Centralia: The Real-Life Silent Hill | Answers With Joe

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Centralia is a town at the heart of coal country that now sits abandoned and forgotten. The story behind what happened there is far from uncommon, and may give us a glimpse of what's to come in the future.
Some great documentaries on KZbin about Centralia:
JPVideos
• CENTRALIA PENNSYLVANIA...
Wonder World
• Centralia Burning Ghos...
Bright Sun Films
• Abandoned - Centralia
Centralia: Hell on Earth
• Centralia - Hell on Ea...
The Town That Was
• Centralia, Pennsylvani...
PennLive.com
• Centralia's graffiti h...
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[@AllieFrownfelter]

Fun fact: the last guy to move out of Centralia was a crazy middle school teacher who used to grow tomatoes in the winter because the ground was so warm from the fires, the snow would never lay!

[@zapfanzapfan]

Life gives you lemons... :-)

[@Aconitum_napellus]

Doesn't sound crazy, sounds resourceful, ingenious even.

[@rickross9829]

@@Aconitum_napellus which would make most people assume that's not why they called him crazy

[@amethyst1826]

Except that there are still people living there so he wasn't, in fact, the last person to leave there!!

[@VeganV5912]

Eating corpses 😮/😵🦠💩🍖🔴, is a death sentence. Fat causes blockages from eating corpses . We’re not supposed to eat corpses. You’ve got flat teeth 🦷, Little flat teeth 😬 moving around 😬-__ . Like bonobos and gorillas 🐵🦍✅❤️😬🦷💪. I don’t eat corpses. They eat plants and fruit and nuts 🌰🥬🌾🍈🥑🌱🌿🌸🌼🌺.... they’ve got flat teeth 😬. 98.6% the same as us. We are the same family. They’ve got 1% cancer, no heart attack, and no high blood pressure. Vegans have 4% cancer. And that’s it. Eating corpses, and fat 😵🍖🥓🍳🥩🍗.... is cancer and heart attack and high blood pressure.... 51% death rate !!!!! That is very high !!!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4vTZZ-YprtlbqM . Timelapse. 1 minutes 🤮. Actual pictures ! Rotting flesh !!! Hot 37. Celsius 🤢🦠💩🥓🍳🍖.... rotting meat sits inside your stomach for 5-6 days !!! No fibre in your diet. You get cancer and heart attack and high blood pressure, 51% death rate. Vegans have 4% cancer, that’s it ✅❤️😬🦷💪. 100% fibre. Scientific fact !!! Please watch this one minute video !!! It’s disgusting !!!! Healthy vegan food, from KZbin, or the store, cheap, and no murder ✅ kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5y6lWOIZZqNe9U . Actual pictures, Child and adult. Massive study. It’s what you eat, hint hint ✅✅✅❤️👏😬. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJbTeXqsgZVjgqs . Lower back Clogged. Actual pictures. LDL (IDEAL = 70) “Omnivore”: blood pressure 123 🧟‍♂️🍖. Vegetarian: 87 😐🧀🍳🥛. Vegan: 69 ✅❤️👏😬🌎. Viagra. Limp Dick, eating corpses 😩🍖 fat clogs your arteries 🌭🥓🥩🍗🍖🍣..... kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJ_NqGB6bduFl80 . Two minutes

[@bak1358]

"The streets are all unmarked..." As the camera scrolls past a wall that has been tagged with the name Mark. Nice👍

[@jossipepegonzalez]

Was gonna comment the same thing. That street is literally "marked" haha

[@DaveCrosshaw]

oh hi Mark

[@MrChopsticktech]

@@DaveCrosshaw Oh hai Denny!

[@whocares110]

I actually lived in a ghost town when I was a kid. Foss creek Oregon, it used to be a logging town. It was right in the middle of the woods. It was spooky, you would be walking through the woods and there would just be a house sitting there in the middle of the woods with no roads leading to our from it, and a foundation with a pile of wood sitting on it next to it or sometimes nothing but the one house. I loved living there.

[@phantomwalker8251]

ever see bigfoot.?.or eary silence,or bad smell.or crossed branches.???.

[@whocares110]

@@phantomwalker8251 I saw a few weird things, but the weirdest was one night I woke up and looked out my second story window and saw a man that looked like a bum outside wandering around, he had a medium sized dog with him but he disappeared in to the woods and I never saw him again. No idea what he was doing that far out in the woods. We also used to tether our horse out in a clearing about a half mile from the house, and about 10:30 pm one night, it was dark, one of those really moonless nights, the kind where you feel smothered by the darkness, and my dad told me to go get the horse and bring her in for the night. I kept hearing something moving through the blackberries and underbrush right next to the trail you had to travel to get to the clearing. I got about halfway there and turned back, scared out of my wits. I told my dad what was happening and how scared I was and he laughed at me and made fun of me for being scared of the dark. I convinced him to go with me and the same thing happened on the way out again. My dad, who had never showed an ounce of fear that I had ever seen in my entire life, (the man was made of pure iron I swear) stopped at almost the exact spot I had turned around and said "son I think we had better go back for the gun". Needless to say I felt vindicated. But about a month later, on Thanksgiving we came home from a friend's house and found the horse with the rope wrapped around her neck, muzzle, and a tree, multiple times, strangled to death, no bite marks to damage, just nothing, and no idea what happened.

[@alrightyru]

@@whocares110 that's weird and sad to hear, I hate animal suffering :(

[@Anytyme06]

You left there horse tethered there for over a month by itself?

[@whocares110]

@@Anytyme06 no, we brought her in every night.

[@sludgemouth1408]

my grandparents took me down to Centralia back in the mid 2000's (my grandfather grew up in the next town over) and at the time there were a few blocks that were still standing. A few homes, a general store, things like that. Then not even a quarter mile down the road there was a storm drain with smoke coming out of it. Pretty interesting to see.

[@Ken-fh4jc]

Where was he from Mt Carmel or Ashland?

[@than217]

"The town was abandoned after a mining accident but if go there there today ...they walk the streets aimlessly." ~WHO?!?! Zombies??!? "No, Instagram influencers."

[@martiddy]

Both are almost the same thing.

