The Oklahoma town so toxic, 63% of local children tested positive for lead poisoning

Picher, Oklahoma

Picher began in 1913 after miners found lead and zinc ore on land owned by Harry Crawfish, a Quapaw tribe member. The town got its name from O.S. Picher, who owned the Picher Lead Company.

The town grew quickly after it became official in March 1918. People moved there for mining jobs, and the population jumped from 9,726 in 1920 to 14,252 by 1926. This small part of Ottawa County turned into a busy mining center.

The Mining Boom That Built A Town

Picher became the top producer of lead and zinc in the Tri-State mining area that covered parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. From 1917 to 1947, miners dug up more than $20 billion worth of ore.

Half the lead and zinc used in World War I came from Picher. The mines created jobs for over 14,000 miners and 4,000 more people worked in related businesses like equipment repair and shipping.

Mountains Of Chat Grew Around Town

Mining left behind waste piles called “chat,” the leftover rock after companies removed the valuable metals. These piles grew into huge hills throughout Picher. By 1967, about 178 million tons of chat formed 30 massive piles around town.

Some grew as tall as 200 feet, taller than a 20-story building. What residents didn’t know was that this chat contained dangerous metals like lead, cadmium, arsenic, zinc, and manganese.

Mines Close As Metal Prices Fall

Mining slowed after 1946 when the best ore ran out. Metal prices dropped and fewer people wanted to buy lead and zinc. Most mines shut down by 1958. The last mine in Picher, run by Eagle-Picher company, closed in 1967.

As mining jobs disappeared, people moved away. The town shrank to 5,848 people by 1940 and only 2,553 by 1960, with families leaving to find work elsewhere.

Toxic Water Begins To Flow

When mining stopped in 1967, companies also stopped pumping water out of the mines. The empty tunnels filled with groundwater that mixed with metals from the ore.

By 1973, this toxic water began leaking from the old mines into streams and the water table.

Tar Creek, which runs through the area, turned bright red by the late 1970s as iron and other metals from the mines flowed into it.

Children Play On Poison Hills

Residents had no idea the chat piles were dangerous. Children played on these toxic hills daily, riding bikes and motorcycles up and down the slopes like they were sand dunes. Some parents even put chat in their children’s sandboxes.

Families used the material for driveways and yard projects. No one realized they were spreading poison around their homes and exposing their children to metals that could damage their brains.

EPA Declares Superfund Site

In 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency named Picher part of the Tar Creek Superfund site, marking it for cleanup as one of America’s most polluted places. The area contained 1,400 old mine shafts, with 450 still open to the surface.

The site covered 40 square miles with 70 million tons of waste tailings and 36 million tons of toxic sand and sludge spread throughout Ottawa County.

Lead Poisoning Discovered In Children

Tests in 1994 by Indian Health Service showed 34-35% of local children had too much lead in their blood. Later tests found even worse results – 63% of children suffered from lead poisoning.

At Picher’s school, 46% of students had unsafe lead levels, eleven times higher than other Oklahoma children. Lead damages developing brains and causes learning problems and behavior issues that last a lifetime.

Collapsing Ground Threatens Homes

Years of digging tunnels under Picher left the ground unstable. These mine shafts created empty spaces equal to 100,000 acre-feet below the surface.

In 2006, Army engineers found that 86% of buildings in town, including the school, could collapse without warning.

Sinkholes began opening up around town as old mine tunnels caved in, swallowing parts of yards, roads, and threatening houses.

EPA Begins Remediation Efforts

In the mid-1990s, EPA workers dug up and replaced 6-10 inches of soil from people’s yards to reduce lead exposure. They also sealed mine shafts and brought in clean water. The government offered money to 52 residents in 2005 so they could move away.

By 2006, officials expanded the buyout program to everyone in town, admitting the area could never be made safe enough to live in again.

Tornado Seals Town’s Fate

A powerful EF4 tornado hit Picher on May 10, 2008, with winds reaching 175 mph. The storm killed six people and hurt 150 more. It destroyed 150 homes and damaged 20 blocks of the town.

Many people who had refused to leave finally gave up after the tornado. With their homes damaged or destroyed, most accepted the government’s buyout offer and moved away.

Visiting Picher, Oklahoma

Picher exists 8 miles north of Miami, Oklahoma near the Kansas border. The area remains highly toxic and dangerous with unstable ground that can collapse without warning. No official tours run through the ghost town.

Visitors can view the massive chat piles from public roads but should not enter them or abandoned buildings. The former mining museum no longer exists after burning down in 2015.

The EPA continues cleanup work in the area as part of the Tar Creek Superfund site.

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