --> 00:45:44.550
No, fuck that.

00:45:44.550 --> 00:45:50.653
Got to get to one of those 27 saloons.

00:45:50.653 --> 00:45:51.099
Wow, people are dumb.

00:45:51.099 --> 00:45:55.389
With all this digging, it brought in more oxygen.

00:45:55.750 --> 00:45:56.431
Of course it did.

00:45:56.512 --> 00:45:57.393
Of course it did.

00:45:57.780 --> 00:45:59.445
Do you know what oxygen does to a fire?

00:45:59.445 --> 00:46:01.090
Kaboom, it feels it.

00:46:02.380 --> 00:46:05.570
So somehow the Jones people are optimistic.

00:46:05.940 --> 00:46:09.168
I'm glad at least they have a positive outlook on life right now.

00:46:09.168 --> 00:46:09.971
Good for them.

00:46:10.559 --> 00:46:13.009
But obviously they don't know what's in store for them.

00:46:13.009 --> 00:46:13.942
Please tell me.

00:46:14.003 --> 00:46:15.045
Centralia blew up.

00:46:15.045 --> 00:46:16.550
No, damn it.

00:46:16.550 --> 00:46:18.565
That would have been an epic finish.

00:46:19.219 --> 00:46:24.170
So the fire was burning deep within the town, which made it difficult to kind of directly.

00:46:24.652 --> 00:46:25.414
But nice and toasty.

00:46:28.101 --> 00:46:31.771
It made it difficult to detect immediately, yeah, okay.

00:46:31.771 --> 00:46:34.869
It could be up to 800 feet below the surface.

00:46:35.572 --> 00:46:39.326
Holy shit, yeah, well, okay, with that being said, is that roughly like?

00:46:39.326 --> 00:46:40.610
Is that how deep they went?

00:46:40.860 --> 00:46:42.365
That's how deep some of them went.

00:46:42.365 --> 00:46:48.751
Yes, so at the time there was also less understanding of the complex dynamics of underground coal fires.

00:46:48.751 --> 00:46:55.831
Sure, there was early signs of the fire, such as steam coming up from the ground.

00:46:56.132 --> 00:46:56.893
Yeah, that would do it.

00:46:57.059 --> 00:46:59.626
But they actually attributed that to other causes.

00:47:00.068 --> 00:47:00.509
Like what.

00:47:00.909 --> 00:47:01.512
I'll tell you.

00:47:02.523 --> 00:47:03.186
Oh, thank God.

00:47:08.643 --> 00:47:13.313
I literally wrote in red what other causes you ask because I knew you're going to.

00:47:13.313 --> 00:47:21.782
Like I said, you are learning, so in some areas the earth's heat can cause water to boil and produce steam.

00:47:21.782 --> 00:47:22.623
Sure I get that.

00:47:22.623 --> 00:47:27.789
So this is especially common in volcanic regions or areas with high geothermal gradients.

00:47:27.891 --> 00:47:32.351
So 99 not likely here I said I didn't realize pennsylvania.

00:47:32.411 --> 00:47:35.461
Pennsylvania was volcanic I need to take off my shoes and socks.

00:47:35.461 --> 00:47:36.103
I'm getting warm.

00:47:36.364 --> 00:47:38.068
Oh geez, too much laughter.

00:47:38.068 --> 00:47:42.985
Or are you standing in centralia and the ground's warm?

00:47:43.967 --> 00:47:49.759
okay, so another cause um if there were any nearby industries such as factories or power plants.

00:47:49.759 --> 00:47:57.965
Well, yeah they might have been releasing steam as part of their operations, but again I doubt it like, hey, do you know what we should do with our operation?

00:47:57.985 --> 00:47:59.771
we should release steam into the ground.

00:47:59.771 --> 00:48:00.981
I mean, who does that?

00:48:01.822 --> 00:48:10.570
and then abandoned mines if there were enough abandoned mines in the area, they could have been filled with water that was heated by the earth's heat, resulting in steam.

00:48:10.570 --> 00:48:16.927
I don't believe that, so the government?

00:48:16.927 --> 00:48:31.143
Sucks spent millions of dollars on ways to control and kill the fire, but zero solution worked well they waited two months to have a meeting about it and then you can only work eight hours a day.

00:48:31.242 --> 00:48:34.889
I mean this seems like a pretty big fucking thing to do.

