Rogue Valley - Centralia, PA lyrics

Pennsylvania 61 Through the very heart for some Where industry has long been gone Looks like any old abandoned town It looks like any other place Forgotten and left to waste Its residents have long been chased Away Steam rises from the fields Smoke-clouds skim the street A fire burns underneath The fallen city This old mining community Is hotter than the planet mercury A statuette without a face Disfigured and erased Four hundred acres all unseen Been burning since 1960 The government gave it up Paid money for all the people to move out They took their pictures and precious things Their families, their histories Level it all let nature reclaim This town Smoke rises from the hills Like some kind of poison spell The mines are smoldering still After fifty years They'll burn for a hundred more Hollowing a harrowing core The coal went then the soul went The other way down Pennsylvania 61 Level it all Don't look back on Pennsylvania 61