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Owner of Pennsylvania’s ‘graffiti highway’ in Centralia shuts it down for good

In 1963, an anthracite seam beneath Centralia caught fire, and it still burns today. For the past 27 years, abandoned Route 61, which runs through the Columbia County town, has drawn hikers, photographers, dirt bike and ATV riders, and teens with a case or two of beer.

In a 2001 photo, smoke billowed from the mine fire along a hillside overlooking the few remaining homes in Centralia. Today, the fire has moved to the perimeter, so haze no longer clouds the heart of the town. Tourists are lured by horrific stories on the web.
In a 2001 photo, smoke billowed from the mine fire along a hillside overlooking the few remaining homes in Centralia. Today, the fire has moved to the perimeter, so haze no longer clouds the heart of the town. Tourists are lured by horrific stories on the web.Read moreSCOTT S. HAMRICK / Inquirer file photo
    by Jason Nark
    Published 

The coronavirus pandemic may spell the end for one of Pennsylvania’s oddest attractions: a road covered with graffiti that runs through a nearly abandoned town with a coal mine burning beneath it.

For nearly three decades, Centralia’s “graffiti highway” in Columbia County has drawn hikers, photographers, dirt bike and ATV riders, and teens with a case or two of beer. The highway, the former Route 61, is private property, and Pennsylvania state police regularly confront trespassers or issue them tickets. In recent weeks, as the pandemic has spread, those numbers have grown, prompting the owner, Pagnotti Enterprises, to dispatch a fleet of dump trucks there on Monday, all filled with dirt to cover up the road.

“There have been hundreds of people together, all trespassing,” said Robert Hughes, executive director of the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation (EPCAMR).

Hughes, who regularly runs cleanups of the area, was scheduled to plant hundreds of apple trees in town on Saturday with volunteers. He canceled due to the coronavirus, but trespassers didn’t.

“They were just rip-roaring through there,” he said Monday.

In 1963, an anthracite seam beneath Centralia caught fire, and it still burns today. The population dropped from more than 1,000 in 1980 to fewer than 100 a decade later. Today, seven households remain.

The former Route 61, which went through town, has been closed to traffic for 27 years, during which time it slowly became covered in graffiti. According to the website Skook News, Pagnotti Enterprises, the owner of the highway and adjacent land, was having it filled in with dirt, trees, and grass Monday.

The company’s owner did not return a call for comment.

A state police spokesperson at the Bloomsburg barracks said the graffiti highway “has always been a problem,” and troopers use their own discretion when dealing with trespassers. He did not say if any had been cited over the last three weeks.

“The company decided it has to take measures to ensure the safety and quality of the property,” the spokesperson said.