00:48:34.889 --> 00:48:40.934
Don't put a timetable on what you can do it or the hours between you can do it.

00:48:40.934 --> 00:48:42.860
Basically that's ridiculous.

00:48:42.980 --> 00:48:49.893
So by 1977, the townspeople started to split into factions with opposing opinions.

00:48:49.932 --> 00:48:53.289
Oh dear, Did they like rival gangs across town?

00:48:53.480 --> 00:48:53.961
Did they start?

00:48:54.001 --> 00:48:54.965
snapping towards each other.

00:48:54.965 --> 00:48:55.327
You know.

00:49:00.320 --> 00:49:01.827
Did you just put a musical?

00:49:01.967 --> 00:49:02.449
I might have.

00:49:05.800 --> 00:49:14.505
So some would say that the government should pay for their relocation, sure, and others were like, no, my family has been here for generations.

00:49:15.246 --> 00:49:23.789
They need to pay us to stay well, I mean, or just fix the fucking problem fix the problem, but we're not moving no, which is fine.

00:49:23.789 --> 00:49:24.291
I get that.

00:49:24.291 --> 00:49:29.590
If your, your family, grew up there, you know he had roots there for 10, 20, 50, 100 years, whatever.

00:49:29.590 --> 00:49:31.373
Yeah, fuck you, I don't want to move.

00:49:31.373 --> 00:49:32.784
Fix this shit, man.

00:49:33.541 --> 00:49:35.389
In 1979.

00:49:35.389 --> 00:49:40.228
You were born in 1979.

00:49:40.228 --> 00:49:41.130
There you go.

00:49:41.130 --> 00:49:45.148
I think I should get a tally taken home.

00:49:45.369 --> 00:49:48.806
No, they can only be added, they cannot be removed.

00:49:48.806 --> 00:49:50.804
Come on, nope, nope, nope, nope.

00:49:51.139 --> 00:49:52.505
How many tallies do I have?

00:49:52.525 --> 00:49:53.588
You've got three right now.

00:49:53.608 --> 00:49:54.050
Okay, that's not.

00:49:54.050 --> 00:49:57.248
I should only have two for knowing what year you were born.

00:49:57.248 --> 00:49:58.581
Well, you don't, Okay.

00:49:58.581 --> 00:50:12.771
So in 1979, the Coddington's Gas and Service Station was the first place in town To blow up that the was the first place in town that the townspeople finally realized how severe their situation was they finally realized in 1979.

00:50:12.820 --> 00:50:14.907
This has been going on for how long 19 years.

00:50:14.907 --> 00:50:17.288
Yeah, what the shit is happening.

00:50:17.460 --> 00:50:24.244
The owner of the gas station noticed some steam rising up near his property that's not good.

00:50:24.244 --> 00:50:31.070
He measured his gas tanks under his station and they topped out at 136 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:50:31.070 --> 00:50:32.646
What are they supposed to be at?

00:50:34.217 --> 00:50:34.659
All right, hold on.

00:50:34.659 --> 00:50:36.226
I've got to get my tally sheet out.

00:50:40.041 --> 00:50:40.744
But get this.

00:50:40.744 --> 00:50:43.387
I researched this next point just for you.

00:50:43.469 --> 00:50:43.849
Thank you.

00:50:44.420 --> 00:50:48.775
Gasoline has a flashpoint of 536 degrees fahrenheit.

00:50:48.916 --> 00:50:53.414
Wow, of course you didn't ask that question well, no, because you preempted me to ask that.

00:50:53.414 --> 00:50:58.206
I didn't realize that would have been that high, though I didn't think so either.

00:50:58.206 --> 00:51:12.190
But let's not find out, please, let's not but being a gasoline, I mean, yeah, combustible, yeah, I would have guessed it to be lower, but okay I mean, we're talking huge tanks though, so I don't, I don't know did you ever read the book?

00:51:12.190 --> 00:51:15.885
I don't know how physics work did you ever read the book fahrenheit 454?

00:51:15.885 --> 00:51:17.690
No, do you know what that means?

00:51:18.851 --> 00:51:22.646
no that's, if I'm remembering correctly, which, again, I don't do that a lot.

00:51:22.646 --> 00:51:30.233
Uh, that's when the temperature that paper burns oh interesting I believe is what it is, because it's about burning books and stuff.

00:51:30.233 --> 00:51:31.545
It's a really good book.

00:51:31.545 --> 00:51:35.251
It's been out for well I don't know, 70s, 60s, 70s maybe.

