Centralia Parks & Recreation Department: Fill & Download for Free

What are the most impressive images of nature reclaiming manmade structures?Nature is incredibly powerful, despite the best efforts of humans. Flora is especially tenacious in finding places to grow and prosper. Waterways are relentless in their determination not to be thwarted. A shocking study revealed that even New York City, with its endless rows of skyscrapers, could turn into a forest within 20 years without proper maintenance.Nara, JapanThe abandoned Dreamland amusement park in Japan was covered in ivy before it was finally demolished in 2016.Siem Reap, CambodiaI just visited this spot in Cambodia a few months ago. The Ta Prohm temple is probably the most famous place in the world where nature is so dramatically intersecting civilization, especially after this very tree was featured in the movie Tomb Raider. But after visiting, I only found a couple of places where trees were overtaking buildings, so I wouldn’t say nature is winning this one, yet.Kolmanskop, NamibiaThis is one of the more famous structures in the world reclaimed by nature, inspiring many similar Internet photographs. Buildings of an abandoned mining town in Namibia have been inundated with sand blown in from the surrounding desert.Gouqi Island, ChinaThis abandoned Chinese fishing village has been overtaken with greenery.Klevan, UkraineThe so-called Tunnel of Love in Ukraine is arguably the most famous manmade place in the world that has been completely overtaken by nature, drawing many tourists.The shocking thing about the Tunnel of Love is that, unlike the other places featured on my list, this one is NOT abandoned. This is an active industrial railway line! Yet nature is STILL winning!Kirovsky, Kamchatka Krai, RussiaAn apartment building in the ghost town of Kirovsky is slowly being swallowed by the Sea of Okhotsk.Paris, FranceEven major metropolitan areas are not immune from nature. The Petite Ceinture rail line in central Paris is gradually being enveloped by the flora.Centralia, Pennsylvania, USAThe streets of abandoned Centralia are slowly shrinking as the forest encroaches.Hubei Province, ChinaThe same province that introduced us to COVID-19 in 2019 also features abandoned Wonderland, an amusement park that was supposed to be China’s answer to Walt Disney World.Lebanon, Pennsylvania, USAThis railroad actually is abandoned and being slowly overtaken by the surrounding forest.Berlin, GermanyI’d say no one has used these train tracks in awhile!Port Talbot, WalesThe Plaza movie theater in Wales supports a small forest now. A number of Hollywood celebrities, including Anthony Hopkins and Richard Burton, once patronized this cinema before it was closed.Pripyat, UkraineThe town of the infamous 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster is slowly swallowed by trees.Note: Too bad this poor little Quora question sat there for 9 months without anyone answering. It’s quite a fascinating question indeed!

In the early 1960s a fire started underground in a coal mine near Centralia, Pennsylvania. It has been burning ever since, and most of the residents of Centralia have moved away because of the danger that the flames might spread to underneath their homes, and/or that fumes from the burning coal might be toxic. A handful of elderly holdouts still live there, but all the town's businesses have closed.Times Beach, Missouri was completely evacuated in 1983 because it was found to be contaminated by dioxin.Straddling southwestern Kentucky and northwestern Tennessee are two man-made lakes, Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Both are now the centers of Kentucky state resort parks. The land between the two lakes is now a national recreation area called, appropriately, Land Between the Lakes. Though the cities still exist, large areas of Eddyille and Kuttawa, Kentucky were evacuated to create the lakes. The Tennessee towns of Model and Tharpe, and the town of Golden Pond, Kentucky were completely evacuated and submerged.

Fortunately, there’s no need to select a jury from the 10 or so remaining residents of Centralia. The jury would be selected from among the citizens of Columbia County. The county had a population of 67,295 as of the 2010 Census.There is, however, a place where it would be very challenging to select a jury — the part of Yellowstone National Park that’s in Idaho. The park is a federal reservation, so any crimes committed there can’t be tried in state courts. The U.S. Constitution requires that juries be selected from the state and district where they were committed. Strangely, all of Yellowstone National Park is in the Wyoming federal judicial district, so the jury could only be selected from the people who live in the Idaho part of the park. And that population is precisely zero.You can read more about this legal oddity here.