Centralia, Pennsylvania: The Fiction That Fuels the Fire - Paperback

by John G. Sabol Jr (Author)

Robert Lewis Stevenson once remarked that some landscapes cry out for a story. Centralia is one such landscape. These are the stories that were inspired by what happened there and the lack of presence in the landscape today. These are fictional accounts of Centralia's history that serve as a counter-current to the real dangers of anthracite coal mining. There are fictional accounts of vampires, dragons, and other supernatural beings that lurk in the abandoned mine shafts beneath the town of Centralia. They form in the imagination of various authors and represent a different version of the Centralia landscape.

Author Biography

John Sabol is an archaeologist, cultural anthropologist, actor, and author. As an archaeologist, he has unearthed past material remains in excavations and site surveys in England, Mexico, and at various sites in the United States (including Eastern South Dakota, the Tennessee River Valleys, and in Pennsylvania). His anthropological fieldwork includes the studies of "spirits" in the religious beliefs of the afterlife among various cultural groups in Mexico (Mixtec, Zapotec, Lacandon, Nahuatl, and Otomi). His acting career includes "ghosting" performances of various characters and scenarios in more than 35 movies, TV shows, and documentaries. He has appeared in the A&E TV series, Paranormal State as an investigative consultant. His investigative reports have been published in such diverse venues as Haunted Times Magazine, Tennessee Anthropologist, and the online journal, Paranthropology. He was a university professor in Mexico for 11 years, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses on the anthropology of tourism. He has also been featured on public educational TV for U.S. and foreign markets, and has worked on international educational documentaries (in Spain). He has a M.A. in Anthropology/Archaeology (University of Tennessee), and a B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology (Bloomsburg University). He has also attended Penn State University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of the Americas (Cholula, Puebla, Mexico), and has studied theatre and method acting in Mexico City. He can be reached via email at cuicospirit@hotmail.com. His website is: www.ghostexcavation.com and he can be found on Facebook ("Ghost Excavations with John Sabol").