00:51:35.251 --> 00:51:38.349
I guess I don't remember what year it was published, but anyway, sorry.

00:51:38.719 --> 00:51:41.768
Okay, so the tanks, the tanks.

00:51:41.768 --> 00:51:42.570
They were emptied.

00:51:43.360 --> 00:51:44.184
Well, I hope so.

00:51:44.539 --> 00:51:47.123
And then the station was abandoned why?

00:51:47.123 --> 00:51:50.346
Because he didn't know if it was going to blow up or not.

00:51:50.385 --> 00:51:54.128
Well, I can't blame him there, but apparently the town didn't blow up for 19 years.

00:51:54.329 --> 00:51:58.259
But the station wasn't demolished until two years later.

00:51:58.840 --> 00:51:59.121
Okay.

00:51:59.369 --> 00:51:59.751
But it was.

00:51:59.751 --> 00:52:03.300
They're saying it was the first casualty of the fire.

00:52:04.030 --> 00:52:05.297
Was his business basically.

00:52:05.336 --> 00:52:05.518
Yes.

00:52:05.769 --> 00:52:08.170
But it was elective abandonment, yes, okay.

00:52:08.949 --> 00:52:15.210
So in 1980, exhaust pipes were put in Like big round exhaust pipes.

00:52:15.250 --> 00:52:18.771
Did they just hammer in exhaust pipes, saying this will work Pretty much so?

00:52:18.972 --> 00:52:28.034
this would enable to the fumes to come out of the surface in controlled locations and then they light those on fire instead of being seeped into the local homes.

00:52:28.034 --> 00:52:29.898
Oh jesus, and it helped.

00:52:29.898 --> 00:52:33.813
I'm sure it did, until until it didn't.

00:52:33.813 --> 00:52:46.001
The fire moved on, oh god, and then the pipes became an entry point for oxygen and you know what happens with oxygen and fire fire continues to burn weird.

00:52:46.844 --> 00:52:58.534
That's a common theme through this right now holy shit, oh my god so health inspectors, they're like maybe we should go to centralia let's see what's going on here.

00:52:58.534 --> 00:53:12.619
And it was actually perfect timing too, because while they were there, yes a 12 year old boy saw smoke coming from his grandmother's backyard oh, jesus and he went to see what it was and hello, he fell into a sinkhole.

00:53:12.619 --> 00:53:15.411
The ground completely gave way, oh my god.

00:53:15.411 --> 00:53:23.199
He managed to grab a hold of a root of a tree, thank God, and his cousin who was nearby pulled him out Jesus.

00:53:23.239 --> 00:53:23.739
he's lucky.

00:53:23.739 --> 00:53:25.416
He probably would have died otherwise.

00:53:25.416 --> 00:53:25.677
Yeah.

00:53:26.411 --> 00:53:34.762
So steam and gases and heat were wallowing past him, sometimes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

00:53:34.762 --> 00:53:36.606
Can I ask a question, oh dear God?

00:53:37.291 --> 00:53:38.335
What was the boy's name?

00:53:38.335 --> 00:53:45.358
I don't know, all right his name was billy um.

00:53:45.358 --> 00:53:51.117
I wrote it down later you're making shit up, making shit up there is a name.

00:53:51.177 --> 00:53:53.971
I didn't write it down because it's not pertinent was his name billy boy.

00:53:53.971 --> 00:54:02.965
No, oh, okay, that was this, I know, but this sinkhole was 150 feet deep, holy shit.

00:54:02.965 --> 00:54:03.206
Yeah.

00:54:03.206 --> 00:54:22.615
So the state government like, okay, but god, we proved it we should do something they approved a 42 million dollar fund, which is 130 million dollars today good job to buy the Centralia homes from the residents to relocate, but they didn't want to relocate.

00:54:23.150 --> 00:54:25.038
You should pay us to stay here Some of them didn't.

00:54:25.471 --> 00:54:29.711
I'm sure some did, though, but the government didn't do a great job of handling this.

00:54:30.072 --> 00:54:32.896
You don't say Houses were appraised.

00:54:32.896 --> 00:54:33.976
Oh Jesus.

00:54:34.139 --> 00:54:39.056
Some of them were about $43,000, which is $150,000 today.

00:54:39.056 --> 00:54:47.838
You're welcome, but the offer so $43,000, the offer was for $17,000.

