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A modern day ghost town

Posted: Sunday, September 06, 2009 3:45 PM by Ian Sager
Filed Under:

By Janet Shamlian, NBC News correspondent

Janet Shamlian, CorrespondentIt used to be the epitome of the American dream. Jobs were plentiful in this heartland town, and hard working miners took pride in knowing the lead ore they extracted became bullets for both World Wars. Times were good in Picher, Oklahoma, and the population soared.

Just a bike ride from the Kansas border, you can still find Picher on a map, but today it's little more than that. The schools closed in July, the post office shut down last month and city hall went dark last week. Only a dozen or so people are still living on the small patch of land that's been called the most toxic town in America.

You can guess the rest. The same industry that delivered prosperity to Picher's front door later crept in the back and robbed it of its riches. The soil is poisoned, the water runs orange and the air has been ruled unsafe. Government buyouts started a few years ago, and most families left as soon as they could. But roots run deep in Picher, and a handful of holdouts haven't had the heart or the will to up and leave.

By any accounting, Picher has been dying a slow death for years. Now, even those who remain acknowledge the ink is drying on the obituary of their beloved but tainted town.

Video: Mining leaves Midwest town toxic, tainted

Web only video: Resident on growing up in 'tainted town'

 

Picher, Oklahoma in 1929



Letters spray painted on almost every home and business mean "to be condemned"
 

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Comments

Janet:  thanks for bringing us this tragic story.

Picher was the hometown of Merlyn Johnson.  She was a majorette performing with the high school band at the big game at neighboring Commerce in 1949. She met a handsome crew cut guy with a Commerce football jacket who had just returned from a minor league baseball season, and became her future husband:  Mickey Mantle.

Mickey and Merlyn are gone now (she passed away on August 10) and her town will be following her soon.

Hal Wood, Holiday FL (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 7:36 PM)

Knowing the town's story, my husband and I traveled to Picher, OK in April, 2008, just one week before the May tornado. We were looking for interesting photo opportunities but were literally shocked at what we found. The deplorable living conditions brought to mind scenes from a post-apocalyptic movie. Street after street were near-shacks and burned out houses, driveways covered in trash and children playing in squalor. Even before the destruction, it was clear that Picher had become virtually uninhabitable.  

Kristen Jackson, Kansas City, Mo. (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 8:31 PM)

So I guess this whole area is just "polluted" and gone? I wonder how many other places are just "gone" because of this?

Randy (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 8:54 PM)

can the air from this town blow to the east coast ? if so ,does that cause led poison ? does any body know .        john in pa,,,,

john madden (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 9:27 PM)

This could be the future for a lot of communities around this country if we as a people do not begin today, to demand that products be reverse engineered for safety  before they are mass produced.

Take a good look, this could be coming to your community next.

Mykhael, Los Angeles, Calif. (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 9:32 PM)

If we had always known what we now now the course of history would be radically different. Alas, that is not the case. Mercury was used in antiseptics, lead to boost the performance of gasoline-powered vehicles. And so it has gone. What if wind turbines destroy some fragile part of our ecology? Or geothermal mining deprives the earth of essential energy? We will know, only when it's too late.

Lloyd Dunlap, Elmhurst, IL (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 9:39 PM)

I'm very concern that with global warming, stripping all the land of trees so we can build, and lack of water conservation is going to bring us another dust bowl.  And during the last dust bowl, it picked up dust and spread it all the way to the east coast.  If it picks up this toxic waste in a dust bowl, it will contaminate the whole country.

G Flaming, Denison, TX descendent of a dust bowl survivor (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 9:42 PM)

This is a sad story.  I am sure there were residents who had been born and raised there who now have to leave their homes.  Can nothing be done to help this town?  What will happen to this seemingly nice town once it is vacated?  

