All photographs by Daniel W. Coburn
I recently made a trip to Picher Oklahoma with fellow artist Louis Copt. We volunteered for a field trip which took us on an adventure with about 50 high school students from Lincoln Prep Academy and Shawnee Mission East in Kansas City. Louis and I were to serve as mentors to these young artists_ scary, I know.
Picher Oklahoma is an old mining town in the extreme northeast portion of the state. The excavations in this town provided lead to make ammunition during World War II and Korea. Mining ceased about 50 years ago and the town began to sink as the underground shafts have filled with water. It’s no longer safe to live in Picher on many different levels, so the federal government is buying land from residents and business owners. Officials say the entire place will be leveled in 3 years_ The town will literally disappear.
The land and townspeople have been abused by the mining companies. The city is rundown, and surrounded by enormous manmade mountains. These chat piles are mine tailings_ waste by-product from the mining process. The land is heavily littered and polluted. The students were there as observers. Their main goal was to document the town, it’s residents, and the evolving landscape. We offered our advice, and most of the students were excited to hear what we had to say :c)
The students will exhibit their work from this trip at Leopold Gallery in May. It was a horrible day for photography. Lighting was bad due to a completely flat, overcast sky. So, I decided to concentrate on color and I walked away with some decent photos.
Comments and Critiques are welcome! Tell me what you think in the comments section.
March 13, 2008 at 4:54 pm |
I think color works really well for these images. Black-and-white tends to give things a timeless quality, which works really well for certain subjects. Using color for these images gives them an immediacy, a currentness. Picher, Oklahoma is vanishing in front of our eyes, and it’s important that the viewer understand that.
Great work Dan.
March 13, 2008 at 8:59 pm |
How fun for those students to get to travel with you_better yet, what an honor to get to learn from you! Dan, your skills have grown by leaps and bounds in the past years. Thank you so much as always for sharing your color work with us!
Great work!!!!!!
Carol
March 15, 2008 at 4:11 am |
I really liked the tennies in the last shot.
But besides that, the peeling paint picture is very interesting. I’m not sure how to say this without it saying that the picture isn’t as interesting in the first place (which is not what I mean), but the scroll down effect of reading it here made it especially interesting. That’s one aspect I enjoy about your blog…each picture is revealed individually, a section at a time.
It’s just mind boggling that people still live in those situations today.
May 10, 2008 at 9:41 pm |
There’s an article on MSNBC.com today about Picher, OK: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24555711/
Having seen your photos and then reading that article, it’s hard to believe that some people want to stay.
May 11, 2008 at 12:10 am |
A sad end to a historic site that is a prime example of greed by the Eagle Picher mining company and others who raped this area for years. Of course they are no longer liable because of bankruptcy procedings and the extreme waste of millions of dollars spent in a fruitless attempt to clean up the mess. One of the richer mines in the area was on land in Treece, Ks. that once belonged to my great grandfather who was conned out of it by an unscrupulous mining company but that is neither here nor there. Taking advantage of the Quapaw tribe and other residents by the mining companies and the BIA this area was turned into a toxic wasteland that may never recover. I have visited the site on several occasions during some of the so called reclamation work and immediatelly recognized a money tree for the contractors. Relocation is very hard for the long time natives and is a horrible term for native Americans but it is, in my opinion, the best thing to do. Too bad it wasn’t done long before over 120 million dollars was wasted on “cleanup” attempts. My family, parents and others never lived in Picher but did reside in Cardin, Commerce, Miami, Baxter Springs, Webb City and Joplin. Picher and the area will live on in the minds of those who worked and lived in the area along with photographs of the area which is on a wonderful website about Ottawa County.
May 11, 2008 at 3:35 pm |
[...] I am posting additional photos from my recent trip to Picher Oklahoma. MSNBC.com ran a story about Picher Oklahoma yesterday and there seems to have generated quite a bit of interest. You can see additional pictures of the site by visiting my previous post. [...]
June 10, 2009 at 4:27 pm |
Looking for pictures of the big chat pile with the Eagle-Picher sign on top.
My advisor at PSU was EP’s consultant on the Tar Creek issue. Man’s contribution to the whole thing was poking holes in the ground and not refilling.