Submitted by conifer0 t3_znu4fp in Pennsylvania
I read that they were going to plant the area to blend in with the rest of the forest but haven't been able to find any real updates. Also wondering if anyone knows if they actually broke the road up like they said they were going to or if they just covered it with dirt. From the little info online it seems to be the latter. It should've never been covered in the first place.
You could zoom around the most recent State aerials and check. I’d have to dig on PASDA to find the date Columbia County was flown.
My husband and his organization have planted apple trees this year in that area. He runs a non profit in the Wilkes Barre area. He cleans abandon mine lands.
Repeat post from just a couple of weeks ago. Scroll down to get all the answers you did not get the last time the topic was posted.
i've been there twice since it was covered. just a bunch of piles of dirt all down the highway now. but some people still come to do graffiti there.
Yes, I went there back in August. And there are a massive amount of large piles of dirt on it. Yes you can still see some graffiti in spots but it's very covered with lots of piles
Went there back in July. Not much to really see besides the dirt mounds. Still graffitiI in some areas.
I found Byrnsville alot more interesting then Centralia if you're into the whole ghost town thingy.
You seem fun.
[deleted]
>17Has anyone been to the graffiti highway since its been covered?
It was a long thread from just a few weeks ago.
I live about 10 minutes away. Yes it sucks the state screwed it up, however you can still walk it.
It was on our local news.
Overhead footage of the tri-axles bringing in the fill showed that they just covered it up.
Far too expensive, time-consuming, and pointless to bother breaking up the road surface beforehand. That's a lot of road
I used to drive old Route 61 back before they closed it and tore down Centralia.
Edit - typo.
I helped with the monarch waystation there in 2020, was he there for that? I may have met him! Makes me happy every time I drive through to see the trees that were planted and growing 😊
Been there twice since the destruction of an amazing place. . I was furious the first time I seen it as I wanted to show my new girlfriend (at the time), and it was covered with mounds. Really horrible as I had talked the trip up and explained the history. Before you could walk the road and see smoke. Assholes. This wasn't doing harm to anyone. It also, I'm sure, brought much needed tourism to the small town of Ashland next door. How many people would make the homage to Centralia and then go get food in Ashland or check out the pioneer coal mine tour. Idiots. Whoever ordered this is a selfish moron, who just wanted to ruin fun for 1000s of people. I went every few years. Took multiple people there and had a fun time each time. Now what's the point?
Now it's just dirt, no smoke, no highway. Shit I didn't care about the graffiti I just liked seeing the smoke rise. Now there is nowhere in Centralia to even see it. If you want graffiti there is an abandoned bridge outside Reading, that has that. Also abandoned turnpike tunnels and I'm sure 100s of other locations. No other place had burning coal mine road with earthquake, dystopian novel looking highway. Grrr....
No fun allowed anymore. Screw PA gov, the Township, the property owner (if there is one, they shouldnt own a whole ghost town/highway)... This should of been made a state park or attraction.
The one remaining person living there complained about quads and bikes, if I recall, these mounds won't do shit to stop 4 wheelers and dirt bikes. They will just ride over them. All it does is stop enjoyment for the rest of us. If you can't tell, I loved Centralia. The lore, the vibes, the history. No where like it anywhere.
I read from someone that it wasn't even the state, as that was my first thought too. You'd thi k it was them for liability issues or some screatching "think of the children" types... But apparently it was a property owner who owns all the land there who did it. Don't know why someone would buy that land and just sit on it. Either way it sucks, but I don't know who actually did it or owns said property.
Yea he was there! He runs EPCAMR his name is Bobby Hughes
Centralia is still super damn good for fossil hunting but that’s about it for me
Yes and no. The state sold the land to a few parties that owned area property around the area including Pitreal Inc, a subsididary of Pagnotti Enterprises based out of Wilkes Barre.
From what I understand part of the process included a particular section of the Grafitti Highway being filled in with a barrier to keep people out. Penn Dot helped with this project by allowing their drivers "driver training" when they took loads of dirt back there to make the dirt mounds.
Its still used today by a significant number of motorcross and ATV riders to this day. It really hasn't stopped anyone that truly wants to get through
It does look a little spooky.
Yankiwi17273 t1_j0j5wsc wrote
I was there the day they started covering things. (Someone chased me off the property). I think I remembered the road itself to being untouched other than there being just mounds of dirt or mulch or something brown like that being mounded several places. But it was a while ago, and my memory is not the greatest.