Clare, Houston, Texas (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 9:53 PM)

That is a shame.  Who is going to pay to clean it up or is it just going to sit there "A condemed town".  Who sould be responsible?  The mining company for their practices or the government whose been buying the lead.  When did this become a problem and what could have been done to stop it?

brenda (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 9:55 PM)

Are we really free, if we don't know if the water is safe. What other freedoms are we denying future generations.  We'll be remembered for our selfishness.

mario mastrandrea (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 10:14 PM)

Dear Janet

Thank you for this tribute to Picher.  We moved away in 2006 and are happy in Kansas but nothing fills the void of one's home.  Others may cringe at hearing homeowners say they can't bear to leave but those same words could have come from my mouth.

Dorothy said it best, there's no place like home.  

Theresa

Theresa, Coffeyville, Kansas (but Picher in my heart) (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 10:15 PM)

I am so sorry to hear it,We should protect the environment from pollute

Kell Xu,Zhangjiagang,JiangSu province,China (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 10:22 PM)

Good job!! Just wanted to commend Janet Shamlian and the others who put together this report from Picher, Oklahoma. I don't often comment on news reports, but this one caught my eye. Everything seemed to have been done exceptionally well! Compelling story, good interviews, well organized, well shot...A+ broadcast journalism. Keep it up.

Brian Kelly, Chicago, IL (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 10:29 PM)

People should remember these lessons.  The current fixation with Marcellus Shale exploration will likely end similarly.  A few will get some riches from it, and the remaining inhabitants will be left to deal with the resultant mess.

EJ Smith, Albany, NY (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 11:20 PM)

Tornadoes happen, mines don't happen.  What was the name of the mine(s)?  Who owned the enterprise?  Who profited from this disaster?  Where is the rest of the story?

L.V. Castiglione

lawrence castiglione, danbury CT (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 11:20 PM)

I know someone who grew up near Picher. Both her and her siblings have severe learning disabilities and they used to play in the lead-laced chat piles about 30 years ago. Recently, her son was diagnosed with autism and medical problems that can be related to cadmium poisoning. If the government wants to advocate health care, they need to provide these people with benefits similar to Vietnam vets who were exposed to agent orange.

Robert, Norman, Okla (Sent Sunday, September 06, 2009 11:48 PM)

I've been in Picher, OK a bunch of times and have wondered if the Federal Government was ever going to do something for this area. Has anyone heard that all of the lead for bullets for World War II came from Oklahoma? For decades, small children played on the rock piles that were left from mining there in that NE corner of Oklahoma. Preventative medicine is better.

Mike Roberson (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 12:08 AM)

Kind of like Monsnto's pollution of Anniston, Alabama which. Their behavior there was absolutely despicable. They didn't stop there though. They also polluted Nitro, West Virginia. And the United Kingdom's South Wales. Oh and every living thing on the planet as well.

More here:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Monsanto%27s_Global_Pollution_Legacy

Byron (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 12:31 AM)

Ya but this reminds me exactly of the late 1980's incident in another town, TIMES BEACH MISSOURI, in which the entire town became Toxic from some kind of road oil put down on the roads, and it also got into the ground water and into peoples homes, the Government shut down the entire town and Quaranteed it- also it became National News about Times Beach Missouri - Research it, and find out for yourselves !

JetRanger (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 12:52 AM)

Pollution, this is the reality, people ! mining poison everything and ruin the environment ! So this is why I support wonderful people like Van Jones! Republicans would poison us all for a buck !

republicancretins (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 4:00 AM)

The headline for the video report about this was "Mining leaves town tainted". It should have read "Mining leaves ANOTHER town tainted"

Richard (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 4:43 AM)

I was through Picher earlier this year. It is truly a sad sight.  All the business are closed, the houses are vacant.  Sad.

Ron Allen Springdale, Arkansas (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 6:15 AM)

What a shame that Bush gutted the agencies to oversee that these kind of things dont happen in US! No one to monitor anything & the greedy CEO make millions & workers/ordinary citizens pay the price ..Nothing will change unless citizens wake up & demand change ..Look back the last 8 years under Bush & the nations was brought to its knees & made bankrupt...

Pat (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 9:05 AM)

Has America become the next ghost town like Picher, all across this country in every state we are killing off the land with all sorts of toxic chemical plants and land fills, when will we wake up and realize if we do nothing to stop this the land of the free will soon become a place where no one can live and we will have finished ourselves off without outside help.

