by: Protoclown
In celebration of this Halloween season, some friends and I decided to drive up to Pennsylvania for a weekend, to hit up a couple of interesting places we'd heard about but never seen. The first one being Centralia, a small town that's had a coal mine fire burning underneath it for over forty years, and is said to be one of the main inspirations for the "Silent Hill" series of games; the second was Egg Hill Church, which has a pretty interesting spooky story surrounding it, but we'll get into that later.
Since it's a five hour drive from Richmond and we wanted to have the full day to explore, we decided to head up to Pennsylvania after work on a Friday night and crash in a motel. So we stayed at the fine, fine Econolodge in Frackville. Seeing this display in their "lobby" (which was actually about the size of a small closet) reminded me why I refuse to ever eat Otis Spunkmeyer cookies (as if the name alone isn't suggestive enough).
From there we walked over to the Dutch Kitchen next door and had breakfast before starting our grand adventure. You can see the place behind me in the picture here, so I know you'll believe me when I tell you that it smelled exactly the way my and quite possibly your grandmother's house used to smell. There were all kinds of dolls, trinkets, treasures, and other pointless nick nacks all over the walls of the place, so it was really representative of "small town America". I look sad and disturbed in this picture because it was in the morning. I do not like mornings. They frighten and confuse me.
Before hitting up Centralia proper, we had arranged to take a tour of a coal mine in the next town over, which I believe was called Ashland. Fortunately the mine that we went into was not on fire, which is important to note, or I would be dead while writing this.
We had a little time to kill before the next tour of the mine was to begin, so we decided to check out the gift shop, and I amused myself by finding silly things among the countless rocks they had for sale. I found a children's book called "Geo the Geode", about a friendly little geode, who, gosh darn it, is just really happy to be here.
They also had a bin full of stuffed animals that came packaged with tiny towels for some reason. Unfortunately, the way they did the packaging made each animal look like it was either really well endowed, or that it was fucking the absolute hell out of the towel it was attached to. Some of the choices of animals were a bit strange. Horses and donkeys I can understand, being that it's a coal mine, but I don't really understand the inclusion of sharks and whales, unless there's something about coal mines I just don't know.
Just when it was about time to venture down into the mine, we saw this sign, which was very reassuring. Still, it's important to remember not to ride your four-wheeler or go swimming down in the freezing, absolute darkness of the mine. I know how tempting it can be, but take my advice: just don't.
Then we all piled into the little train and went down into the mine itself. Almost all of the pictures of the train ride were unusable because they were too blurred, but the way I'm sitting in this one I think gives an impression of just how chilly it is down there. They said to be sure to wear a jacket while going into the mine, but I didn't really believe it would be that bad. But it actually was pretty damned chilly.
The mine tour was pretty cool, because I'd never really been in an environment like that before. At one point the tour guide was talking to us and he switched out the lights so we could all appreciate the absolute darkness for a few moments. Of course, when the lights returned, three people were gone, never to be found again, but that's just part of the experience. They also had creepy mannequins set up throughout the tunnels, just so you could see them out of the corner of your eye and believe that you were being stalked by some disgruntled mine worker-turned-killer.
Of course, none of the mannequins were as creepy as little "Timmy" here, whose dirt covered face had this permanently mournful look etched into it, as if to say "Please mister, can you spare a few breadcrumbs? I have been working in this mine since I was four. There is no joy left for me." I believe I even heard one frustrated parent threatening to leave their child here and take "Timmy" back to the surface world with them instead. Or maybe that was just me imagining what I would do.
Here's a fake donkey mannequin (just like in the clothing stores) attached to a cart filled with coal. This is the hallway where the guy turned out the lights completely and a scuttling, dragging sound was heard in the darkness.
There were of course all kinds of shafts going up and down through the mine, many of them for hundreds of feet, and you could look up or down them as far as the light would allow. This shaft was one that went down, blocked by a protective grate so nobody could fall down into it, of course. They had a cardboard cutout of what looked like a dancing, happy sailor dude standing horizontally on the side of the wall. I can assure you that if you fell down there you would neither be happy nor dancing. But you might be a sailor, for all I know.