00:54:47.838 --> 00:54:50.804
Oh fuck, that One home was $36,000.

00:54:50.804 --> 00:54:55.132
Appraisal yeah, they were offered $11,000.

00:54:55.273 --> 00:54:56.635
And did it say go fuck yourself.

00:54:56.675 --> 00:54:57.137
They did.

00:54:57.137 --> 00:55:01.664
But, if you didn't accept, they would not come back with a different offer.

00:55:01.664 --> 00:55:03.516
You either take it or you leave it.

00:55:03.670 --> 00:55:07.039
See, that's horseshit, because you can't fucking undercut it that much.

00:55:07.039 --> 00:55:11.481
I mean, you said $11,000, the house is appraised at 36.

00:55:11.481 --> 00:55:23.300
That's less than a third of the cost or the value of the house, yes, and you're saying no fucking are you're fucked because you either stay here and you don't do nothing that's bullshit.

00:55:23.320 --> 00:55:31.219
So that is typical fucking government bullshit so imagine today my house is 125 000, here's 38 000.

00:55:31.318 --> 00:55:32.440
Yeah, it's like.

00:55:32.440 --> 00:55:33.664
I hope this works for you.

00:55:34.043 --> 00:55:41.692
Good luck, yeah, godspeed right it's like um no yeah, there's a shanty down the way you can't even buy a portage on for that.

00:55:41.972 --> 00:55:42.715
I'm just kidding you.

00:55:42.715 --> 00:55:45.985
Probably you still have a place to shit, I guess.

00:55:46.005 --> 00:55:53.769
So in 1992 the governor placed the homes in centralia on eminent domain okay so some people ended up moving.

00:55:53.769 --> 00:55:55.152
Yep, some people stayed sure.

00:55:55.152 --> 00:56:03.431
In 1994 the government tried to reconstruct a part of route route 61, which goes straight through centralia.

00:56:03.431 --> 00:56:21.992
Okay, and they had to build like a bypass temporarily so they could like reconstruct this, this route right so there were cracks all up and down the highway, but the bypass became permanent, as reconstructing that part of 61 was impossible I was gonna say they probably couldn't do it.

00:56:22.172 --> 00:56:31.094
No that abandoned highway is known as the graffiti highway this is a lot of graffiti on it no, actually I'm kidding.

00:56:31.094 --> 00:56:42.114
No, there was a guy um who was trying to reconstruct it by the name of graffiti and they named it after him.

00:56:42.153 --> 00:56:44.057
Yes, I am graffiti highway.

00:56:44.197 --> 00:56:50.300
It's full of graffiti, yes, so this became a like the most iconic attraction for people to come to centralia.

00:56:50.300 --> 00:57:04.599
So people police actually used to chase people off the highway as it was getting more and more dangerous just because huge cracks are in land sinkholes and crevices, all that exactly.

00:57:04.619 --> 00:57:07.346
So in june, 1995.

00:57:07.407 --> 00:57:11.115
The last church standing is saint ignatius.

00:57:11.115 --> 00:57:12.440
Oh ignatius.

00:57:12.440 --> 00:57:24.389
They had their final service in 1995 and they actually kind of treated it like a funeral I bet they did because the town was dying so that was june 95, but they didn't tear down the church until november of 97.

00:57:25.192 --> 00:57:29.543
I don't know why they're waiting so long well, I mean, I'm surprised they just didn't abandon it.

00:57:29.543 --> 00:57:29.650
Why?

00:57:29.650 --> 00:57:35.530
They had to tear it down, I guess and then 2002, the post office shut down oh, how are they gonna get their post?

00:57:35.530 --> 00:57:39.177
No post on sundays 2009 more evictions.

00:57:39.860 --> 00:57:54.652
So the state reach an agreement that residents who wanted to stay could, but when they died their property went to the state instead of anyone else yes, their homes could not be passed down to descendants could they sell it to their descendant for?

00:57:54.692 --> 00:58:05.742
a dollar no no matter what if you live there at that time okay yep, it's the states after that seems kind of dicky, but all right so get this.

00:58:05.742 --> 00:58:11.958
There's a town nearby called burnsville that is so fucking fantastic.

00:58:11.958 --> 00:58:15.827
Burnsville it's spelled b-y-r-n.

00:58:15.827 --> 00:58:19.663
I don't care burnsville, but yeah, it's fantastic, that is awesome.