James W. MacFetrich (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 9:29 AM)

Drove through Pitcher a few weeks ago, it is erie to see a town with no one there.

Don O'Rourke (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 10:25 AM)

Pennsylvania is inundated with the remnants of coal mines, three quarters of the state. Slag is used to create 100 foot walls to hide strip mining damage, and wild growth is used to make it look like the natural hilly topography. No one confronts it because fake "green-guys" like Al Gore don't want to visit the heart/lung/cancer-ridden mining town survivors.  

Rev. Nicholas Palun, Erie, Pa. (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 11:01 AM)

Why is the government buying out the people whose homes were destroyed?  What about the financial responsibilities of the mining companies who no doubt made millions off the destruction.  I was disappointed that the reporter did not mention the companies and what legal and financial actions, if any, had been taken against them.

JTM, Ludlow, Vermont. (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 12:27 PM)

It's too bad that the free market wasn't allowed to come up with a solution for this. This is a good example of what Socialism will bring to this country. Government interference like healthcare and cap and trade will make this country a ghost town.

Gary Ghingrich (Sent Monday, September 07, 2009 8:30 PM)

I lived in Missouri when Times Beach existed. They had been spreading oil with PCB's at that time, and the whole town became toxic. The government condemned the town, bought people out (at a loss of value and home), removed the sign from the freeway, blocked off the exit, and today there is no sign of it ever existing. I wonder how many other small towns will go the way of Picher, Ok and Times Beach, Mo.

A Horn (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 12:12 AM)

I live in deepest rural France and we are trying to live naturally and toxin free - it means much hard work but we are very healthy and happy but also very tired. This is what a chemical reduced life means - will the rest of the world want this?

Slee Christopher, La Croix sur Gartempe, France (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 1:29 AM)

I wanted to find a nice ghost town to visit.  I'll put this one on my list.  Thanks.

Zafada, Stratford, Connecticut (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 5:50 AM)

Pripyat, Ukraine is another such place, an abandoned ghost town, due to the Chernobyl explosion.  There will be many more such places created in the future unless more care is taken to guard against pollution and other hazards, and to respect and have reverence for Mother Earth.

Daniel Draffen, Madison, Alabama (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 8:01 AM)

Pitcher has been toxic for many years, my grandfather died in the twenties from "Miner's TB, Black Lung". He was only in his early thirties.  My mother always hated that town after that and hated to drive through there.  I guess it just brought back too many bad memories. My grandmother was left with 4 small children to raise.  But home is where the heart is for many of these people.  I know it is a sad day for them...  

Jbarger, Disney, OK (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 8:18 AM)

Here our elected officials have approved a fly ash dump. BUT Don't Worry! Most of our factories,and manufacturing have already been moved to Mexico, & China.
Now we are poisoning them!!!

James Morris Crossville TN (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 8:30 AM)

well folks it is the american way greed.the town of pitcher is of no more use to the goverment as they are noy getting any taxes from there so they wont care.the money has been made an you are left with a gost town how sad but you are right we qare poisioning our selves because teh epa says it is alright.i get to look at a mountain of garbage out my front bay window how sad.       don

don ridzon new springfield,ohio (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 9:04 AM)

The tragedy here is that there are many places like Picher, all across the country.  What is needed is a report showing the numbers of severely toxic areas and their locations in the U.S. (how about the world).  Maybe that could help slow or stop the poisoning of the earth.  I think we're all doomed to extinction from the mess that humans have created.  How sad and what a waste of life.

Valerie Walsh, Irons, MI (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 9:08 AM)

Another modern day Ghost Town is Pressman Home, just a few miles from Rogersville, Tenn.

