Centralia, Pennsylvania in 1983

Centralia today

Dear Diary, Today was another day to sleep in. The morning ERT would have to be something special to get me up, and none of these are, not even the promise of breakfast. Cindy and I opted to spend the day visiting some odd nearby attractions. First on the list was the town of Centralia. Centralia is the USA's own little Chernobyl, a town that's been on fire for over forty years and has since been abandoned. An underground coal mine ignited and caught fire in 1960, and the town has been burning ever since. There is no way to put the fire out, so it continues to rage underground, destroying the land above it and making the area unihabitable. You can read more about it here: http://www.offroaders.com/album/centralia/centralia.htm Cindy and I drove to the abrupt end of old Rt. 61. We parked our car and got out and walked behind the large dirt mound that prevents cars from entering the old highway. Behind that dirt mound lies an unbelieveable scene. We walked perhaps half a mile up the road. You could feel the asphalt beneath you getting softer and giving way. Finally we reached a point where the highway had just sunk. The ground below just gave away and the highway sunk, perhaps as much as 4 feet, looking very much like earthquake damage. And then we came upon the trees. White-charred trees that looked like ash. It's amazing huge forest fires having been started here. Finally we came upon the worst of the road damage. Huge chasms in the road buckled under from the fire down below, and now served as vents for the smoke to escape. Large, steady plumes of smoke oozed from the vents in the asphalt. Both Cindy and I were totally creeped out by this time and we decided to head back to our car. We then drove up to the old part of town. What was once a bustling small town has now been, for the most part, levelled. We drove down abandoned streets and saw lot after empty lot, their property having long since been razed. A few local diehards refuse to leave the place, but God knows what kind of disease they've inherited - warnings of toxic fume emissions are posted all over the abandoned town. Finally we drove up to the most accessible site of the worst damage. This was a nightmare scenario. The place looked like a dumpsite, when in fact it was actually just land, a part of the city. The ground had collapsed from the underground fire, and the crater must be twenty or thirty feet deep. All around it are the charred remains of a city that caught fire forty years ago. The smoke rising from the area at times carried an overwhelmingly offensive smell. The place just looked like hell on earth. I'm so glad we got to see Centralia. It amazes me the government allows anyone to live there - perhaps three or four families remain today. I can't even believe they allow people to visit. The toxic fumes alone made my head feel light. There were several other curiosity seekers milling about, and I'm sure at some point this place will simply become too dangerous to visit. See it while you can. We headed back on Rt. 61 and stopped in Frackville at the Dutch Kitchen Diner. This is a true Pennsylvania Dutch diner that sells all kinds of Amish crafts. It's a 1959 Paramount modern stainless that has had an additional dining area added onto the original. Unfortunately the addition resulted in the exterior being hideously bricked up and a mansard roof added on top, but the diner's interior remains untouched. As we sat in our booth I began pointing out to Cindy some of the identifying features that signified the manufacturer and year. "See, you can tell this is a Paramount by the wide curved roof. And the pink and grey color scheme in the floor tiles and recessed counters indicate that it was made in the late 1950's, I'm guessing 1959." All of a sudden Cindy got this funny look on her face and said "Oh my God! Look at you! You're the Dave Althoff of diners!" We ate Pennsylvania Dutch chicken pot pie, and it was out of this world. It came with a side order of applesauce and a trip to the salad bar. Their salad bar is also in keeping with the Pennsylvania Dutch tradition of "seven sweets and seven sours" and Cindy got to try chow chow, which is a relish of beans and vegetables. The homemade bread was slice your own, and the Dutch Kitchen makes *THE* best apple butter I have ever had! It was so good we couldn't stop eating it! Sadly, the atomic banana split is no longer atomic. Instead of arranging the ice cream and bananas vertically, the dessert is now no more than a standard banana split. We headed for Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster. I have never been here before and Cindy says the park scares her. She says it's creepy but most people seem not to share her opinion. My first impression was that it's location was absolutely bizarre. It sits on the edge of a typical business street, and it's very strange to all of a sudden see an amusement park right next door to all these businesses. There's no way to accurately describe it - you just have to see it to understand. It's like pulling into a parking lot for a strip mall instead of a theme park. I immediately noticed a building advertising fresh squeezed homemade lemonade. I really like lemonade and we went in saw this huge container of lemonade that looked really good. Well, the best compliment I can give to Dutch Wonderland is that they have THE BEST lemonade I have ever had in my life! Photo courtesy of RideZone Photo courtesy of RideZone Dutch Wonderland is a very odd park. I think if I were a little girl I would love to come here with my little girlfriends. The park is full of doll-like statues and figurines, and everything looks very pretty and appealing to my feminine side. So I think it would be a great place to hold a birthday party if you were a little girl. There are all kinds of paper-macheie-like statues throughout the park, evidently representing Amish people and customs. There are even window booths with animatronic figures depicting the Amish way of life. These I found kind of creepy. One window booth shows five or six Amish women performing apparently Amish customs - making a quilt, knitting, rocking the baby and cooking. Above this is a loudspeaker that plays voices of these women having an Amish conversation. And it goes on FOREVER and EVER! They talk on and on about all these things as if you were just listening in on their conversation, and NONE of it made any sense! There was also an Amish men window booth that was equally bizarre. No wonder Cindy finds this park a little