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I am posting additional photos from my recent trip to Picher Oklahoma. MSNBC.com ran a story about Picher Oklahoma yesterday and it seems to have generated quite a bit of interest. You can see additional pictures of the site by visiting my previous post.
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.
Picher was hit by a tornado on Sunday and at least 6 people were killed:
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/may/12/severe_weather_deals_another_deadly_blow_south_eas/
Even for those determined to stay, this might be enough to make them leave. Too sad.
Actually, the tornado was a Saturday, I know because that was the day we were getting ready for my parents’ reception party. We were in my grandmother’s house when it hit (5 people in her house, another and his dog in my uncles house less than a block southwest, all survived except for some pretty bruises and a few glass cuts on my back/side/legs and my grandmother getting a big lump on her forehead).
(cisa_baby_79@yahoo.com)
(http://www.myspace.com/cisamichanne)
what has happen to the Tar Creek picher and surrounding towns web site
I think the EPA’s plan now also calls for Cardin to the abandoned, too.
I want to do some interviews with folks in the area and take some pictures for a photo essay about it the Tar Creek site. I think it is absolutely astonishing that here in 21st century America we are having to abandon towns because of the environmental disasters they have become.
Sadly, it’s not the only time that the Indians have come out on the short end of the stick when dealing with the Feds.
I like what you said about us Indians geting the short end of a stick,we have always got screw by the whites still do.I am of cherokee blood and also a member of AIM.I like the thing Russell Means is doing and what he has to say about this so call GOV.look what has happen to Leonard Peltier in prison for a crime he did NOT do!thats the good ola USA,I always say wecome to the USSR.the people of Picher Okla didnt ask for a tornado to blow what was left of Picher,you would think there home owners Ins company would know that,bu know someone wants that money in there pocket!Now who could that be? Lucille Troxell or as my people well say WADO.
I lived in Picher off and on for many years, graduated high school there, my father, grandfather and uncles worked in the mines there and have all lived there at one point in time. It is sad that what was once a booming thriving town has dwindled down to the status of a ghost town. I have met many fine people from Picher. I know that a lot of people did not want to leave their little city and I understand the sentiment of it. Many of the people had never been or lived anywhere else but Picher.
The tornado that hit was tragic. My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones. The state of the city is poor, with the money that was wasted on the clean-up effort, every family in Picher could have been given $150,000 each and the cost would have been considerably less than what was wasted in a failed attempt to remediate contaminated soil. The digging up of yards and replacing it with dirt from a neighboring town, what were they thinking? I believe a lot of pockets were padded at the expense of the people who lived there (their loss of residence), and the government, talk about a waste of the taxpayer’s money! I heard that their are plans to turn the town into a wildlife refuge and marsh. Is there any truth to it?