[@1FatLittleMonkey]

"Shaaaares"

[@than217]

@@1FatLittleMonkey I literal lol'd at that.

[@LordKoKuyou]

I'd rather have zombies.

[@ShadowDeus]

Same difference.

[@curtisjmwc]

Sydney: we didn’t start the fire. It’s been always burning since the world was turning . . . Write that down.

[@NeorecnamorceN]

@Daniel Cheng En Kee wow! Wait, what? What do you know about how the fire started?? Who you been talking too??? 🤨

[@MochiCoral]

My first thought while reading that is just "tubbo?"

[@damyr]

@Daniel Cheng En Kee I remember that. Stupid temp.

[@jfh667]

Thats really a good line. Someone should make a movie with that title, or a song.

[@CelestialCimmerian]

We did ignite it, but we tried to fight it

[@Betterhose]

12:03 "Brennender Berg" means burning mountain in english. I would guess the fire started before the place got its name.

[@NyanCatHerder]

One hopes.

[@no_peace]

A terrible act of vandalism

[@sndawihc6713]

imagine in 100 years from now, someones car brakes down on the highway. they're stuck there for a while so they decide to wander around. after a while they get bored and decide kick up the dirt, and discover the long lost graffiti highway, covered with thousands of signatures from people long dead. they decide to follow this road and they eventually reach a town. The only legible piece of writing is a hanging sign: Centralia Pennsylvania.

[@voidshelf6433]

as much as i love this idea they'd be kicking up a LOT of dirt because they covered it with about 6 feet of dirt during quarantine because of the parties thrown on the highway

[@sndawihc6713]

@@voidshelf6433 kinda figured

[@VeganV5912]

@@sndawihc6713 >> Eating corpses 😮/😵🦠💩🍖🔴, is a death sentence. Fat causes blockages from eating corpses . We’re not supposed to eat corpses. You’ve got flat teeth 🦷, Little flat teeth 😬 moving around 😬-__ . Like bonobos and gorillas 🐵🦍✅❤️😬🦷💪. I don’t eat corpses. They eat plants and fruit and nuts 🌰🥬🌾🍈🥑🌱🌿🌸🌼🌺.... they’ve got flat teeth 😬. 98.6% the same as us. We are the same family. They’ve got 1% cancer, no heart attack, and no high blood pressure. Vegans have 4% cancer. And that’s it. Eating corpses, and fat 😵🍖🥓🍳🥩🍗.... is cancer and heart attack and high blood pressure.... 51% death rate !!!!! That is very high !!!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4vTZZ-YprtlbqM . Timelapse. 1 minutes 🤮. Actual pictures ! Rotting flesh !!! Hot 37. Celsius 🤢🦠💩🥓🍳🍖.... rotting meat sits inside your stomach for 5-6 days !!! No fibre in your diet. You get cancer and heart attack and high blood pressure, 51% death rate. Vegans have 4% cancer, that’s it ✅❤️😬🦷💪. 100% fibre. Scientific fact !!! Please watch this one minute video !!! It’s disgusting !!!! Healthy vegan food, from KZbin, or the store, cheap, and no murder ✅ kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5y6lWOIZZqNe9U . Actual pictures, Child and adult. Massive study. It’s what you eat, hint hint ✅✅✅❤️👏😬. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJbTeXqsgZVjgqs . Lower back Clogged. Actual pictures. LDL (IDEAL = 70) “Omnivore”: blood pressure 123 🧟‍♂️🍖. Vegetarian: 87 😐🧀🍳🥛. Vegan: 69 ✅❤️👏😬🌎. Viagra. Limp Dick, eating corpses 😩🍖 fat clogs your arteries 🌭🥓🥩🍗🍖🍣..... kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJ_NqGB6bduFl80 . Two minutes.…

[@perspectivedetective]

@@VeganV5912 Sir, this is a Wendy's...

[@extropiantranshuman]

sounded legit until I realize we might not park our cars, nor even have cars by then. Would we even leave our homes?

[@nirui.o]

Problem solved: Use raised sea to put out the underground fire.

[@riggs20]

Nailed it! 😉

[@bandaidcheerios2309]

use an efficiency V unbreaking III diamond shovel

[@AshesAshes44]

Solve unemployment-- dig a canal from the sea to the fires

[@genus577]

Raised*

[@KertaDrake]

Global warming isn't going fast enough, strip mine coal from opposite direction to burn it all at once!

[@jasesnyder3326]

Hi all, I live about 25 mins from Centralia and everything Joe said is true, including the graves dropping from beneath due to the fire below. The people that do still live there , which is only an handful left (they may even be totally gone by now but it’s hard to tell since they are so reclusive.) were a bit weird, but I would be a bit weird too if I breathed in coal dust and fumes for my whole life. The ground really does have holes that you can see smoking. As for the graffiti highway, it was actually pretty dangerous due to the cracks in the road from the heat underneath and it was really easy to sprain or even break your ankle/foot. This fire has been burning for a long time and will continue to burn for a very long time as well. This was the largest deposit of anthracite coal in the planet and those idiots started it on fire, lol. Centralia is our real-life urban myth right in our own backyards. Hopefully this country will begin to move forward with renewable energies and away from fossil fuels. Centralia is a perfect example, more like a time-lapse movie, of how fossil fuels will be all burned up sooner rather than later. Much love to you all!

[@elizabetheichner4747]

10 min. out here. it's the only place to see the sunrise near where I live. it gets creepy sometimes. I also hated having to drive through at night on my way home from work.

[@DecepticonLeader]

@@elizabetheichner4747 Sounds like quite a place to live nearby. Anything particularly striking about the place and why is it creepy?

[@SchardtCinematic]

There is hardly any smoke coming from the ground up there anymore and graffiti highway has now been CV covered with dirt so none else vandalizes the roadway. The mine fires are slowly moving beyond the borders of the town now.

[@DecepticonLeader]

@@SchardtCinematic With some gravel/stone from a quarry they could just open up a hole in the ground and pour it down to strengthen the foundation of town so people can live there again. But I can imagine nobody is willing to pay for it.

[@SchardtCinematic]

@@DecepticonLeader The United States Goverment owns the land. So it falls on them what they do with Centralia. Yes you fix a sink hole by pouring stone and concrete into it. But the size of the town itself to fill in out the burned out coal veins could be a vast undertaking. Plus it would lose its allure and notoriety

[@Harv72b]

I had no idea they had covered over the Graffiti Highway. I stopped there for a couple hours maybe 4-5 years ago. Centralia itself is severely anti-climactic, as you said--just a street grid with a few (still occupied) homes and the old post office/town hall. But the highway really was cool...largely obscene, but very cool. Still have some pictures on an HD card somewhere, I guess I should find them now that they're "historical".

[@Riva2023]

Joe, don’t forget the famous author, Dean Koontz, wrote the horror/suspense novella, “Strange Highways,” based on the fires under Centralia, PA. It’s a really good read!!!

[@timrobinson513]

I love how you consider within “a hundred miles “ local. That’s most of the U.K.

[@rylian21]

Yeah... the US is big and empty.

[@ESL-O.G.]

Your country is tiny mate

[@johnbode5528]

In parts of West Texas, a 90 mile drive is a beer run.

[@CAMacKenzie]

@@johnbode5528 In 1988 I drove from Tonopah to Ely (NV) and in about 170 miles (about 275 km) saw maybe 30 cars.

[@deathspawned]

The old proverb is 100% accurate: in Europe, 100 miles is a long way; in America, 100 years is a long time.

[@KylePoni23]

Fun story about Silent Hill, the fog made the game super creepy, but it was only added to cover up technological inadequacies. It allowed the level and enemies to load out of view, making the game seem larger than they could make it seem without fog.

[@tribudeuno]

I worked on Nothing But Trouble, the working title being Valkenvania. Dan Aykroyd is the sweetest guy, and worked his ass off on the movie. Not only was he the director, but he had like 3 parts in the film. For the babies, he was in a full body rubber suit, that they had to put heart monitors on him because he'd get claustrophobic. I had just come off a few months on Bonfire of the Vanities, and there was only a couple of weeks left of shooting on Valkenvania. On Bonfire, I didn't get anything. But on Valkenvania, I got a hand delivered by Dan a bottle of fine red wine, a VHS copy of Goldfinger, a great jacket and hat. But the best was a wrap party at a Sunset Strip nightclub - near Chateau Marmont - the best wrap party I'd ever been to in the 30 years in the business. And Dan did a one man version of the Blues Brothers mit Blues Band. Dan is such a sweetheart of a guy, that even though he was under tremendous stress during shooting, and Chevy Chase was endlessly giving him a ration of shit, I never saw Dan once get into an argument with Chevy. The last day, Chevy I think realized what a dick he'd been, and brought Dan a bottle of wine...

[@Blackieswain]

There's this amazing attraction right down from Centralia called The Coal Miners Museum. It gives tours that go way into an old coal mine and you can see the coal seam that is currently burning in Centralia. Also, another amazing abandon road is the old turnpike tunnels in breezewood pa

[@MrBensella]

The first Silent Hill movie was actually Ok compare to a other video game movies... it sure got the hellish atmosphere right...

[@Notsram77]

I remember feeling very harrowed the first time I saw it. Intense.

[@adamwest8711]

I’ll watch anything with Naomi Watts in...

[@tragicanomaly1707]

The skin ripping scene. *shudder*

[@lexscarlet]

@@tragicanomaly1707 she totally had it coming though right?? IMO it was perfect that it didn't actually SHOW it to completion but instead showed the aftermath being thrown against the door.

[@JessiBear]

Before the World of Warcraft movie, Video Game based movies like Silent Hill and Hitman were universally downplayed by critics. They were actually quite good for their target audience.

[@underwaterlaser1687]

“Brennender Berg” in German simply means burning mountain.

[@allief1662]

Why do we Germans always name things in the most pragmatic way possible? 😂

[@ilikeyourname4807]

@@allief1662 That mountain has been burning for so long now, that's pretty much all we have to say about it. Any other name of a village there just didn't stand the test of time

[@allief1662]

@@ilikeyourname4807 that's a good point 🤔

[@TheNotoriousDUDE]

@@ilikeyourname4807 Pretty sure "Brennender Berg" is the name of the mountain, not a town.

[@stevensutton4677]

Blimey that is a coincidence.

[@NSFWHarold]

"while it doesn't sit atop a portal to the netherworld...." *as far as we know

[@kirkleadbetter1093]

Old factories are my favorite. In Maine we have a few old industrial places that are facinating. Old brick where you can see old openings that were bricked up later; timber supports that are still in the shape of the trees that they were made from; old graffiti; etc. If only you could look through them and see the conditions and people who made their livings in these places.

[@sanzidarefin]

I m from Bangladesh. Dhaka is our capital. The harsh truth is, we might gonna lose half of our land before Dhaka because of the sea level rising and then, the rest of our homeland. Those half of Bangladesh includes my birth town, school, college, university, ancestral address and what not. Basically all of my memory lands

[@fpwu]

There is the "Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100", developed with the help of Dutch engineers... the Dutch are living in a country of which about 30% are under (!) sea level, so they know how to deal with it. It is more of a financial than a technical problem, I guess.

[@linnymaemullins3319]

😢

[@lonestarr1490]

@@fpwu No, it's definitely a technical problem. The Dutch know how to gain land from the sea, yes. But they do so given a more or less stable sea level. Rising sea levels are a whole different story and up until now it's not clear whether we can engineer our way around this. Since it's not the sea level alone, but storms and floods are also becoming more severe. And as he said in the video, even if we can we might have to settle with saving just the major population hubs, for logistic, financial, as well as time related reasons.

[@CAMacKenzie]

@@lonestarr1490 Netherlands is having to face rising sea levels itself. They have a head start on the problem, and should have a better chance of coming up with solutions.

[@FatCatCooper]

Good.

[@drsuperhero]

I grew up near Centralia, It’s like a portal to hell. They once proposed diverting a river to put it out.

[@dannistjana901]

That was my fist thought actually, may have been deemed too expensive at the time. But nowadays with climate disaster looming over us seems to me that everything is viable.

[@jimrichards7014]

The cleansing of Isengard. Send in the Ents!

