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Fire Underground

Author: David Dekok

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2009-10-01

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0762758244

How a modern-day mine disaster has turned a Pennsylvania community into a ghost town * For much of its history, Centralia, Pennsylvania, had a population of around 2,000. By 1981, this had dwindled to just over 1,000—not unusual for a onetime mining town. But as of 2007, Centralia had the unwelcome distinction of being the state's tiniest municipality, with a population of nine. The reason: an underground fire that began in 1962 has decimated the town with smoke and toxic gases, and has since made history. Fire Underground is the completely updated classic account of the fire that has been raging under Centralia for decades. David DeKok tells the story of how the fire actually began and how government officials failed to take effective action. By 1981 the fire was spewing deadly gases into homes. A twelve-year-old boy dropped into a steaming hole as a congressman toured nearby. DeKok describes how the people of Centralia banded together to finally win relocation funds—and he reveals what has happened to the few remaining residents as the fiftieth anniversary of the fire's beginning nears.

Slow Burn

Author: Renée Jacobs

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 0271036818

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"A pictorial chronicle of the Centralia, Pennsylvania, mine fire disaster in 1962, which led, decades later, to the destruction of the town. Includes interviews and historical background"--Provided by publisher.

Centralia

Author: Poulomi Basu

Publisher:

Published: 2020-01-30

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 9781911306573

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Centralia exposes hidden crimes of war as an indigenous people fight for their survival. In war, truth is the first casualty and Centralia explores the unsteady relationship between reality and fiction and how our perceptions of reality and truth are manipulated.

Centralia

Author: Deryl B. Johnson

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 9780738536293

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Centralia is the saga of a Pennsylvania community consumed by an underground mine fire. The town, founded in 1866, has often been embroiled in tragedy and controversy. Beginning with the infamous Molly Maguires, Centralia was confronted with the murder of its founder and an assault upon its Catholic priest, who cursed the town, saying, "One day this town will be erased from the face of the earth." Almost one hundred years later, a vein of coal that ran underneath the town caught fire and has burned since 1962. In the 1990s, the state of Pennsylvania declared eminent domain and forced most of the town's sixteen hundred residents to leave. Ten people remain in Centralia today. This book chronicles many of the images and stories from this fascinating and colorful Pennsylvania community.

The Centralia Tragedy of 1919

Author: Tom Copeland

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2011-07-01

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 0295800674

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On November 11, 1919, the citizens of Centralia, Washington, gathered to watch former servicemen, local Boy Scouts, and other community groups march in the Armstice Day parade. When the marchers swung past the meeting hall of the Industrial Workers of the World, a group of veterans broke ranks, charged the hall, and were met by gunshots. Before the day was over, four of the marchers were dead and one of the Wobblies had been lynched by the mob. Through a wealth of newly available primary source material including previously sealed court documents, FBI records released under the Freedom of Information Act, and interviews with surviving witnesses, Tom Copeland has pieced together the events of that day and has traced the fate of the men who were accused and convicted of murdering the marchers. Copeland focuses on Elmer Smith, the local attorney who advised the Wobblies that they had the right to defend their hall against an anticipated attack. Although he never belonged to the IWW, Smith sympathized with their interests, championing the rights of working people, and speaking on their behalf. He was originally arrested with the Wobbles and then took up their cause in the courts, beginning a life-long struggle to free the men who were charged with murdering the Centralia marchers. Copeland recounts Smith’s disbarment and eventual reinstatement, his run for political office, his speeches throughout the Northwest, and his unyielding support for the workers’ cause. This book is a balanced treatment of the Centalia tragedy and its legal repercussions written by a practicing lawyer. It is also a compelling human drama, centering on the marginal life of an industrial frontier labor lawyer, a study of radical politics of the 1920s, and a depiction of conditions of life in the lumber camps and towns. It is thus biography as well as legal, political, and social history.

Unseen Danger

Author: David DeKok

Publisher:

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13:

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The true story of the Centralia mine fire; a government's indecisiveness and a town's struggle for survival.

Centralia Dead March

Author: Thomas Churchill

Publisher:

Published: 1980

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 9780915306176

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Centralia Dead March is a documentary novel based on the struggle of a radical union to establish better working conditions and solidarity among lumbermen, miners, railroad and migrant workers during the early part of this century. Wesley Everest, Ray Becker, Bert and O.C. Bland, Loren Roberts and Eugene Barnett lived and worked around Centralia, Washington and were active in the Wobblies, the International Workers of the World. Because of its doctrine of worker unity, its stand against racist hiring practices and its call for militant tactics, the I.W.W., the most feared union among the ruling classes, was subject to massive arrests and numerous court actions. When the I.W.W. led the northwester woods out on strike during the First World War because wages had dropped while production increased, they were branded "traitors" in the local papers. On November 11, 1919, during the first Armistice parade, a mob of Centralia "patriots" raided the union hall. In the conflict, three soldiers were shot by workers defending their property; Everest was beaten, castrated, and hanged from a brid≥ and seven workers--including Becker, the Blands, Roberts, and Barnett--were sentenced to from 25 to 40 years. Centralia Dead March recreates these historical events and examines the long-term consequences of the violence and repression.