[verynicebecky]

My father and his five brothers and three sisters grew up in this town. They had all cleared out for Oregon and California by the early 1950's. I had the privilege to see the town for myself about 20 years ago. I inherited my father's high school yearbooks and I greatly cherish them. I loved to hear dad tell stories about his life and times in Picher, OK.

Pollution brings end to mining town in Oklahoma - Yahoo! News (broken link)

[LadyRobyn]

That is so sad... I sent the article to a friend of our Son's who was raised there. verynicebecky, we had a thread going about Picher awhile back with some pics in it... did you see it?

http://www.city-data.com/forum/oklah...all-great.html

[Cali_Okie_Girl]

what happened there? i saw there pics there so sad

[verynicebecky]

Thanks for the link with the pictures. I just read that Picher had been known as "the hay capital of the world" prior to becoming a mining town. Must have been beautiful back in the day.

Cali_Okie_Girl: They mined underneath the town for zinc and lead. In fact my father's yearbooks are entitled "Zinco." Somewhere I have seen pictures of the underground mines with pillars of earth remaining to hold up the "ceiling."

[Cali_Okie_Girl]

Originally Posted by verynicebecky

Thanks for the link with the pictures. I just read that Picher had been known as "the hay capital of the world" prior to becoming a mining town. Must have been beautiful back in the day.

Cali_Okie_Girl: They mined underneath the town for zinc and lead. In fact my father's yearbooks are entitled "Zinco." Somewhere I have seen pictures of the underground mines with pillars of earth remaining to hold up the "ceiling."

oh cool! so its a minning town..pretty interseting

[mkfarnam]

Any investesters or prospectors who started mining for any type of underground minerals which include digging and blasting shafts, knows from the begining that in some point-n-time the shafts will collaps.
I'm sure that there is some type of waiver signed that once the mine is closed clearing the mine owners of any responsible that may happen.
The problem is push onto the people of that town.

Old mines have always interested me. Not so much about what they produce, but the building and operation.
I've read about many mining disasters, before and after closing, and even while they're being built, actually a mine is never comletely built until it's closed down.

But there is never a Happy ending.

[GraniteStater]

That area is also very economically depressed. I wonder what new type of economic development would be good for that area? Cherokee County KS up the road from Picher is also very depressed. That county has around 25,000 residents, but less than 4,500 non-farm jobs

[Annemieke Roell]

Once again, there is nothing "cool" about this being a mining town. It is now a super fund site as it is sitting on top of major sink holes left from mining. Going through the town now is pretty sad ..... most of the residents have been relocated and Picher is a ghost town.

[peggydavis]

We went through Picher in early April. The town looked almost deserted then, and now they have had a tornado that caused 7 deaths. Picher just doesn't have any luck. My prayers to all who lost someone or was injured in the tornado yesterday.





I guess this in one of the chat piles.



The wind has made them look almost pretty.



Looks like not much is going on here.



It was really a terrible pollution issue from the lead mines.



This sign tells a little of the history of Picher and the lead mines.

[_redbird_]

That was a pretty sad article. I had no idea the mining started so long ago. They pretty much stripped the earth of all they could get and left it damaged and polluted. And I am not going to say anymore than that.

Here are some aerial photographs from the web: