Picher, Oklahoma: The Mining Town Its Own Mines Destroyed

In the early 20th century, the corner where Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri meet sat on one of the richest lead and zinc deposits in the world. It was called the Tri-State Mining District, and at its heart was Picher, named for Oliver S. Picher of the Picher Lead Company. Picher incorporated in 1918 and grew fast. By 1926 it had 14,252 residents, and thousands of miners worked underground beneath the town. The region's metals went to war. According to NBC News, about 75 percent of the bullets and shells American troops fired in both World Wars were made from metals mined in the Tri-State district. Mining left two things behind. The first was underground: a maze of tunnels and caverns carved beneath the town. As mines closed, operators often removed the rock pillars that had been left to hold up the caverns, pulling out the ore inside them. The second was on the surface. After the ore was separated, the leftover crushed rock, called chat, was piled into enormous gray hills all around town. Children rode bikes on them, played on them, and used the sand in their sandboxes. Nobody warned them that the chat was laced with lead. The ore ran out, and the mines closed in 1967. When the pumps that had kept the underground workings dry were shut off, the mines filled with water, and by 1979 acid mine water was pouring into Tar Creek and turning it orange. On September 8, 1983, the EPA designated the area part of the Tar Creek Superfund site. In 1994, testing by the Indian Health Service found that about a third of the Native American children tested in the area had blood lead levels above the CDC's level of concern. Lead exposure in children can cause lifelong damage to learning and development. Cleanup crews scraped contaminated soil out of yards, but dust from the chat piles kept blowing back. Then came the ground itself. In 2006, the Army Corps of Engineers found that 86 percent of Picher's buildings, including the school, were undermined and at risk of collapse. Federal and state officials began buying out homes and businesses. Many families didn't want to leave a town their families had lived in for generations. On May 10, 2008, an EF4 tornado tore through Picher, killing six people and destroying about 150 homes. There would be no rebuilding. The buyouts continued, and on September 1, 2009, Picher ceased operating as a city. Its last residents gathered in the school auditorium to say goodbye. The municipality was formally dissolved in 2013. Most of the town is gone now. Cleanup of the chat and the land continues, led by the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality with the Quapaw Nation doing much of the work, and it's expected to take decades more.