Hard as the Rock Itself: Place and Identity in the American Mining Town

4: Picher

4.1 Picher, Oklahoma, 2002. Courtesy U.S. Geological Survey—National Center, EROS 121 F EW HISTORIC MINING TOWNS IN THE UNITED STATES ARE PLAGUED BY MORE severe environmental problems than Picher, Oklahoma. In fact, when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) compiled its initial list of Superfund sites in 1983, the community was designated as one of the agency’s highest priority cleanup areas. At the time, the environmental problems afflicting Picher were considered more serious than those at Love Canal, the EPA’s most infamous hazardous waste site. Unlike its ill-famed contemporary, however, many of Picher’s environmental hazards remain uncontrolled more than two decades later. Named after the stream that runs through the Picher area, the Tar Creek Superfund Site extends over forty square miles. It is one of the oldest and most costly Superfund sites in the nation.1 In the early twentieth century, Picher was the largest mining town in the TriState Mining District, once the world’s most productive lead and zinc mining field. Ore was discovered in the Picher region in 1914 and within three years, the settlement’s population exceeded 20,000. A quintessential boomtown, Picher captivated its earliest visitors with its remarkable growth. Mines were opening at a C H A P T E R F O U R Picher 122 PICHER feverish pace and outsiders marveled at how quickly the mine derrick and ore mill, unquestionable symbols of prosperity, had come to dominate the prairie landscape. Community accolades quickly turned to antipathy, however, after the novelty of the mineral discovery faded. The intrusive nature of industrial development , the lack of basic civic amenities, and Picher’s ramshackle appearance were impossible to ignore, and although some sympathized with the plight of its residents , most simply voiced disdain for the community. This external perceptual legacy is one Picher has found difficult to discard. The last of Picher’s mines closed more than thirty years ago, but consistent with the mining imaginary, most outsiders still view the town as a hopelessly despoiled place.2 In looking at Picher today, it is difficult to argue that its negative reputation is not deserved. Deindustrialization and population loss have devastated the local economy, as the decayed state of town infrastructure attests. Many houses and commercial structures lie abandoned or stand in noticeable disrepair. The rundown condition of the built landscape, however, is overshadowed by the presence of mining-related features. Residential and industrial development occurred side by side in Picher and the remains of mines and ore mills, with their giant piles of gray-colored mining waste (locally know as “chat”), litter the townscape. Streets wind around the mountains of debris, many of which stand more than 200 feet tall, and houses huddle beneath their slopes (Figure 4.2). Mining has ravaged the environment and left poverty in its wake, and Picher’s dilapidated, chat-covered landscape produces a kind of “scorched-earth” reaction in most first-time visitors. Although mining’s aesthetic impact on Picher is striking, the town’s appearance is a relatively minor concern compared to the environmental disturbances the industry has wrought. For decades, Picher has been beset by mine subsidence as surface collapses are caused by the caving of mines lying beneath the community. When the Tar Creek Superfund Site was created in the 1980s, however, environmental concerns centered on acid mine drainage problems. Acidic, metal-laden mine water was flowing to the surface from mine shafts, abandoned water wells, and bore holes in and around Picher. The discharge killed aquatic life in Tar Creek and migrated into the town’s water supply, an aquifer underlying the mining zone. The EPA attempted to mitigate these problems but the results were disappointing . Residents remained plagued by rust-tainted drinking water, and after failing to improve water quality in Tar Creek, the EPA concluded that its contamination was irreversible.3 Water pollution remains an issue in Picher today; however, a greater threat to public health now garners more attention. In the mid-1990s health researchers discovered that the community had the highest incidence of juvenile lead poisoning in the nation. Chat was soon identified as the source of lead contamination. Chat piles had long served as playgrounds for Picher’s children, and widespread use of the waste for local landscaping and road surfacing had increased residents’ 123 PICHER exposure to the toxic metal. Lead now was pervasive in the Picher environment...