After the mine tour was over we hopped aboard a train called the Henry Clay and took a little tour around the hills nearby, while the guide told us about Centralia and the history of the coal mine.
While on board the train we passed by a big barn with a bunch of antlers mounted to one of the walls. Many of those antlers look too tiny to belong to deer to me, so I'm guessing they probably come from the fearsome Northeastern Devil Squirrel. Also, I wish we'd gotten a good picture of it, but you can see part of it in the window there--they had this ghoulish masked scarecrow thing in the window, which was obviously there for Halloween.
Here's a picture of an oldschool bootlegging mine operation/child day care center from back in the days of the Great Depression. These guys would decide to make a little extra money on the side when the companies that owned the mines would cut back due to the faltering economy. You could also toss your child down into the hole for the day and hoist them back up on the bucket in the evening.
The train conductor was actually pretty cool. He hung around for a while after the tour and talked to people, and gave us directions so we could find our way into the abandoned parts of Centralia. Note carefully that he's standing right next to a deadly cloud of "Silent Hill fog" and shows no concern at all. Fucking badass.
We were now ready to head out to Centralia proper. We didn't quite know what to expect, but I found this picture online, which suggested to me that the earth would open beneath us and smoke would pour out as we were sucked into the very bowels of Hell itself. We however encountered nothing of the kind, unfortunately.
There's still more to see!
CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE TO
PAGE 2 OF THE CENTRALIA TRIP!
Reader Comments
oh wtf we're all going back and having a seance whenever we're all out again, if i take pics i'll post them in a forum
:O
:O
:O
Then here in Mexico we have Real de Catorce. When Mexico was still a Spanish possession (1521-1821) silver mining was one of the most lucrative enterprises Spaniards had. So, in what is now the state of San Luis Potosí (named after the mining town of Potosí in Bolivia) many mines were created and towns were built near those mines. Real de Catorce was one of those towns. It was created in the 18th century and was functional until 1910, when the Mexican Revolution that started that year closed it down for good.
Now the town is a semi-vacant town, with many colonial buildings clashing with Art-Nuveau and a few modern ones, while it is still surrounded by mines -whose output is no where near Real de Catorce's one during it's hayday- but there is something eerie about the town. I don't know how or why, but when you're in it, you feel as if your energy is being drained. You go to wake up feeling more tired than the day before. Many of the residents are natives, so they have their own customs and traditions, so that just adds up to the weirdness of the town.
Besides, as most colonial towns in Mexico, it has a big cemetery with a colonial barroque chappel. Those thing are scary enough whith their paintings and statues of saints with cold, dead looking eyes. And in this cases, always, ALWAYS, they have a real sized figure of Christ after being lowered from the cross. This "statue" is made of a material native to the region -in another state they had one made of corn paste- and has a spooky story --the corn one keeps growing and growing since it was created, it's almost 400 years old and it still grows.
Man, I just scared myself by recounting all this items. But if you want to experience them from first hand, Come to Mexico! The place of weird ghost towns and zombie Jesus statues!
-Commanderraf
Scott
And yeah, lots of rural places can be scary at night. Western PA, western VA, West Virginia, and other places in the region are good for that. Tiny little towns that consist of nothing more than a gas station and a creepy bridge.
Protoclown:Those red lights are simply scary. I look at them and I truly believe it is some demonic entity lurking around.
Upon reaching the graveyard, we were disappointed to not only not see any ghosts, but that the graveyard was maybe 50 square feet big and full of French-Canadian immigrants, which would make them probably the least frightening type of zombie I could imagine.
As we're walking back to the cars, I start to hear this faint children's music, like from a music box or something. It was faint, but loud enough to know that it couldn't be coming from the "nearby" buildings (The closest being more than 100 yards away) and of course, I just think I'm imagining it and scaring myself, so I turn to my friend to tell him and laugh it off. His eyes are the size of fucking dinner plates as he's saying "Please fucking tell me you can hear that too" before I have a chance to speak.
