The Town That Was

2007 FESTIVAL
58 min.
Conservation is about more than open space – it’s about deep connections to the places where we live. In 1962, when a trash fire ignited a coal seam beneath Centralia, Pa., there were 1,600 people living in the thriving mining town. Four decades later, the fire still burns and there are less than a dozen residents. A thousand buildings have been removed, leaving a ghost town of streets with a few scattered houses. This stranger-than-fiction tale chronicles the affection residents have for their hometown and the pain of leaving it. It reveals one man’s unusual obsession with keeping the town alive as he becomes the caretaker of a changed landscape and the guardian of the town’s rites and rituals – knowing well that his town’s fate is ultimately out of his hands.