Picher is a ghost town and former city in Ottawa County, northeastern Oklahoma, United States. It was a major national center of lead and zinc mining for more than 100 years in the center of the Tri-State Mining District.
Decades of unrestricted subsurface excavation dangerously undermined most of Picher's town buildings and left giant piles of toxic metal-contaminated mine tailings (known as chat) heaped throughout the area. The discovery of cave-in risks, groundwater contamination and health effects associated with the chat piles and subsurface shafts resulted in the site being included in 1983 in the Tar Creek Superfund site by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The state collaborated on mitigation and remediation measures, but a 1994 study found that 34% of the children in Picher suffered from lead poisoning due to these environmental effects, which could result in lifelong neurological problems. Eventually, the EPA and the state of Oklahoma agreed to a mandatory evacuation and buyout of the entire township.
A 2006 Army Corps of Engineers study showed 86% of Picher's buildings (including the town school) were badly undermined and subject to collapse at any time. The destruction in May 2008 of 150 homes by an EF4 tornado accelerated the exodus of the remaining population.
On September 1, 2009, the state of Oklahoma officially dis-incorporated the city of Picher, which ceased official operations on that day. The population plummeted from 1,640 at the 2000 census to 20 at the 2010 census. The federal government proceeded to conduct buyouts of remaining properties. As of January 2011, six homes and one business remained, their owners having refused to leave at any price. Except for some historic structures, the rest of the town's buildings were scheduled to be demolished by the end of the year. One of the last vacant buildings, which had housed the former Picher mining museum, was destroyed by arson in April 2015. Its historical archives and artifacts had already been shipped to the Dobson Museum in Miami, Oklahoma, by that point.
Picher is among a small number of locations in the world (such as Gilman, Colorado; Centralia, Pennsylvania; and Wittenoom, Western Australia) to be evacuated and declared uninhabitable due to environmental and health damage caused by mining.
The closest towns to Picher, other than nearby fellow ghost towns Cardin, Treece and Douthat, are Commerce, Quapaw (the headquarters of the federally recognized Native American nation by that name), and Miami, Oklahoma.
History
Mining origins In 1913, as the Tri-State district expanded, lead and zinc were discovered on Harry Crawfish's claim, and mining began. A townsite developed overnight around the new workings and was named Picher in honor of O. S. Picher, owner of Picher Lead Company. The city was incorporated in 1918, and by 1920, Picher had a population of 9,726. Peak population occurred in 1926 with 14,252 residents.
The Picher area became the most productive lead-zinc mining field in the Tri-State district, producing over $20 billion worth of ore between 1917 and 1947. More than fifty percent of the lead and zinc used during World War I was extracted from the Picher district. At its peak more than 14,000 miners worked the mines and another 4,000 worked in mining services. Many workers commuted by an extensive interurban trolley system from as far away as Joplin and Carthage, Missouri.
Decline and pollution problems The population entered a steady decline after the peak in 1926 due to the decrease in mining activity, leaving Picher with only 2,553 by 1960.
In early 1950, an article in Variety Magazine read:
Mining ceased in 1967 and water pumping from the mines ceased. The contaminated water from 14,000 abandoned mine shafts, 70 million tons of mine tailings, and 36 million tons of mill sand and sludge remained as a huge environmental cleanup problem. As a result of national legislation to identify and remediate such environmentally hazardous sites, in 1983 the area was designated as part of the Tar Creek Superfund site, along with the similarly contaminated satellite towns of Treece, Kansas, and Cardin, Oklahoma.
In 1994, Indian Health Service test results concerning the blood lead levels of Indian children living on the Site indicated that approximately 35 percent of the children tested had concentrations of lead in their blood exceeding 10 micrograms per deciliter, the level of lead in the blood the Centers for Disease Control considers to be a health concern. In August 1994, to address the threat of lead exposure to children, EPA began sampling soils at high-access areas, such as day cares, schoolyards, and other areas where children congregate. The sampling detected significant concentrations of lead, cadmium, and other heavy metals in surface soils. Eventually, the EPA and the state of Oklahoma agreed to a mandatory evacuation and buyout of the entire township.