Actually scared now, I nod to him and we both run back to our car ahead of the rest of the group, claiming to them we were merely just cold and not wusses.
PS the ground at Centralia in certain spots is extremely weak, so one wrong misstep could send you hurtling to the bowels of coal fire hell...
(P.S.) If anybody does check it out, make sure to stick with your group in the room with all the curtains and the strobe lights. I circled around that room for 10 minutes trying to find the way out of that room, the strobe lights were blinding me, and no matter how many times i heard that woman in the middle of the room scream, it still scared the crap out of me. (Sadly, the woman wasn't screaming when i went through this year)
(P.P.S.) The restaraunt in the Homer Mill is also pretty good. :^D
A sanatorium (also sanitorium, sanitarium) is a medical facility for long-term illness, typically tuberculosis.
A synopsis of the place:
www.underworldtales.com/waverly.htm
The official (RE: boring) website:
www.therealwaverlyhills.com/
MS-DOS4: I don't know. The GPS belongs to my friend Dave (Sarcastro, who posted below). He didn't really lead us astray so much as the area just isn't well mapped though.
Mister Tea: I agree, and I'm sure there's probably a slightly more credible version of the story that involves demonic possession or something instead of the aneurysm. You know how these stories go though, they get told over and over and details change over the years. I just recounted how I remember it being told to me.
Military Messiah: Dude! You didn't think that was worth mentioning while we were there? The noise you heard up in the church? That's kind of a creepy little detail there.
Ozzie: Oh man, that must have been freaky as hell. I envy you for that. I've been out ghost hunting to graveyards and Civil War battlefields many times, but never have I experienced anything like that!
fugmunky: I don't doubt that you're right about that. Unfortunately we only had so much time and we wanted to check out Egg Hill too...
SlimJim: Holy SHIT that place sounds AWESOME! I'm definitely putting that on my list of places to see. And the great thing is that it's easily reachable for me in a day. The only thing that concerns me is that website mentions that it's "being rennovated"...I'd be afraid I'd get there and it would be like arriving after the party's over.
Brunbb: That actually makes some kind of sense.
And to those of you who suggested "haunted hayride" kind of attractions, those can be fun, and I appreciate the suggestions, but I'm looking for things that are a little more genuine, you know?
On another note, the orbs in the creepy tree, they're basically supposed to be ghosts... Did you lose power to your digital cameras at any point around that church?
Also, if you ever take a trip up to Canada, check out Newfoundland, it's where I'm from, and there are plenty of ghost stories around this area, from suicide, to a man getting lost in a small wooded area for 10 days and coming out traumatized and mentally destroyed. He was perfectly sane when he went in to them. If you want to hear more Newfoundland stories, or for me to go deeper in to telling you the one mentioned, feel free to contact me some way.
As for creepy locations, up and around my hometown (Erie, or as it goes around this time of year, Eerie, PA) we've got Axe Murderer Hollow and a few other supposedly haunted spots. Never been to any of them myself, so I can't vouch for the coolness factor of them, but we do have a Horror Festival every year, with movies and horror actors and the like. Nothing A-list (I'd say, unless you're a horror fan) like the one Rog went to, but it's a good time. Might want to check it out next year (or, y'know, whenever *laughs*)
You want to be creeped out, try going to the old prison here. Apparently they have started to run a spook house in it during october. I haven't went yet, but the prison itself is scary enough without the doctoring, so I can only imagine.
Check out the Abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpikes.
http://www.rays-hill.com/turnpike/home.htm
Guanajuato is a wee bit far down to travel, but the museum is super creepy, as you can see from the first link. Basically all the mummies there were all residents of the town at some point from the colonial era.
Not for the squeamish, since there are mummy children Dx
Also, there is a seperate hallway of just random oddities, such as a guillotine, a "vampire skeleton", and a coffin with spikes.
The best part are the caramel mummies as souvenirs. Delicious!