[@linnymaemullins3319]

@@jimrichards7014 😂

[@garethbaus5471]

@@dannistjana901 it isn't possible anymore, the window to put it out was only a few weeks and the local government failed due to inaction.

[@dannistjana901]

@@garethbaus5471 Oh.. Now that's too bad :(

[@YannMetalhead]

Great video as always!

[@andreatomassini5521]

Oh my god Joe...THAT movie...I remember watching it late night in the early 90's ....I think it's time to watch it again! Great video as always, I especially liked the additional info about the many underground fires around the world which I was not aware of... Cheers from Italy!

[@alexv3357]

12:40 Joe: Says "Sydney" Map: points to Canberra

[@jpt3640]

Well, US people are very bad with geography when it comes to places outside the worl.... USA. ;) To be honest: i didn't realize either ;)

[@isoldes.5775]

@@jpt3640 do you have geography as a subject in school?

[@queencerseilannister3519]

@@isoldes.5775 Yes, World Geography for one year in High School...but if it's not a subject you constantly study, you will eventually forget stuff. Watch Reaction Vids from Brits looking at USA,Geography...it's pretty funny. lol

[@anniei5816]

YES i noticed that too! i think the arrow was just trying to motion the direction that the fire is moving, or the editors thought it was in the ACT. they also spelled Wingen wrong rip

[@thepaintingbanjo8894]

Correction: Silent Hill is canonically in Maine, not W Virginia. Gotta have that classic Stephen King homage.

[@EllieRose1997]

i am from Maine!

[@pointlessopinion611]

Cant help but read this in Comic Book Guy's voice from The Simpsons.

[@joshuasizemore4862]

Like for minecraft

[@Sol-Invictus]

I had to look this up because I haven't played silent hill in more years than I like to remember, I think I'm old now. It says small town with less than 30,000 population. That's a fairly big city. Most suburbs of Minneapolis barely break that. County seats are smaller, rural counties don't have that many people. Small town is around 1,000. I've visited a town that in 30 years hasn't grown by more than 6 people. It's got 3 churches 3 bars and a strip club with 96 people living there. Silent Hill looks more like a town of 1000 to 10,000. Being a smaller town means most people have houses. So big in total area tiny in total population.

[@Mr.CliffysWorld]

@@Sol-Invictus ... In the video he said the population PEAKED at 2,700 in 1889.

[@lindsaybrewer3689]

Your channel deserves all the subs it gets (and then some), so grateful for your work

[@anthonybaney9684]

I went there back in like 2013. It was incredible. I've been wanting to go back but them covering up graffiti highway is really a bummer.

[@raaston9761]

I may uncover it

[@PanDaL0v3r11]

@@raaston9761 please do because I miss it LOL

[@MrChopsticktech]

Really? I was there about 15 years ago and it was boring and a waste of time.

[@MTerrance]

So despite their best efforts they couldn't put the fire out, and I can't get my barbecue to stay lit. Maybe I should try using anthracite coal instead of charcoal.

[@Skylancer727]

Anthracite burns cleaner than normal coal with almost no biproducts. It would basically taste the same as if you were using propane as propane also makes very little biproducts. It's also why anthracite coal was far more valuable than the alternatives. Plus the fact it also burned a fair bit hotter.

[@livethefuture2492]

@@Skylancer727 LPG or your gas stove, burns even cleaner, especially complete combustion with that blue flame that you see results in almost no soot or residue.

[@xheralt]

It helps to have a near-inexhaustable supply of fuel. Also bear in mind mines are designed to facilitate airflow even without operating fans (the second leg of the combustion tripod), which the fire draws to itself. The initial ignition and continuing combustion has taken care of itself since then.

[@paddor]

@@Skylancer727 * byproducts

[@CAMacKenzie]

@@Skylancer727 Burns cleaner...um, except that the exhaust is pure carbon monoxide and dioxide. Gee, what could be wrong with that?

[@N0B0DYC4RE]

10:50 Wow graffiti highway sound neat, I think I'll go vi.... wait.... shit! Lol

[@pennysquires5310]

I am new to your channel..i really enjoy it! I am marathoning your programs now!! Very interesting.. Thank you for doing these!

[@hanselmansell7555]

Thanks Jo, loved that one and congrats on 1m subs!

[@darthdrezz9237]

when i was young in the 70's i thought the future was going to be star trek :) Now in 2020 i know its going to be Mad max meets soilent green :(

[@weeral1]

don't forget "Brawwdo! It's got what plants crave!"

[@lynseychinnery5707]

Well the soylent shakes are pretty good, lol

[@griffith5704]

Haha we already have soylent shakes! Probably not with people in them......probably

[@shelby8101]

I’m pretty sure Soylent Green was set in 2022! Not looking forward to it haha

[@kdegraa]

The future will be like today but a little bit different.

[@fadedprogram3778]

Dam I was eating noodles all I heard was “Houston” I was like “hey I live there” then I rewind it, now I’m internally scared thanks joe

[@brianmurray2687]

Love those vids!

[@anntully-crook2430]

I love your vids...thank you.

[@timgleason2527]

Half of nearby PA towns give me this vibe.

[@thewildcardperson]

Got that right there's alot of history here Gettysburg has the most reported cases of ghosts anywhere

[@tonymitchell2330]

In central pa there are towns that should of been abandoned.🤣

[@alwayslookinround]

Lol! My hometown is like that

[@aureavita8653]

@@thewildcardperson is it because of the Civil War

[@Skylancer727]

@Canadian Snowflake I live in Allentown and while Billy Joel wrote a song about all the jobs going away, the Lehigh Valley is marked as the 3rd fastest growing economic zone in the country. Apparently Allentown made it into the top 20 All American City lists like 3 times in the past 10 years. Honestly that makes more worried that the majority of America is more a hell hole than I tend to give it credit.

[@Slayheim]

I was fortunate to visit Centralia in 2016. Very surreal, and enduringly sad. The graffiti highway was really cool and sad, many others came to check it out, but the saddest of all was walking the empty overgrown streets and lots. So eerie.

[@redxsage]

That was superb.

