Graffiti Highway

This is going to be a different one than usual. The Graffiti Highway is no more. As of writing this, the private owner of the road has started the process of covering up the road with dirt to prevent people from visiting the site. You can no longer visit this place, but I wanted to cover it because of what it meant to a lot of people.

 

Centralia, Pennsylvania was once a bustling coal town with upwards of 2,500 people. Now only 7 people call this place home. You see, back in the 60s a massive fire started in the coal mines and it still burns to this day. This fire has created sinkholes and giant cracks in the ground and roads. Perhaps the most famous of those roads is the Graffiti Highway, an abandoned stretch of Pennsylvania Route 61 that has become a canvas for artists of all sorts.

I had the pleasure of visiting the Graffiti Highway back in December of 2019. I was on a road trip with my good friend Ukiah and it was actually his idea to go through here. We got lucky showing up in mid-December as there was no snow and warm weather. The Highway was really spectacular. There were paintings ranging from simple names and dates to complex thoughts and high-detail sprays. Everything that could possibly be tagged, was. Not a single spot on the road was the original asphalt anymore. It was coated in several layers of paint.

Nowadays the town is only about 10 buildings and a cemetery, it also has a lot of new forest growth and dirt roads and trails for off-roading. You’ll still be able to explore those trails and see the trees and rocks that have been painted but you won’t be able to see any of the highway. Centralia is still a cool place to see what once was and is an important part of Pennsylvania history.

If you want to see a really good in-depth break down of the town as well as some shots from the road, check out this video by Bright Sun Films, Abandoned-Centralia.

Beaver Valley

Hidden away on the state line between Pennsylvania and Delaware, lies a spectacular park called Beaver Valley. Owned by the National Park Service, it has 1,100 acres of pastures, fields, forested hills and stream valleys. That’s simply too much land to cover so today, we will be talking about the section known as the Woodlawn Short Loop.

The Woodlawn Short Loop is home to many cool things. It has a stream running through it that provides juxtaposition to the forest around it. That stream starts out small and simple on the east end and becomes a series of rapids and waterfalls on the west end. At around the 12 O’clock section of the trail sits some English Quaker ruins that are from the 19th century.

 

This section sits just north of Brandywine Creek State Park in the area right behind Hy-Point Dairy Farms. The easiest parking lot to access the Quaker ruins and waterfalls is on Beaver Valley Road across the road from Cloverleaf Stables. There will be a National Park Service sign to let you know exactly where but the sign is on the wrong side of the road.

This is not the hardest area to hike. I’d say the only difficult thing about hiking here is the fact that none of the creek crossings have bridges. You have to either rock hop or get your feet wet. The streams are only about 6 inches to a foot deep, so it is nothing crazy. With the high number of stables and farms in the region, you do have to watch out for horses and horse excrement. You should also keep your eye out for cyclists and other hikers as well.

Beaver Valley was recommended to me about 2 weeks ago and although I have only been a handful of times, I really want to go back. From the moment I set foot on the trail, I knew this area was unlike any place in Delaware that I had been to before. There is a feeling to this place that cannot be named. The best description of that feeling is a sense of discovery, like there’s something to find around each bend and valley.

For more information on Woodlawn Short Loop, check out the AllTrails page. For more information on Beaver Valley, here is the National Park Service’s website.

Concrete City

If you are looking for a cool place to explore and are willing to do a bit of hiking (about a quarter mile) then Concrete City should be on your bucket-list.

This town, now abandoned, was an early example of international style architecture in the United States. It was built in 1911 as housing for high-level employees of several railroad companies, who used the town as a colliery. Each building was divided into a duplex meant to house two families. In the early 1920’s the towns issues became clear; instead of fixing them, they left the town abandoned in 1924, only 13 years after construction. There were several reasons why the companies decided to leave. One minor one was because a boy drowned in the wading pool. The major one was that the property owners refused to install an expensive but necessary sewage system. They decided to try and blow it up however, that wouldn’t work. After an attempt involving 100 sticks of dynamite failed to make a significant impact on one of the houses, the decision was made to leave the city to its own demise.

 

Now the location is known as a hotspot for artists and explorers to create and feel at home in a place that used to be home to many. It is also used for law enforcement training exercises and the occasional paintball or airsoft match.

My experience showing up here was a bit rough. I didn’t bring boots so I had to puddle hop in mesh running shoes. I do not recommend doing that at all, definitely wear boots as there is a lot of mud and a decent amount of broken glass. There is a nice walk through the woods on a gravel road for a quarter mile and then you end up on the ridge overlooking the many houses. Be careful going down the ridge because it is quite steep and is mostly loose dirt. I went with my good friend Ukiah and we explored a couple of the houses but nowhere near all of them due to time constraints. For the most part each house is in good shape and is perfectly fine to be in, just watch out for the broken glass in some parts.

I suggest that if you go to the Concrete City that you bring a friend along. You should go early in the morning so you can avoid other people who are trying to check out the site as well. Aim for going right after it rains. The best time to go is probably late fall through early spring before mosquitoes get a chance to show up.