00:58:19.663 --> 00:58:32.291
Yeah, so burnsville it's just minutes, minutes south of centralia, okay, and it also was caught up in the same way, and they too abandoned all their homes and businesses, but it's like a teeny tiny town compared to centralia, sure.

00:58:33.032 --> 00:58:59.721
And then there's the town of artisies artisies and it's just minutes north sounds very greek but it has not become like centralia yet, but it will be in a few decades oh really so so basically, by you saying that, does that mean like the stuff that's underground is just basically it's moving it's still moving, it's just taking a while because it's burning through the coal that's underneath.

00:58:59.842 --> 00:59:12.317
Yes, wow, so uh, 2020 during the pandemic yeah more and more people were coming to the graffiti highway okay I mean, they got nothing, that better do you do right?

00:59:13.018 --> 00:59:21.480
I hope they had masks on, but so for more than one reason gas mask.

00:59:21.480 --> 00:59:23.623
I'm just talking about for the fumes, I don't.

00:59:23.623 --> 00:59:30.369
I don't know what you're talking about I'm talking about the pandemic everybody wore masks during the pandemic anyway, that's not true?

00:59:31.411 --> 00:59:41.706
um, so the state brought in dump trucks and they literally buried the graffiti highway with hundreds and hundreds of mounds of dirt.

00:59:41.706 --> 00:59:54.650
Okay, and if you get caught there, you get a pretty stiff fine, really so they covered it, so that is no longer like something that people can come and look at and that's the only reason why they cover.

00:59:54.710 --> 00:59:56.432
Yeah, they're just like we don't want people in here.

00:59:57.014 --> 00:59:57.936
It's just too dangerous.

00:59:57.936 --> 00:59:58.717
Stay out.

00:59:58.717 --> 01:00:04.436
So technically you can still go there, sure, but it's highly discouraged.

01:00:04.436 --> 01:00:14.420
I don't know why you can still see plumes of gases and heat coming out of the ground, okay, and there's still a chance of encountering sinkholes.

01:00:14.860 --> 01:00:15.563
Oh, definitely.

01:00:15.931 --> 01:00:17.494
And the highway is covered in dirt.

01:00:17.494 --> 01:00:25.840
Plus, they have like what are called berms, which are like artificial banks or ridges, so you can't like drive onto it Sure.

01:00:25.940 --> 01:00:27.822
Yeah, to block people from going there.

01:00:27.922 --> 01:00:30.577
Okay, yeah, gotcha so that is the town of Centralia.

01:00:30.577 --> 01:00:33.197
But have you ever heard of the game Silent Hill?

01:00:33.197 --> 01:00:37.619
Yes, so it was developed by Team Silent from Japan.

01:00:37.860 --> 01:00:38.041
Yeah.

01:00:42.110 --> 01:00:43.355
And it is a survival horror video game franchise, correct?

01:00:43.375 --> 01:00:46.306
there's like a ton of them there is, and they even made a movie too.

01:00:46.447 --> 01:00:50.440
Yes, I'm not mistaken so it's known for its psychological horror elements.

01:00:50.440 --> 01:00:57.961
Um, and it's set in a fictional town of silent hill, which is shrouded in fog and often plagued with supernatural events.

01:00:57.961 --> 01:01:03.398
Correct, so the games typically follow protagonists who find themselves some.

01:01:03.398 --> 01:01:15.483
The games typically follow protagonists who find themselves trapped in Silent Hill, where their fears and nightmares manifest as horrible creatures and environments.

01:01:15.563 --> 01:01:15.784
Yep, yep.

01:01:16.914 --> 01:01:25.043
The series is renowned for its atmospheric storytelling, upsetting environments and themes of psychological trauma and religious symbolism.

01:01:25.043 --> 01:01:35.804
Sure, and there is a rumor that this game is based off of Centralia, pennsylvania, but the town of Silent Hill is entirely fictional and created just for the game.

01:01:36.045 --> 01:01:36.346
Okay.

01:01:36.346 --> 01:01:51.518
People think there's a lot of crossover there and there's, it's just rumor so it could be completely coincidental it's, yeah, yeah, it's most likely coincidental right, I mean people grasp at straws all the time to connect shit.

01:01:51.518 --> 01:01:59.940
But yeah, it's kind of cool, though I mean it's kind of neat so the fire yeah will continue to burn, oh dear, for another 250 years.