[@codybowman2297]

I live not far from there. 1st time I went i got all excited to see a ghost town but there was only the roads left the graffiti highway was awesome I added my touch

[@netanelsandman7433]

I love the fact that many of your topics, are topics I didn't know I needed to know. This is no excaption. Can't unforget this video and I'm peacfully happy with that :)

[@mellissadalby1402]

Good point about the "hidden danger" that we tend to ignore. We also seem to ignore our own causal involvement in these coming dangers. This is good lesson in why one must always be very careful with fire. The coal deposits around the world, including those under Centralia, Pennsylvania were formed as a result of the Carboniferous period when there was a massive amount of vegetation growing and dying, but no microbes to break down the dead plant matter. These plant remains became a very thick peat layer, which (as you point out) was metamorphosed into coal over thousands of years. If it weren't for the lack of dead plant eating microbes, we might not have ended up with all that coal, and then no Centralia, no Titanic either.

[@EksaStelmere]

And no Internet.

[@MochiCoral]

How the hell is your comment posted 1 day ago when this vid just released

[@acehighjohn1759]

No industrial revolution.

[@martiddy]

@@MochiCoral premium members have early access to his videos

[@clearasmud376]

Mellissa Dalby - I'm surprised to hear that there were no microbes that could break down plant matter during the Carboniferous. Do you have a credible source for this amazing assertion? You are right about everything in your explanation except for the nonexistence of the necessary microbes. The usual explanation for peat formation (which, with time, pressure, and heat turns to coal) is that plants that sink into water or swamps can be protected from aerobic decomposition and build up into very thick layers. The Carboniferous period was warm and wet and gave us our coal deposits, not because there were no plant-eating bacteria, but because plants sinking to the bottom kept the existing bacteria from doing their thing. There are plenty of microbes around today, and yet peat bogs form. And some amazing things are preserved in these oxygen-starved places. You've probably heard of the bog-bodies in Ireland - people whose bodies have been mummified by the lack of oxygen and tanned like leather by the acidic conditions. Also, one current source of huge old-growth logs is the muddy bottoms of the great lakes. Waterlogged wood actually sinks. Logs can be salvaged that are like-new, even if they were cut 150 years ago. And the bottom of the Black Sea apparently perfectly preserves shipwrecks that are thousands of years old and may give insights into early ship construction if we can do archeology in the toxic oxygen-free zone at the bottom. Since the early days of life on Earth, there have been lots of microbes in the world, just not in peat bogs and way down deep in certain lakes.

[@lizenders1701]

I grew up near centralia and when I was a kid in the 90s it was almost like an urban legend with kids saying your car will be swallowed up into the ground if you drove through the town and things like that. We once took a field trip to a nearby coal museum and the death and danger involved blew my mind at the time

[@Nicole-bk3ud]

This really hit home in a way coming from a small town in Johnstown, PA. Coal and steel were big in the area before I was born and you can still take the incline plane the coal workers used to get to work or the abandoned steel factories. Also, it's in a small valley known for floods and there's even a flood museum. Floods have happened in 1894, 1907, 1924, 1936, and 1977. The one in 1889 killed 2,200 people. But there is still many people living there and a very active community of senior citizens because I don't think too many are willing to move there. Thanks for inspiring me to look into the history of the city where I was born and giving me more background of coal mining.

[@mikaxms]

I heard that Norilsk is also a fun town in Mother Russia.

[@livethefuture2492]

Russia(or really all the former USSR) is the mother of ghost towns, plenty of mining accidents, slave labor camps(gulags), nuclear disasters(Chernobyl), and roads laid with the bodies of slave laborers who built them...

[@the20thDoctor]

Norilsk is just so beautiful! The trees, the people, the architecture... ...the acid rain, the choking smog, the corporate monopoly on all life. Really just a great place to live and work. And people there definitely have more then two NICKELS to rub together! 😉

[@sweetwheatsy]

@@the20thDoctor Isn't it also that a good amount of people do seasonal work there, because the pay is rather decent, though they live in, well, better citites?

[@thatsilverxj7874]

As someone who has traveled through centralia their whole life I can attest that it is a unique little town! It was sad to see less and less houses but somehow between the graffiti highway, smoke in the colder months, and groups of people paying homage created an affinity for the little town. Make sure to stop in ashland (town before it) to enjoy the coal mine tour and to give a sense of what centralia use to be like!

[@nottechytutorials]

Its interesting there's a town called Ashland next to Centralia, sounds kinda similar to the town that is next to Silent Hill called Ashfield!

[@Sniperboy5551]

I’ve always wanted to visit Centralia, I love abandoned places and it’s a hell of a lot closer than Chernobyl!

[@patmcclung7205]

"Who do you sell your home to when flood waters lap up against your front door" Maybe Aquaman, idk, ask Ben Shapiro

[@adrianz5614]

Hbobmberguy, aka an Icon 🌟

[@iamzim3620]

I love Nothing but Trouble! John Candy goes down as my all-time favorite actor. Another great video Joe!

[@BigJohn4516]

A place and our ties to it. My grandfather died from internal injuries he suffered in a mine accident in 1934. My grandmother was pregnant with my mother at the time. My mom is now 85 and still lives in the house that she was born in. She has always lived there, just a few hundred yards from the entrance to the mine where her father worked. It’s home, my family has lived that area since the early 1700’s, but I had to leave. There’s nothing but a long history of tragedy and hardship there.

[@ThatReplyGuy]

As soon as you said "mining town" I immediately thought "underground fire, probably."

[@toastsweat]

oh my god i've been looking for that movie Nothing But Trouble! thank you!

[@Not_Mii_Uus]

Dawg I been watching you for over two years off and on and I just checked and saw your channel was almost at 1 fucking million, it’s insane but this video proves to me the appeal that created that subscriber base. You’re a good dude, Joe

[@zac_5295]

I'm from Houston and we've had three or four "500 year" floods in the past decade...

[@Sausketo]

You might want to think about moving

[@zac_5295]

@@Sausketo But this is my home! We have NASA, Galveston, and Bucees!

[@livethefuture2492]

take a page out of the dutch and build a seawall across the entire nation...

[@zac_5295]

@@livethefuture2492 there is a sea wall

[@esquilax5563]

@@livethefuture2492 and make the fish pay for it

[@howardjohnson2138]

Do you know that the Comstock Lode, Virginia City, Nevada did not close out because they ran out of gold and silver. So the story goes, there is more still there than ever removed. The reason they closed down, the mine owners sued each other out of business.

