by Laura M.
Centralia is unique because it's a real-life ghost town caused by an underground fire that's been burning since 1962 and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. Centralia was a booming coal mining town until one day a coal seam caught fire from an unwatched garbage fire. Most residents fled the town due to poisonous gases and the dangerous fire spreading below their homes, but a few residents still remain in the modern ghost town. It's a destination for locals of PA who go to visit "graffiti highway" - the disintegrating road to nowhere that's been covered with decades of street art and has now been permanently closed and covered with dirt, with much dismay from locals (it's now illegal to visit graffiti highway but that doesn't stop people from trying). You can still visit Centralia to see falling down homes and cook eggs or hot chocolate on one of the many hot spots of steam erupting from the ground. There's definitely no place else like this town on earth.