Here we go again. Another story from major media on the quaint little town of Centralia, population almost no one. Population once was Over a thousand.. a mine fire changed that, and destroyed a road or two in the process.
The fire started 50 years ago this weekend, a Memorial Day somewhere in time.
And this year, another news article portrays the town as “macabre.” It is not macabre. It is a tragic story, of course. However, the typical yearly media portrayal that occurs, or the occasional blip on the radar that it gets in AP news alerts due to constant court cases, always gets me irritated. No one ever really wanted the attention that they got, even today. No one really appreciates that their little home town is now home to explorers and travelers from around the world—people who seem shocked that zombies aren’t walking around the street and fires aren’t smoldering. Instead, now and then, smoke rises.
Nonetheless, it’s a story. News media come and go. And they did in the 1980s, when NIGHTLINE broadcasted live (complete with a smoke machine for the effect.) And they come and go yet again. 50 years of this.. interesting.
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