[@howardjohnson2138]

@@dwc1964 Correct. Thank you!

[@howardjohnson2138]

@@dwc1964 True. Thank you

[@howardjohnson2138]

@@dwc1964 I have no idea how to do that

[@howardjohnson2138]

@@dwc1964 I had no idea that was even a possibility. Thank you

[@dwc1964]

@@howardjohnson2138 well done! and now that it's done, I'll proceed to delete my comments, and we can pretend this never happened. Enjoy! 🙂

[@sluggishruggish]

Oh my God when I was a child that was my favorite movie. I’m 41 now, so whenever it came out... my father rented it and I got to see it, don’t remember how old I was. always wanted to know what that movie was. thank you for the memories

[@AlexSmith-od7qg]

Incredible videos 👍🏻👌🏻

[@jasonglebe3235]

*Joe* : Nanking *Unit 731* : Am I a joke to you?

[@ThaFunkster100]

Story time with Jo, my favourite time of the day. I was kind of hoping for something more terrifying and shocking than it was though.

[@TinaFahy-jx4om]

Wow, love the movie "Nothing But Trouble". Thanks for the reminder, need to find that and watch it again. Fantastic movie.

[@AlthosWTF]

Neat, I had never heard of Graffiti Highway till now. Thanks!

[@fett713akamandodragon5]

I lived not far from Centralia with my Aunt and Uncle back in the 90's, creepy place, we used to drive through it weekly to get to other places for shopping or entertainment etc. In the winter at the time you could see sinkholes with fire coming out of them right alongside some of the roads, was really crazy. Great video as always Joe.

[@theodorebradshaw4711]

Came to get creeped out by ghost towns. Left terrified by global warming.

[@nicanornunez9787]

The real monsters were the farts our cows and cars made along the way

[@debbiehenri7170]

@@kidmosey Funnily enough, there's a cottage not far from me (about 10 miles inland) that has a sea-related name (like Anchor Cottage or Seaview, something of the like), and when we've passed it a couple of times in the past, we used to joke that the residents are waiting for rising sea levels - until the town located between the coast and the cottage started seeing many more floods.

[@debbiehenri7170]

@RWDS 1 No, it isn't. Try finding an actual climate scientist and asking them what 'they' know, rather than just looking up biased literature that supports your preferred view. The vast majority of scientists (especially those who have actual 'relevance' in the field of climate science) support the 'proven' theory that the world is warming, and not heading for an ice age. Climate change is happening, and it's getting warmer. That's why permafrost is melting at an unprecedented rate, that's why glaciers the world over are melting, that's why the Antarctic ice sheets are melting and breaking up, that's why sea ice over the Arctic Ocean has been thawing at a greater rate each summer, it's why we are seeing 'less' snow cover in ski resorts, it's why there are more flood incidents stemming from mountain ranges such as the Himalayas, it's why the London Thames no longer freezes over, it's why Greenland is now becoming - greener - and it's exactly why there's extra water to wash away coastlines, and flood towns, cities, and agricultural land. You don't get these incidents when your heading for an ice age. The opposite happens (look up Doggerland for what happened at the 'end' of the last Ice Age, and then think backwards).

[@fpwu]

@@debbiehenri7170 and @RWDS: I think you are talking about different time spans here. Currently it is getting warmer (at about 0.14 °C per decade). But the longterm development of the global climate is all but certain: Nearly all positive and negative climatic feedback loops are still very uncertain in their quantitative effects, short term (like cloud cover), mid term (ocean current development) oder long term (biosphere) to just name a few.

[@lonestarr1490]

@@fpwu The longterm development is more or less irrelevant for humanity, since "longterm" in climatology means tens to hundreds of thousands or millions of years. Therein lies a lot of uncertainty, yes. But the short term development, meaning the coming 100 - 200 years, is pretty much indubitable and Debbie Henri is completely right about that.

[@margaritavsk]

Got that DVD! Crazy movie.

[@flyingbadass1779]

OMG I watched Nothing but Trouble when I was a kid. my grandpa was asleep in his recliner when he should have been babysitting me. i always remembered it but never saw it again on tv or knew the title. genuinely, thank you for bringing it back into my life. Now I know what I need to look up to scar my friends.

[@Soundbrigade]

I forgot. There’s a town in Northern Sweden, Kiruna, that risked to fall into the iron mines. Besides, more iron ore had been found under the town, so before the town made the vertical movement (downwards) it is now being relocated. Many houses are towed to the new spot whilst others are simply demolished and new ones are erected. Here’s a movie about that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oHyQn6OtZdt1rJo

[@NicholasYanes]

I saw this video a while ago. It is interesting to hear some people are reluctant to move.

[@_duckl]

I live in sweden. not in kiruna tho. Some houses have to be moved with trucks to keep people safe. There's a giant hole from the mines.

[@RyanStellaYT]

This is insane. I had no idea any of this was going on in the world. Great video!!

[@curiousfirely]

Shout out to the Silent Hill of the first movie, and my hometown - Brantford, Ontario, Canada! When it was filmed, so much of downtown was already just closed stores, they just added tumbleweeds and BAM! Ghostown!

[@chernoboogaloo]

absolutely love The Proper People, good video!

[@HankMeyer]

The sudden switch to sea level rise seemed out of left field.

[@joesterling4299]

That one caught me by surprise too, like a punchline with a very long setup. Except this one wasn't funny.

[@dl5244]

0.5m in 30 years is ~17mm per year. That's 5x the NASA reported rate

[@hansteam]

"while it doesn't sit on top of a portal to the underworld" ... that you know of...

[@bandaidcheerios2309]

underground nether portals will always exist on the vast amount of minecraft seed out there, who says there couldn't be one on the cat lady's basement?

[@schweglerd]

A teacher at my high school lived in Centralia as a kid. I live in SE Pennsylvania.

[@Contrarymary853]

I ❤️ that movie too. Fascinated and scared me as a kid.

