Books About
Centralia Pennsylvania
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 Unseen
Danger: A Tragedy of People, Government, and the Centralia
Mine Fire
by David DeKok
Award-winning journalist David DeKok tells, for the first
time, how the Centralia mine fire really started in 1962. He
shows how local, state and federal government officials failed
to take effective action, allowing the fire to move underneath
the small town of Centralia, Pennsylvania. By early 1981, the
fire was sending deadly gases into homes, forcing the federal
government to install gas alarms. A 12-year-old boy dropped
into a steaming hole in the ground wrenched open by the fire's
heat on Valentine's Day as the region's congressman toured
nearby. DeKok tells how the people of Centralia banded
together to demand help from the government, finally winning
money to relocate much of the town.
To Read a segment from the book, follow this link.
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The Real Disaster Is Above Ground: A Mine Fire and Social
Conflict
by J. Stephen Kroll-Smith, Stepehn Couch
Editorial Reviews From Book News,
Inc.
Since the 1960s, Centralia, a small town in the anthracite
region of Pennsylvania, has been consumed by a fire that
has inexorably spread in the abandoned mines beneath it.
The disaster above the ground refers to the failures of
technology and of disaster management policy. The final
solution, now being put into effect, is to abandon the
town and relocate its people. Annotation copyright Book
News, Inc. Portland, Or.
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Slow Burn: A Photodocument of Centralia, Pennsylvania
by Renee Jacobs
Editorial Reviews From Publishers
Weekly
First discovered in 1962, an apparently inextinguishable
mine fire beneath Centralia, Pa., has made the
once-charming area resemble a ghost town. Jacobs tells the
story of the fire and recounts, in poignant interviews and
photographs, the residents' tough choice between staying
and resettling. Some people remain, clinging to memories
of better times and hoping that the fire will move or be
put out, while others have accepted government money and
relocated elsewhere. From Todd Domboski's account of
falling into a dangerous hole in his grandmother's
backyard to Helen Womer's decision to stay in Centralia no
matter what happens, this book is filled with stories of
courage in the face of an invisible enemy.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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 Centralia
(Images of America: Pennsylvania)
by Deryl B. Johnson
Centralia is the saga of a Pennsylvania community consumed
by an underground mine fire. The town, founded in 1866, has
often been embroiled in tragedy and controversy. Beginning
with the infamous Molly Maguires, Centralia was confronted
with the murder of its founder and an assault upon its
Catholic priest, who cursed the town, saying, “One day this
town will be erased from the face of the earth.” Almost one
hundred years later, a vein of coal that ran underneath the
town caught fire and has burned since 1962. In the 1990s, the
state of Pennsylvania declared eminent domain and forced most
of the town’s sixteen hundred residents to leave. Ten people
remain in Centralia today. This book chronicles many of the
images and stories from this fascinating and colorful
Pennsylvania community.
About the Author
Deryl B. Johnson is a playwright, performer, and professor in
the Department of Speech Communication & Theatre at Kutztown
University of Pennsylvania. He has been researching and
documenting the history of Centralia for years.
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 Lauren
Wolk - Those Who Favor the Fire
Published in 1998 by Random House. It is the story
of a fictitious town called "Belle Haven." Anyone familiar
with the story of Centralia will recognize the chronology and
perhaps even some of the characters.
In picturesque, present-day Pennsylvania, the former
coal-mining town of Belle Haven harbors a hidden danger:
lethal fires, ignited by a burning dump, simmer below ground.
Despite this hazard, residents refuse to abandon their homes,
relying instead on pet canaries to detect the noxious fumes
that signal impending eruptions. Enter an unpopular government
agent named Mendelson, who offers to buy them out.....
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Coal Region Related Books
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 When
the Mines Closed: Stories of Struggles in Hard Times
by Thomas Dublin, George Harvan (Photographer)
The anthracite region of northeastern Pennsylvania, five
hundred square miles of rugged hills stretching between Tower
City and Carbondale, harbored coal deposits that once heated
virtually all the homes and businesses in Eastern cities. At
its peak during World War I, the coal industry here employed
170,000 miners, and supported almost 1,000,000 people. Today,
with coal workers numbering 1,500, only 5,000 people depend on
the industry for their livelihood. Between these two points in
time lies a story of industrial decline, of working people
facing incremental and cataclysmic changes in their world.
When the Mines Closed tells this story in the words of men and
women who experienced these dramatic changes and in more than
eighty photographs of these individuals, their families, and
the larger community.
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 The
Black Land: Remnants of the Once & Great Anthracite
Coal Industry
by Ed Dougert
48 black & white art prints reproduced in an 11x9
coffee-table book format, with captions. Dougert's
interpretation of the legacy of hard coal mining has
taken him throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania as he
visited many obscure locations. This history is fast
disappearing or becoming inaccessible. For example,
the imposing Locust Summit Breaker included in this
collection no longer exists--it was torn down in 2002.
For more information and how to find this book, Click
Here
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