creepy! There is also a statue of a plastic cow that you can milk. But I don't wanna milk a plastic cow! It's creepy! Oh no! It's a statue of an angry chicken! He looks really really mad! What's he doing there and why is he so mad! Creepy! Amid all these bizarre statues and window booths lies a very very beautiful park. Immaculately landscaped, this place is incredibly pretty. It looks like a dream, and that's probably why I feel like it's tailor made for a little girl. There is also a wonderful arched bridge that leads to a garden depicting scenes of countries around the world. It's beautiful but, again, kind of creepy! The Sky Princess is a brilliantly laid-out coaster. I just love this layout! It has a great mix of turns, hills, a shed - it looks wonderful! It's just a shame none of the hills have airtime on them, and it's rather puzzling, too. But it is a very fun coaster to ride and we got six or seven rides during our short time there. They also have a *fantastic* fun slide! This thing is a blast! It's fast and well waxed and very very fun, probably the best fun slide in existence now that Americana is SBNO. Unfortunately our time at Dutch Wonderland was limited to just over an hour. A severe thunderstorm rolled through the area and closed down the park. We did NOT want to leave but the skies were so threatening it became obvious the park was about to shut down. We got in Cindy's car just in the nick of time, too, because this turned out to be a thunderstorm right out of Noah's Ark. We headed back to Hershey and the Coaster Con Banquet. The event was being held at Hershey Lodge, and when we found our way up to the Chocolate Ballroom I was impressed with what I saw. Lots of people dressed up - Brad Haller and Phyllis Flaharty won my personal vote for best looking award of the night. I threatened to show up wearing my slutty Twisted Swisters t-shirt from Kentucky Kingdom but chickened out at the last minute. Instead I looked so fine in a nice Walt Disney button down. The doors to the banquet opened and Sean picked out two tables for our group to sit at. I sat with Sean, Phyllis, Chris Murray, Cindy, Larry, Andrew Hartman and Mike Parker, and the table next to us had Jon Smith, Neil, Barry Short and Scott Short, and some other guys I didn't know. A wide screen was playing Mike Robinson's digital photo captures of people enjoying themselves at Hershey and Williams Grove. Jeff Cook was in a ton of them! There were three food lines, and people were escorted to the buffet by table. I was very impressed with the variety of food available - hand carved roast beef, baked fish, barbeque chicken, baked potatoes, and a ton of various vegetables and salad. There were brussel sprouts in one of the vegetable dishes! I love brussel sprouts! Surprisingly the dessert table was full of chocolate. Chocolate cream pie, chocolate cake, and chocolate chip cookies. I was amazed at how much people loaded up their plates! ACEers are pigs! The food was good. I still preferred the fried chicken picnic at Williams Grove, but for a banquet this was very nice. Later on Cindy made a comment about not liking brussel sprouts and that her sister made a great brussel sprouts dish by chopping them up to which I *swear* I made the innocent comment "but I like to eat balls......ohhhh, that was unfortunate." The dinner was really nice, but then it was time for the endless speeches and auction. I cannot *bear* boring banquet speeches, and this portion of the evening was scheduled to go on for another three hours. Now I know this is controversial and some people would look down on us for getting up and leaving, but I really don't care. I'm on vacation. This is not a case where you're under any obligation to stay, but I think some people view it as such. This is not a work-related event, and it's not a dinner invitation where you're a guest at somebody's house. This is our vacation. And I think the important thing to remember here is that I paid my money to attend the convention. I have every right to go or NOT go to any part of that convention. I paid for that meal. I had a right to eat it. And I have no desire to sit and listen to people talk for three hours about roller-coasters when I could be out riding them. I didn't set the agenda, I don't *like* the agenda, but I *will* eat my meal since I paid for it. I would prefer a different type of banquet, one that avoids the typically boring banquet protocol. So I choose not to sit through that, and if enough people choose to do the same then perhaps the agenda will eventually be changed and I will stay. And if others enjoy the current banquet protocol the way it is then I hope they have a pleasant evening. But it astounds me how many people would try to dictate to others how they should and should not spend their vacation time! I have *never* told anyone what to do on their vacation, and all I ask for is the same consideration. So I left. I went back to Hersheypark and ended the night the way I wanted - with a ride on Wildcat, two rides on Lightning Racer and a last ride of the night on Great Bear. I also bought two pair of roller-coaster socks that Bob V. from Ohio turned me onto - thanks Bob! It was a wonderful way to end my time at a park that made such a great host for Coaster Con. What made it even nicer was that Dave Johnson and James Draeger also happened to be in the park. They were there just for fun and not part of the Con, although I should add that it was equally great seeing two other attendees, who shall remain nameless, also ditching the banquet and standing in line for Lightning Racer. We each pointed at each other and said "You're bad!" The theme of this trip has been "I don't want to leave." And I don't. I really felt cheated at Dutch Wonderland due to the weather - I was having a great time and liked what I saw, but I didn't even get to see all of the park. And I don't want to leave Hersheypark either. It doesn't even feel like I *did* Hersheypark. We spent four days here, but never a full day, and it really doesn't feel like I did the entire park. I love Hersheypark and I really don't want to leave. But there are more parks to see and more fun to be had. So I'll leave wanting more but satiated with good thoughts and the smell of that ever present chocolate wafting through the air. Hersheypark, thanks for the sweet memories. Up next: America's first roller-coaster - the historic Mauk Chunk Switchback Railway, and Coaster Con at Dorney Park Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 Back to The Trip Report Email: MarkinArk@earthlink.net