[@brandonb3279]

Damn, I've been fascinated by Centralia since I first heard about it about 10 years ago. I dig around from time to time but there doesn't seem to be much "big name" KZbin channels covering it. So when I saw you'd done a video I thought "great, I'm sure he'll have dug up something I didn't know, or at least re-cap some of the details I'd forgotten" But no, this was merely a surface level skim at best. You missed tonnes of the story details, and even got some bits wrong. For instance, you said once it got burning the residents knew there wasn't much they could do (or something to that effect). But in fact they did have a weapon in their arsenal: Geo-engineers were tracking the fire's progress and would dig "cut off trenches" ahead of it, basically a perpendicular trench carved in front of the fire's path where they'd remove a line of coal so that when the fire arrived it couldn't pass the barrier, as there was no fuel to sustain it and carry it forwards. But the problem was they were too slow, and too cheap. As I remember it, they repeatedly held town meetings where they considered the maze of coal paths and the fire's current location the engineers had estimated. They would then choose the most feasible places to dig these break trenches, based on probability of success and, more importantly (to them at the time) budget. Several times they chose locations and sent contractors to dig the trench, only to find that the fire found a route past because they'd chosen a cheap location instead of a guarantee, or hadn't dug the trench deep enough or long enough as this was more costly, and the fire had passed around or under. On at least 1 occasion they'd even debated for too long so that by the time they dug, the fire had already passed the point of the trench. Finally, after several weeks (or maybe months, I'm not certain on all details) they were warned that the fire was approaching a point where they would lose all possibility of containment. They had to act immediately and decisively by committing to a large project to cut off every possible transmission point by digging a large network of very deep trenches to cut off the fire before it reached an extensive network of coal seams which were far too deep and interconnected to have any hope of extinguishing once ignited. This last-stand would cost several hundred thousand dollars (again, I *think*, but I'm fuzzy on exact numbers) and their remaining time was estimated between several days to about 2 weeks. But once again they lost precious days arguing about the cost; who would pay, and whether the project was even necessary or if it was merely a scheme by the engineering company to profit from the town. When they eventually did commit to dig, once again they scaled back and dug too shallow and too short. But soon they dug one of their trenches and found that the fire had already passed by, and had entered the deep labyrinth of coal seams only a day or two earlier. At that point they realised that all was lost, they had no hope to contain the fires which were now growing in scale and reach unhindered. As I remember it, the great tragedy was that in the early couple of weeks of the fire, they could have stopped it's progression for a very modest cost, only a fraction of what they ended up spending. Even up until a couple weeks before containment loss (as I remember it this whole saga unfolded over several months), they could have stopped the fire for a relatively low cost, less than that which they ultimately ended up spending in the final weeks. But at every stage the committee always cut the budget for the trenches down again and again so that each time they dug it was just a bit too little, too late. A classic tale repeated all too often. I heard this whole story in a long documentary video I found in the depths of KZbin. It was from the 80s or 90s I think, and featured interviews with residents who were present at many of the town meetings during these events. Perhaps I'll see if I can find it again and post a link, for anyone who may be interested. In the meantime, if anyone wants to look for it, I'm afraid I can't think of many details to help in the search. Only that it was fairly old, , and fairly obscure. Sorry I wish I had more to go on!

[@m.ta.r.6443]

Continental drift related? Like how California is breaking off and slowing becoming an peninsula or how New Orleans, similar to Venice,Italy , is slowing sinking.

[@SpeedbirdNine9]

This may be what you're looking for: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bqSoe41sgq2Biqs "Centralia--Hell on Earth" Town Destroyed by Ever Burning Coal Fires

[@OllieNorthover]

That's super interesting, thanks for the extra details!

[@Ken-fh4jc]

I grew up in the area it is very anti-climatic.

[@nottechytutorials]

I was disappointed in the video too, but only because Scott decided to put "Silent Hill" in the title, to only give a short summary of the first game and say the movies are trash. Never made any more connections with the games or movies, like how they used the image of the church. Bleh.

[@someoneyoudontkno4762]

The one in Germany that's called "Brennender Berg" is literally translated to "burning mountain". Very creative

[@jpt3640]

It was probably named in 18th century. They lost creativity with naming maybe because they a) started creating a lot of artificial "places" like mining towns etc b) a standard language came up which stopped names from changing over time. And stopped using odd phantasy names. I know several towns in Germany that where founded around 1700. (Which is very young compared to most of the places in Germany). The naming is incredibly dumbfounded for these towns.

[@sarahj6995]

I've had such a hard time finding a new KZbin channel that I like!! Thanks YT for finally recommending a good one.

[@ispamforfood]

OMG Nothing But Trouble was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid! I loved that movie! Thanks for that trivia, and all of your videos. :-)

[@TarkMcCoy]

People in Centralia, Washington: "WE'RE NOT DEAD YET!!!"

[@loopiewho]

well if ever we go back into an ice age the prices there will go sky high .all that free heating

[@nugsymalone1247]

Theres a centalia in Washington?

[@gomahklawm4446]

@@nugsymalone1247 Americans + geography doesn't mix well except on the coasts. The middle seems to be clueless.

[@nugsymalone1247]

@@gomahklawm4446 america has coasts?

[@WAFishQuest]

@@nugsymalone1247 yep! I'm from there. Town of about 10,000. It's about 90 minutes south of Seattle.

[@JUDE11236]

I LOVE Nothing but Trouble! Yes, it's most definitely a mess! Thank you, Joe, for all your informational, entertaining videos.

[@sagittarius420cheefie]

Was thinking about Nothing but Trouble right from the start. Lol!!! I love that movie.

[@meganhardwick1598]

Nothing But Trouble absolutely terrified me when I was little. I saw it on tv when I was like 8 and it scared the crap out of me. As an adult I looked up the movie and finally realized that movie wasn’t a horror film.

[@anwayaamy684]

Story time: There's a old, abandoned village called "Bhutiya Gaon"(ghostly village) in Jaisalmer,Rajasthan, in India.(The architecture of the place is pretty genius considering how old it is).One of the stories about the village says that the king of the area fell in love with one of the girls of the place. Due to certain religious restrictions, the girl didn't want to marry the king and so, to prevent the marriage, all the the people of the village abandoned the village. OVERNIGHT. Another story says that the people abandon the place because of the harsh behaviour of the king. But again, OVERNIGHT. I have visited the place and it still has a very mysterious feel to it even though it isn't eery and I went during the day.

