Check out these weird, abandoned places and if you find them interesting, be sure to check out some more Pennsylvania ghost towns. Coal, iron, timber: we had it all. As these resources dwindled in certain areas, so did the residents of those areas… And today, our state has numerous ghost towns to call our own, many of which were once coal towns. Mission Statement Eckley Miners’ Village engages diverse audiences by preserving and telling the story of anthracite coal mining, the social and physical history of patch towns and their residents, and the evolution of regional culture. ... that the landfill was also an old strip-mine pit connected to a maze of abandoned underground mining tunnels full of coal. Pennsylvania’s rich coal mining history dates back centuries to the late 1700s and boomed between 1870 and 1930. Coal from local mines … This Abandoned Pennsylvania Town Has Been On Fire For 53 Years. These 15 Rare Photos Show Pennsylvania’s Coal Mining History Like Never Before. Like many coal towns, the land’s natural riches had meager returns for residents. Most of western Pennsylvania's bituminous coal deposits were located in what had been sparsely populated rural counties, so few of the existing towns were capable of absorbing the influx of new workers to the region. In 1960, Centralia, Pennsylvania, was a small town situated on top of a large supply of coal. In the early sixties, the borough of Centralia was just like any number of coal region towns in Pennsylvania. Read: Life in the sickest town in America. Founded in 1892 by Philip Ginther. A coal patch (called "coal camp" outside of Pennsylvania) is a town where everything was built and owned by a coal company, including schools, churches, stores, theatres, and residential structures. Eckley Miners’ Village is administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and is actively … After the boom, the industry began a steady decline that continues to the present day. Summit Hill was once in "Ripley's Believe It or Not" because it had one block that had a church on each of the four corners, facing the four directions of the world. At 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller, coal soot can lodge deep in the lungs when inhaled. However, in 1962, a fire was lit in the town dump that spread beneath the entire valley and threatened the community’s existence. The community of roughly 1,500 was supported by the seam of coal that ran beneath the town. Coal patches in Western Pennsylvania generally date from the 1870s through the 1920s. A century ago, Centralia, Pennsylvania was a busy small town filled with shops, residents and a brisk mining business. Company towns were the result of geography and economics. Coal was discovered in this town in the 1880's and helped launch the area's coal mining industry. Discovering the presence of anthracite coal in the region, coal mines began to be constructed at the site starting from 1856. Soon a large and thriving community of miners started settling in the area and a mining engineer of the Locust Mountain Coal and Iron Company, Alexander Rae, assigned the name of Centralia to the town.