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Since the first Silent Hill game back in 1999, fans have wondered if the title town had a real-life counterpart. Is there a particular town that inspired the haunted wasteland we've come to know and fear in the games? There have been many speculations, and now here's a place you can actually visit... for REAL...

In researching the different elements of Silent Hill, screenwriter Roger Avary (Killing Zoe, The Rules of Attraction) came across the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania (it's interesting that LA moviemakers look to the deep Midwest [or in this case, the eastern U.S. in Pennsylvania] when they're looking for something "strange" or "different"). Centralia planted the seed for what developed into the cinematic version of the town of Silent Hill.

As recently as 1981, there were over 1,000 residents living in Centralia, although the population has now dwindled to 11 (we'll say that again: 11 people) as a result of a 40-year mine fire burning beneath the borough (we'll say that again: it's been burning for 40 years... underneath the town). This is certainly not unlike Silent Hill, which was left deserted since devastating coal fires ravaged the town and its people.

The inferno started when a trash fire was lit in an abandoned mine pit in Centralia in 1962. The fire ignited an exposed vein of coal and spread throughout the mines beneath the borough. Several attempts have been made and millions of dollars have been spent unsuccessfully to extinguish this fire that still burns today.

The "problem" wasn't really acknowledged until a series of accidents in the '70s and '80s, including the appearances of sinkholes hundreds of feet deep. In 1984, Congress allocated more than $40 million for relocation efforts, and most residents moved to nearby Mount Carmel and Ashland.

However, a very few families opted to stay, and they're still there, despite the fact that the state of Pennsylvania has condemned all the buildings in the borough and the US Postal Service has revoked its zip code of 17927. The 11 holdouts include the town's 89-year-old mayor, Lamar Mervine, who refuses to leave because "I like it here."

You can find more information on Centralia, Pennsylvania here. Or perhaps one day you will heed its call and find yourself exploring its deserted streets... Well, almost deserted. Source: Underground Online and Sony Pictures

this is what the true story is:
In researching the different elements of Silent Hill, screenwriter Roger Avary (Killing Zoe, The Rules of Attraction) came across the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania (it's interesting that LA moviemakers look to the deep Midwest [or in this case, the eastern U.S. in Pennsylvania] when they're looking for something "strange" or "different"). Centralia planted the seed for what developed into the cinematic version of the town of Silent Hill.

As recently as 1981, there were over 1,000 residents living in Centralia, although the population has now dwindled to 11 (we'll say that again: 11 people) as a result of a 40-year mine fire burning beneath the borough (we'll say that again: it's been burning for 40 years... underneath the town). This is certainly not unlike Silent Hill, which was left deserted since devastating coal fires ravaged the town and its people.


The inferno started when a trash fire was lit in an abandoned mine pit in Centralia in 1962. The fire ignited an exposed vein of coal and spread throughout the mines beneath the borough. Several attempts have been made and millions of dollars have been spent unsuccessfully to extinguish this fire that still burns today.

The "problem" wasn't really acknowledged until a series of accidents in the '70s and '80s, including the appearances of sinkholes hundreds of feet deep. In 1984, Congress allocated more than $40 million for relocation efforts, and most residents moved to nearby Mount Carmel and Ashland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjtmaCI9_wM

Wa-lah! Centralia! :'D

Centralia is gonna be one of my hotspots when i go on vacation

What confuses me is in SH 0, Travis saves her from the burnning house, but she was a girl wasn't she? I thought she was around her teens or young adult years in most of the cutscenes from other games? @.@ Big time period confusion

you didn't know about this?

There was a picture of the 'Wiltse Coal Mine' on the wall of the Historical Society in sh2 - but that's the only specific mention on the subject. There was that mine in sh5, but that had lots of movie specific references.

Pertaining to the door of hell, anyone up for roasting marshmellows?



and despite what nothing may exist in centralia, I still want to visit it once in my life. Haha ive often thought, if you could survive the heat do you know how wicked a burning coal mine would look?

The burning mine did not inspire the games, they simply inspired the movie.