[@slyseal2091]

why would everyone just move out for one person

[@weeral1]

@@slyseal2091 Yeah that is weird for sure.. If you can get everyone on board to leave.. you can get them on board to imprison or kill the guy. Weird

[@shaggyrogers2712]

Compared to the games, the movies don't really capture the actual dementedness. But its a movie. They had to tame it down since more people were gonna see it than the games. Honestly though. They were okay movies. Well. At least the first one was

[@rylian21]

The first movie wins my lifetime achievement award for "Stupidest Protagonist." That lady was so dumb, I felt personally insulted. At least Sean Bean's character didn't die in this one.

[@helianthe3457]

You think so? While the 2nd one is just your typical mediocre horror movie with no silent hill vibes, I thought the 1st one was pretty spot on. I loved the 1st one because I watched it as a kid and that's how I got introduced to the video game series that I really adore. I understand why it's controversial (pyramid head shouldn't be in that movie at all etc) but I think it's a nice little movie with a really good set design that really brought the video game town to life.

[@unLuckyFetus]

I thought the first Silent Hill movie was great, especially for a gaming movie.

[@kris.tea.p]

Centralia is a neat little area. I live within a decent driving distance from there. Visited not too long ago. It was sad to see graffiti highway covered. When it was there, it was so cool to see because the graffiti changed. People were always there adding their own mark, so it would be covered over and over. The town itself is gone, there are still streets and retaining walls. A few spots that people use as dumping grounds. The church on the hill above the town is interesting to see, as well as the cemeteries, if you’re into looking at old headstones, like I am, lol ... In town, you can sometimes see the steam coming out on some of the upper streets, but you have to go a few miles outside of the town to find the really steamy “hotspots”. Some places are up to 150-180F, if you know where to look. Last tine I went, it was a pretty cold Pennsylvania day so the steam was pretty obvious.

[@varah_potter]

Oh my GOD! I have been trying to figure out where that obscure memory of a fiery rollercoaster and those monsters where for YEARS!!! Thanks! Lol! Now I got to go rewatch it!

[@jonathanedwardgibson]

The real estate bubble has left a string of entire Chinese cities crumbling and never occupied. Great vids and drone footage.

[@WhistleAndSnap]

Whoa. For feal? Reccomend any vids?

[@joshuarichardson6529]

@@WhistleAndSnap Laowhy86 and Serpentza both have some footage of this, but you'll have to search their archive for them.

[@MaliciousChickenAgenda]

Not long til you reach 1 million subs Joe! I can't think of a more deserving person, you've helped keep me sane during this rotten year! 😊

[@Aditya-pe1xh]

Great channel

[@leebee5361]

Thanks for the vid.. Thanks for all the vids.. Also, thanks for the 'heads up' on the Chevy Chase/Dan Aykroyd/John Candy/Demi Moore movie, 'Nothing But Trouble'.. just watched it.. 'A hot mess of a movie, but I love it!' you said. Ditto. :-)

[@JSLeeds]

It was a very strange afternoon, the day I saw “nothing but trouble” as a teenager. Yes, I liked it but it is bananas.

[@Apoxiosis]

joe: "im not a gamer" we can fix that

[@ijustchangedmyname]

@Tamara K Why?

[@ijustchangedmyname]

@John Barber What if I told you it's a joke.

[@Apoxiosis]

@John Barber imagine comparing gaming to a drug addiction lmfao and youre acting like gaming is the problem. your attitude is the problem

[@freyialilian]

The first film is wonderful! Really artistic!

[@minibug5494]

I’ve been to centralia, we actually found it by accident when we got lost coming home. This was years ago like I’m talking 15 years but it was really cool to see

[@kathi16323]

The "dump" was at the opening of a old unused coal mine and they had burnt the garbage several times before this happened. It is a shame that the gafitti highway was destroyed at the beginning of this year to try to keep tourist out!!! Make a me so sad!!! I was born and raised in NW PA!! My family was planning a trip this pass spring to there but with COVID and the road being covered we didn't go!!!

[@brixen0623]

Born and raised in PA and ive never went there. Im such a terrible silent hill fan and PA native.

[@chris-jt6cs]

Yeah this place is about a 90 mins from me its awesome

[@Skylancer727]

I know in public school they taught everyone about it in fourth grade in my area. Though I tend to believe the stories of sink holes opening under people, highways cracking open, and toxic gasses suffocating you to death likely scared most of us from ever considering going there. It's apparently only a few miles away from Knoebels Amusement Part and camp grounds though. Can say I did go there many times when I was 2-8 years old. Even have pictures of me there before I have conscious memories of anything. That part still f*cks with me.

[@MotoMengy]

You should make the trip, its an awesome place to visit, one of my favorite daytrip destinations in PA.

[@chris-jt6cs]

Grammer police oooooooo

[@Skylancer727]

@John Barber could also have said "been" instead. Fits better to me.

[@superspedboy0076]

grew up 25 mins from centralia. still remember riding on state 42 through that "town". around 1996

[@jeezycreezy4220]

I visited the town in 2017 and got to tag the grafitti highway. Saw a few smoke vents during the visit too.

[@DaremoTen]

"Tupac, go 'head and rock this!"

[@joescott]

"Never clown around, when I hang around with the Underground..."

[@oliverclegg5950]

I love how Joe snuck a climate change message into this.

[@weeral1]

Seems like every other video.

[@gomahklawm4446]

@@weeral1 Facts are facts...

[@stephenalderLF15]

@@gomahklawm4446 cite sources for peer review

[@stephenalderLF15]

@@gomahklawm4446 that's not how scholarly sources are found. Google is not a vested database

[@rosiered3403]

New sub. I'm binge watching your channel 🙂

[@xtheuni]

I remember trying to find the highway and we couldnt find it and i was so happy once we were able to go back...and then seeing it covered all up before i got to view it really ticked me off cause we lived so close yet we didnt have the free time to see it That big red truck on the picture drives by my house every day in the morning aswell and it really just makes me feel sad that such an amazing place was just covered up and may be left to be forgotten about