01:02:00.199 --> 01:02:16.601
Holy fuck yeah, really yeah thankfully, no one has been directly killed by the fires, but many have experienced health problems from the gases I can imagine today there is a church remaining and they, they built it.

01:02:16.601 --> 01:02:19.253
Um, so it is a ukrainian church.

01:02:19.253 --> 01:02:26.079
It still stands today on a hill and continues to have services, but the church was allowed to build.

01:02:26.630 --> 01:02:30.201
You would say that hill that it was built on was not silent, correct?

01:02:30.690 --> 01:02:35.278
There's lots of chorus going on Lots of bell, hallelujah chorus.

01:02:35.278 --> 01:02:43.809
All right, the church was allowed to build there and stay because it's rock underneath and not coal, sure?

01:02:44.050 --> 01:02:52.773
so they, they did their their due diligence and made sure like okay yeah gotcha today how many people live there?

01:02:53.012 --> 01:03:00.045
less than five less than five I feel like okay, hold on a sec In 2020, there were five.

01:03:00.869 --> 01:03:02.034
And now it's less than five.

01:03:02.034 --> 01:03:03.773
I don't know, did someone die?

01:03:04.315 --> 01:03:04.737
Exactly.

01:03:04.737 --> 01:03:11.757
I haven't found anything but in 2020, there was five, so it's possible between 2020, 2024.

01:03:11.876 --> 01:03:13.561
Or someone went off to college, there might be less.

01:03:13.561 --> 01:03:18.255
Yeah, whatever, a little Billy boy went off to college, there's less than five.

01:03:18.255 --> 01:03:18.030
Little.

01:03:17.938 --> 01:03:19.016
Billy boy went off to college to there's less than five.

01:03:19.230 --> 01:03:20.494
That's fucking crazy.

01:03:20.494 --> 01:03:21.597
Five people.

01:03:21.838 --> 01:03:22.039
Yeah.

01:03:22.210 --> 01:03:24.719
The fact that it's even still a town is just ridiculous.

01:03:24.719 --> 01:03:27.858
Yeah, Just blow it up for this fucking at this point.

01:03:28.630 --> 01:03:53.458
Wow, that is weird, that's weird wild stuff an article through historycom um wikipedia, la times, uh, smithonia smithsonian magazine um centralia paorg, and then there was also a video that I watched on youtube called um america's burning ghost town okay, which is also burning ghost town.

01:03:53.458 --> 01:03:59.634
Yes, I like that, yeah so that is centralia penn Pennsylvania that is weird.

01:04:00.313 --> 01:04:03.335
I never, I've never, ever heard of that before today.

01:04:03.335 --> 01:04:04.456
Yeah that is.

01:04:04.456 --> 01:04:08.920
That's crazy because, like I feel like you would have, you should have heard of that.

01:04:08.920 --> 01:04:23.211
I mean, it's been going on for quite some fucking time, yeah, and I have never heard of Centralia or some random burning fucking town that's wild.

01:04:23.231 --> 01:04:31.510
Or poor burnsville poor burnsville, so aptly named it started in 1962 and it's going to continue on for another 250 years.

01:04:31.831 --> 01:04:35.521
That's crazy yeah wow, why do they?

01:04:35.521 --> 01:04:38.952
Why do they think it's going to go on for another 250 years?

01:04:38.952 --> 01:04:43.016
There's just that much coal underneath there, that much coal, that many tunnels.

01:04:43.177 --> 01:04:51.501
And then there's probably some algorithm, math problem that says this is how much has brass burned since 1962.

01:04:51.710 --> 01:04:56.081
Well, yeah, it's like it burns at this rate per minute, blah, blah, blah, whatever it might be.

01:04:56.081 --> 01:04:57.956
Okay, that makes sense.

01:04:57.956 --> 01:04:59.670
I'm sure someone a lot smarter than us.

01:04:59.670 --> 01:05:03.101
It's a math question, probably, and I'm good at math, but I'm not good at that.

01:05:03.269 --> 01:05:04.333
I'm very bad at math.

01:05:04.452 --> 01:05:04.793
I know.

01:05:05.596 --> 01:05:10.432
So any math question, I'm like I look to somebody else, I'm like what's the answer?

01:05:10.432 --> 01:05:15.018
Does it sound like a parrot?

01:05:15.018 --> 01:05:15.880
I mean a little bit.

01:05:15.880 --> 01:05:16.981
What's the answer?