While some remediation took place in the following quarter century, contamination and other environmental hazards were found to be so severe that the government decided to close Picher and relocate its residents, as reported on April 24, 2006, by Reuters. Due in large part to the removal of large amounts of subsurface material during mining operations, many of the city's structures have been deemed in imminent danger of caving in.Gillam, Carey. - "FEATURE-Slow death consumes Oklahoma mining town" - Reuters - April 24, 2006
Tornado
On May 10, 2008, Picher was struck by an EF4 tornado. There were six confirmed deaths, possibly including one child, and many other people injured. The tornado first touched down near the Kansas–Oklahoma state line in Oklahoma southwest of Chetopa, Kansas, and tracked eastward. It struck Picher, causing extensive damage to 20 blocks of the city, with houses and businesses destroyed or flattened. At least 150 people were injured in Picher alone. The tornado continued eastward, passing just north of Quapaw and Peoria before crossing Interstate 44 into Missouri. Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry sent National Guard troops as well as emergency personnel to assist the hardest hit area in Picher."Tornado Death Toll Increases In Picher" . - KOTV.com - May 12, 2008 Loss of power from the tornado forced the city to go on a boiled water notice. Staff from the Oklahoma Rural Water Association arrived to assist, since the utility's testing equipment was destroyed by the storm. With an emergency generator to supply power, rural water staff had the system running normally only two days after the tornado struck.
Given the existing plan to vacate the city, the federal government decided against aid to rebuild homes, and the buyouts continued as previously scheduled, with people being assisted in relocation.Evans, Murry. - Weather: "Rebuilding unlikely in Okla. town". - Associated Press. - (c/o NBC News) - May 13, 2008
Closure
The city's post office was scheduled to close in July 2009, and the city ceased operations as a municipality on September 1, 2009.Sheila Stogsdill, "Picher projects its end as official municipality", Tulsa World, June 23, 2009. By June 29, 2009, all of the residents had been given federal checks to enable them to relocate from Picher permanently. The city is considered to be too toxic to be habitable. On the last day, all the final residents met at the school auditorium to say goodbye. As of November 2010, it was reported that Picher still had "one business and six occupied houses."Sheila Stogsdill, "Cardin population drops to 0 as buyout completed", Tulsa World, November 17, 2010.
Starting in January 2011, almost all remaining commercial structures were scheduled to be demolished. Gary Linderman, owner of the Ole Miners Pharmacy, said he would stay until the last resident left. He died in 2015.
The municipality of Picher was officially dissolved on November 26, 2013.UPI, December 4, 2013. By March 2014, standing abandoned buildings included the Picher-Cardin High School building, a Christian church, the mining museum, and a handful of mercantile buildings, as well as numerous abandoned houses.
The Picher Mining Field Museum, which had been housed in the former Tri-State Zinc and Lead Ore Producers Association building, was destroyed by arson in April 2015. The museum archives had previously been sent to Pittsburg State University, and other artifacts had been sent to the Baxter Springs, Kansas Heritage Center and Museum. In March 2017 the often-photographed Christian church, which was originally a one-room schoolhouse, was also destroyed by fire.
Gary Linderman, owner of the Ole Miners Pharmacy, was featured in the May 28, 2007, issue of People magazine in the Heroes Among Us article: "Prescription for Kindness". He vowed to stay as long as there was anyone left who needed him and to be the last one out of the city.Heroes Among Us: "Prescription for Kindness" - People Magazine - May 28, 2007 He died on June 9, 2015, at the age of 60 from a sudden illness.
Meanwhile, the cleanup continues. On September 17, 2019, the EPA, in cooperation with the state of Oklahoma and the Quapaw Nation, released the Final Tar Creek Strategic Plan to advance the cleanup of the Tar Creek Superfund site. The EPA indicated while great progress had been made, much work was yet to be done, and the Plan was a commitment to accelerate the cleanup.
Since 2015, former residents have held Christmas parades in Picher.Nielsen, C. (12/05/2019). "Picher comes back to life for Christmas parade" The Miami News-Record. https://www.miamiok.com/news/20191205/picher-comes-back-to-life-for-christmas-parade
Geography
Picher is north of Miami, the county seat.C. Allen Matthews and Frank D. Wood, "Picher," Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Accessed May 6, 2015. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city had a total area of , all of it land.
Demographics
2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 1,640 people, 621 households, and 417 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 708 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 77.13% White, 13.78% Native American, 0.18% Pacific Islander, 0.12% Asian, 0.06% from other races, and 8.72% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.40% of the population.
There were 621 households, out of which 30.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.6% were married couples living together, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.7% were non-families. 29.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.20.
In the city the population was spread out, with 27.1% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 24.0% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 16.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $19,722, and the median income for a family was $25,950. Males had a median income of $22,321 versus $15,947 for females. The per capita income for the city was $10,938. About 21.1% of families and 25.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 27.4% of those under age 18 and 30.9% of those age 65 or over.
Education