During this time of uncertainty, I’ve spent the past few days in Pennsylvania living at a friend’s house. Yesterday I had the chance to explore Graffiti Highway, an abandoned section of Route 61 that’s become a popular tourist attraction near the ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania. The town’s history is rather tragic.
In 1962, Centralia’s inhabitants decided to clean up a 300-foot landfill by setting it on fire. Historically, the area had been a prominent coal mining site, and the fire spread through the mines under the town. Every time one fire was extinguished, another one popped up somewhere else and the constant smell of burning trash and coal became unbearable. Centralia was condemned and the fires would continue to blaze for decades.
In the 1990’s, the continuing fires compromised the structural integrity of a section of Route 61, a highway that ran south of Centralia. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation bypassed this section, and the one-mile stretch of road was abandoned. Throughout the 2000’s, artwork began appearing on the abandoned asphalt and by 2010 the majority of the highway was covered in graffiti.
I had a very eerie feeling walking along Graffiti Highway. Large parts of the road surface were covered in spray paint, and several trees on either side of the road were also doused in color. The art ranged from symbols and icons to text relevant to current developments, such as “It’s Corona Time.” A dead piece of history has been immortalized through art.