01:05:17.822 --> 01:05:20.965
Oh, my God, oh, that's pretty great, but anyways.

01:05:21.050 --> 01:05:21.972
Okay, please save me.

01:05:21.972 --> 01:05:23.438
Say you have an idiom Okay.

01:05:24.099 --> 01:05:24.380
Would you?

01:05:24.380 --> 01:05:28.199
So I have got like a two-part idiom.

01:05:28.199 --> 01:05:30.311
They kind of go together but they're not.

01:05:30.311 --> 01:05:36.240
I guess you could say they're related, but I did two different ones that kind of coincide with each other.

01:05:36.340 --> 01:05:36.601
Okay.

01:05:42.170 --> 01:05:44.936
I have have in my time of research on it, which was not extensive, um, I'm just being honest.

01:05:44.936 --> 01:05:46.458
Both.

01:05:47.420 --> 01:05:54.115
Both of them, I found, were disproved so this is no longer the history podcast.

01:05:54.135 --> 01:05:58.521
No, it's still history because I mean obviously it's still history, because I mean obviously it's there.

01:05:58.521 --> 01:06:01.224
I just I kind of thought they were funny.

01:06:01.766 --> 01:06:02.005
Okay.

01:06:02.309 --> 01:06:07.686
More or less because of what they're not true.

01:06:07.686 --> 01:06:13.701
They were disproved, and I go over one of them a little bit as why.

01:06:14.391 --> 01:06:15.335
I am ready to hear.

01:06:15.536 --> 01:06:19.320
All right, so the first one is a shot of whiskey.

01:06:23.869 --> 01:06:23.949
Okay.

01:06:23.969 --> 01:06:25.293
Okay, I know it literally correct.

01:06:25.293 --> 01:06:46.309
So back in the old west, um, someone would go into a saloon, one of the 27 in centralia perhaps, even though that was the east, perhaps as long as they weren't on fire, but anyways, someone would go into a saloon and if they didn't have enough money to buy whiskey because whiskey was the main you wouldn't go in.

01:06:46.331 --> 01:06:49.384
And buy a gin and tonic right drink of choice is whiskey.

01:06:49.384 --> 01:06:50.027
What was available.

01:06:50.047 --> 01:06:56.460
What was available um, if you didn't have enough money, he would trade a bullet for a shot glass.

01:06:56.460 --> 01:07:09.762
Before it was called a shot glass, apparently, is what this was saying of whiskey, so a measure of whiskey, basically, and that has been proven pretty much false.

01:07:09.762 --> 01:07:27.186
Mainly, the main reason is um, basically, if you look at what the cost of a bullet was back then, compared to a cost of what an actual beverage any beverage, not just whiskey, anything like that would be not even close.

01:07:27.186 --> 01:07:29.896
A bullet cost about two and a half cents.

01:07:29.896 --> 01:07:36.543
Oh wow, back in that time a shot of whiskey air quotes was 25 cents.

01:07:36.543 --> 01:07:41.257
You need 10 bullets to get that one, so you wouldn't really be giving a shot.

01:07:41.257 --> 01:07:43.273
You'd be giving shots if you will.

01:07:43.273 --> 01:07:47.742
So basically because of that, they're saying that ain't that's not true.

01:07:47.951 --> 01:07:58.096
Yeah, I just thought it was funny because picture all the old western type movies, any type of movie set back in the 1800s, like I could see that.

01:07:58.096 --> 01:08:13.199
But no, apparently, but apparently not, which is kind of a bummer, because I couldn't really find, because I've looked at this one before, I couldn't really find bullet of whiskey, a bullet for whiskey there is for whiskey.

01:08:13.199 --> 01:08:17.855
Yeah, okay, for whiskey there is bullet bourbon whiskey though did that.

01:08:18.077 --> 01:08:19.099
Is that where that came from?

01:08:19.219 --> 01:08:21.063
no, because it's also spelt with an I.

01:08:21.063 --> 01:08:29.618
Bullet bourbon is spelt with an I, where obviously a bullet's, just not no I feel like they missed the mark on that one I know they kind of.

01:08:29.618 --> 01:08:35.595
I think it has something to do with one of the founders names, I believe okay, so it's just ironic.

01:08:35.715 --> 01:08:38.961
Okay, isn't it ironic, don't you think?

01:08:40.783 --> 01:08:43.387
so the next one kind of goes over.