Ron Lamirande, Broadway, Virginia (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 10:53 AM)

People worry about the lead in painted toys and the chemicals in plastic toys and baby bottles. What do you do when the poisons are in the very ground you walk on, the water you drink, and the air you breathe? You pull up stakes and move on, of course. But how much damage has already been done? And when, if ever, will that land be safe again?
We used to worry about such things when discussing nuclear bombs and waste. But there's so much more to fear now. Lead, radon gas, digoxyn, coal ash; waste products building up in our landfills and leeching into our streams and groundwater.
Maybe we should require a company to have the knowledge and methods for cleaning up the mess before they are allowed to introduce a new wonder chemical into our midst. And the funds to do so put aside from their first billion dollars' of sales. Maybe it would slow them down and make them think about what new horrors they might be unleashing on our tired old environment.
Just a dreamer's paradise...

Susan, Buffalo, MO (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 11:32 AM)

A documentary film about PIcher, OK is now appearing in several festivals and locally in Miami, OK. Tar Creek,was created and directed by Vinita, OK native, Matt Myers. See the trailer at: http://www.tarcreekfilm.com/trailer.php

Robert Ritschel (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 11:45 AM)

Being from Pennsylvania, I recall driving through Centralia in the early 80's, after the buyouts but before most of the town was demolished. It was the same eerie feeling I am sure people have now traveling through Pitcher. Centralia was an underground coal fire, not pollution or contamination, but still a strange experience to see a vacant town where it looked like all the people just up and left at once, like a Twilight Zone episode.

Dave (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 12:01 PM)

I had an Aunt and Uncle that lived out there, they had a small farm.
Wonder if they are still there, fell out of contact many years ago, they had a well that we drank from; no wonder the water tasted different!

Bill Pappin (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 12:46 PM)

I had driven through Pitcher and I couldn't believe my eyes. It was so sad to think the homesteaders had to just pack up and leave. There are a few towns in Michigan that look somewhat the same but for a different reason. What have we done? What have we allowed our government to do? Soon we will be the ones to flee to another country to survive.

Robin Frick, Chesapeake, VA (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 12:49 PM)

I've never been to a ghost town. Would i get sick just by driving through, or hanging out there for a few hours? I'd love to go there and visit and see the place.
BTW: i am not trying to be funny or insensitive.

HS, TX (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 1:17 PM)

How sad that yet another once-thriving town, full of life and loving families, a town comprised of all the normalities we as Americans take for granted...i.e., schools (and their accompanying sports venues), churches, the corner grocery, shoe repair, a soda/malt shop, the local clinic (you get the picture) have been destroyed and made unlivable. Not only for now, but far into the future. Not from a nuclear bomb, or a raging, uncontrollable epidemic..no, no..it only took "the ordinary course of business". God help us all if this modus operandi has become acceptable.

Susan Antrim, Detroit, Michigan (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 1:32 PM)

Finally, a town where I can get some peace and quiet. Does anyone know the name of a good real estate agent in Picher?

Don Juan, New York, NY (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 2:12 PM)

Sounds like the asbestosis thing going on.  Dad died from it mom is showing symptoms, and the kids get to wait it out.  Gee guess running and hugging daddy in the 60's and 70's was a bad idea.

down in Freeport Texas (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 2:28 PM)

Should you dig deeply you will find that those in the
no gov. included allowed all of this to take play for
money. Then in later years as with tobbaco they involved passed it regulations which as always to little to late. But mainly the people ignore what is
happening in the interest of jobs. Only my opinion.

charles malia salem,mass (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 2:30 PM)

I am so sorry for the people of Pitcher. When will we learn? And, I agree with James M. All across this country we have toxic places. When are those responsible going to put human lives above the almighty dollar?

Angelica Burrows, Jackson, CA (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 2:44 PM)

Did the government own the mine or was it private ownership? Why does the government have to clean up the messes left by private industry?

Mary Dekker, Twin Peaks, CA (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 3:33 PM)

I lived near Times Beach, Missouri and used to go there to go skiing and fishing (right on the Meramec River).  The poison that was there was Dioxin.  The best news is, now, about 25 years later the town is actually making a comeback and people are building homes in the area and there is a state park there now.  I only hope that Pilcher is granted the same resurgence.

Tony Salamone, Oklahoma City, (formerly, Fenton, Mo.) (Sent Tuesday, September 08, 2009 5:00 PM)



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