On a recent road trip in Oklahoma I discovered, I would say, the creepiest (and saddest!) place in the state of Oklahoma. Located on Highway 69 near the Kansas and Missouri border is a literal, modern-day ghost town called Picher, OK. Years ago I remember hearing of the devastation to this one-time prosperous mining town. First, in the late 2000's were the federal buyouts due to the high levels of toxic waste leftover from its lead and zinc mining heydays. And then later was the devastating EF4 tornado that decimated the already crippled town by completely destroying roughly 20 square blocks and killing eight. But to see the town with my own two eyes put the whole story in complete and startling perspective - this is one BIG, FAT mess from our country's industrial era.
The whole town felt like an eerie movie set from Mad Max or Book of Eli.
Before you actually arrive at the heart of downtown Picher, you encounter gigantic mounds of what appear to be gray sand and rock. Giant sand-dune like mountains completely surrounded by fence and barbed wire. These mounds are the actual waste from the days of mining called tailings or "chat" - around 175 million tons of "chat" consisting of crushed limestone, dolomite, and rock containing silica, all leftover once the metal ore was separated. Perspective = that is enough to build a four-lane highway around the Earth - TWICE!
Now you know what a big pile of "chat" looks like.
Unbelievably, generations of families used these giant hills of waste for recreation. Families would picnic on the hills and they were a favorite place for hikers and four-wheeler enthusiasts. Children would sled on them in the wintertime. And parents would fill their kids' sandboxes with the sand/waste and use it in the concrete and asphalt for the foundations and driveways in their homes. The Picher High School track team even trained on these hills.
Stay away ... stay FAR away!!!
While the mining ceased in the 1960's, the town continued to thrive until the 1980's at which time it began its decline. During that time the effects of the contamination was rampant. Although not yet identified as the culprit of the persistent and higher than normal ailments in the town, the silent poisoning took its toll in high cancer rates, respiratory infections and high infant mortality rates to the tune of 20 - 30% above the national average. In 1996 a study showed lead poisoning in 34% of the town's children. It's no wonder schools consistently reported that kids in Picher were sick more often and lagged behind significantly in test scores.
These signs are posted all over town and nearly all streets are blocked with barbed wire.
Not only did the residents use the mounds of toxic waste for extracurricular activities ... there was this issue with the water. The groundwater was so contaminated in the 1970's that the water in nearby Tar Creek ran red. Upon testing, the water in the area was found to contain heavy metals such as lead, zinc, arsenic, and iron. Residents tell stories of swimming as children in the lime-green colored ponds around town and it taking weeks to wash the resulting orange-colored stain from their hair. Whaaaat???
Empty slabs of concrete and deserted remnants such as these line the highway running through town.
And then there was also the matter of the sinkholes popping up around town. With close to 500 open mine shafts in the area and tunnels and cavities crisscrossing underneath the city, the possibility and probability of a massive cave in was inevitable. Because of the instability of the earth and tunnels underneath the town, the homes had no septic tanks and no basements or below-ground shelter - this contributing to the deaths in the 2008 tornado.
Stark and jarring remnants of what used to be.
With a population of around 15,000 in the 1920's, today there are only about 10 people left who refuse to leave. After the EPA called Picher one of the most polluted places in America and it made their list of Top 10 Environmental Disasters, the federal government began offering buyouts to the residences in 2006. In 2009 the last class of the Picher Gorillas graduated from the local high school - a total of eleven graduates. And that same year Picher officially ceased to be a town. By 2013 most residents had accepted money from the government and had vacated the town that they had lived in for generations.
The Picher water tower - surprisingly, with a fresh coat of paint!
As we left Picher to head back to Tulsa we stopped in nearby Miami, OK to use the bathroom. I headed to the sink to wash my hands and this sign was tacked to the wall above the sink.
I scrubbed clear to my armpits!!
