Centralia

City in Clinton and Marion Counties, south-central Illinois, USA, 89 km/55 mi east of East St Louis; population (2000) 14,100. It is the distribution point for the region's fruit and dairy products. The many oilfields in the area have made Centralia a centre for oil production. Local manufactures include stoves, furnaces, auto parts, fibreglass products, paper, potato chips, and candy. Centralia also has railroad shops, the remnants of the Illinois Central Railroad, which founded the town in 1853.

Coal mining was an important part of the local economy through much of the 20th century. The largest steam locomotive ever built is displayed here. Centralia is also the seat of Kaskaskia College (1940). Carlyle Lake, a recreation area, is 24 km/15 mi to the northwest.

Centralia

City in Boone County, central Missouri, USA, 37 km/23 mi northeast of Columbia; population (1990) 3,400. The city is a trade centre in a grain producing and coal mining region. Its light manufactures include wood products.

Centralia was founded (1857) on the proposed route of the North Missouri Railroad. During the Civil War (27 September 1864), in an incident known as the Centralia Massacre, Confederate guerrillas robbed a stagecoach and train here, killing over 20 unarmed Union soldiers, and later ambushed and destroyed a force of over 100 Union troops.

Centralia

City in Lewis County, southwestern Washington, USA, at the junction of the Chehalis and Skookumchuck rivers, 40 km/25 mi south of Olympia; population (1990) 12,100. Centralia forms an economic unit with its sister city, Chehalis (to the south). Its economy is largely based on lumber, along with nearby dairy, poultry, and fruit farms.

Centralia is said to be the only city in the West to have a black founder, George Washington, a former slave, who laid it out in 1875. Midway between Portland and Seattle, it was a stopover point for stagecoaches during its first decades. In 1919, Wesley Everest of the International Workers of the World (Wobblies) was lynched here by American Legionnaires, during a labour dispute in the lumbering industry.

The city is the seat of Centralia College (1925).