01:08:43.387 --> 01:08:51.400
It's related, because if you have too many shots of whiskey, what would you be the next day?

01:08:52.323 --> 01:08:53.345
hungover yeah.

01:08:53.385 --> 01:08:58.315
So hangover, a lot of people thought came from British sailors.

01:08:58.315 --> 01:09:10.810
They would basically purchase a spot on a rope to hang over if they drank too much, in case they would throw up or anything.

01:09:10.810 --> 01:09:14.960
So they wouldn't be like I don't know, joking on their own vomit kind of thing.

01:09:15.220 --> 01:09:15.681
Yucky boo.

01:09:17.990 --> 01:09:20.858
But yeah, so apparently it derived from they.

01:09:20.858 --> 01:09:29.503
People say it derived from british soldiers doing that or british sailor excuse me doing that, but apparently that is completely false.

01:09:29.503 --> 01:09:36.689
Basically, all hangover really means is something that remained or simply survived.

01:09:36.689 --> 01:09:41.890
So basically, you have too much to drink the night before it's still there the next day.

01:09:42.532 --> 01:09:43.854
But not in a good way, basically.

01:09:44.595 --> 01:09:53.921
so it over time it got pretty much just associated with drinking too much or too many drugs name your poison, whatever.

01:09:53.921 --> 01:09:57.850
Um, but I really think it would be funny.

01:09:57.850 --> 01:10:06.161
Is this like man, I drank a lot, I should go buy a spot on that rope to uh hang over for the night till I'm I wake up, right?

01:10:06.161 --> 01:10:09.926
So I was kind of bummed that wasn't actually true.

01:10:12.550 --> 01:10:12.792
Do you think?

01:10:12.811 --> 01:10:13.617
like all the blood rush to their heads.

01:10:13.617 --> 01:10:14.563
I would think that that would make it worse.

01:10:14.563 --> 01:10:15.569
That would be terrible.

01:10:16.050 --> 01:10:22.690
And then it would go up his nose when he vomits and terrible.

01:10:22.690 --> 01:10:24.956
And then it would go up his nose when he vomits and, oh man, that sounds even worse.

01:10:24.975 --> 01:10:25.457
That's acid stomach.

01:10:25.457 --> 01:10:26.439
Stomach acid right in your nose, have you?

01:10:26.479 --> 01:10:27.862
ever had coke come out of your nose.

01:10:27.862 --> 01:10:28.871
It is not fun.

01:10:29.131 --> 01:10:38.782
Ask me how I know I've never had coke go in my nose either, but either way, not that coke, not that Coke.

01:10:38.902 --> 01:10:40.023
Oh, my bad Soda.

01:10:40.184 --> 01:10:41.664
Soda Well.

01:10:41.664 --> 01:10:44.609
Coca-cola used to have cocaine in it.

01:10:44.609 --> 01:10:44.948
Yes.

01:10:45.430 --> 01:10:45.829
Back in the day.

01:10:45.829 --> 01:10:46.273
Oh, but man.

01:10:46.273 --> 01:10:48.568
Can you just imagine vomiting and then it going up your nose?

01:10:49.332 --> 01:10:52.440
No, that sounds just god-awful disgusting right now.

01:10:52.440 --> 01:10:54.634
I kind of wish you wouldn't have said that.

01:10:54.634 --> 01:10:56.137
But either way, you're welcome.

01:10:56.137 --> 01:10:58.563
You're welcome, oh Lord.

01:10:58.563 --> 01:11:09.532
Well, either way, you're welcome, you're welcome.

01:11:09.532 --> 01:11:09.693
Oh lord.

01:11:09.693 --> 01:11:10.755
Well, I suppose you're gonna end it for me.

01:11:10.755 --> 01:11:11.917
I'm gonna, because you're laughing too hard.

01:11:11.917 --> 01:11:12.578
Thank you, folks.

01:11:12.578 --> 01:11:13.520
All right, buffoons.

01:11:13.742 --> 01:11:19.139
That's it for today's episode buckle up, because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you.

01:11:19.139 --> 01:11:27.130
Next time Feeling hungry for more buffoonery, or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore.

01:11:27.771 --> 01:11:29.078
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01:11:29.078 --> 01:11:33.930
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01:11:33.930 --> 01:11:38.301
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01:11:39.271 --> 01:11:44.059
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01:11:44.319 --> 01:11:47.552
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01:11:48.014 --> 01:11:50.121
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