Mickey Mantle's Oklahoma hometown, done in by mining waste, sinkholes and finally a tornado, is being razed.
Twenty-eight years after Picher, Okla., was declared one of the most toxic towns in America, the last six residents are watching their town disappear before their eyes.
The yellow brick First Baptist Church fell recently to the wrecker's ball, Abby Sewell of The Los Angeles Times reports, and the other abandoned and boarded-up buildings will soon follow.
"I'd like to have stayed myself," John Harvey, who moved to nearby Miami, Okla., in 2009, told Sewell. "I lived here as a little kid, and I'm not saying where lead ain't bad for you, which I'm sure it is. But myself, I don't think they should have condemned it. They should have left us alone. Should've just left us alone."
Picher, once home to baseball great Mickey Mantle, was founded in 1918 as a mining town. It was the waste from the mining of lead and zinc ore, waste that was used to build driveways and sidewalks and roads, that did in the town. The last mine closed in 1970, but the contaminated land and the water below remained, and the 40 square miles in and around Picher was declared a Superfund toxic waste site in 1983.
Here is how Hailey Branson, writing in the University of Oklahoma's online magazine Routes, described the town:
Picher was too dangerous for people, the government declared, because of the decades of mining that have poisoned the town and left the ground under its houses on the verge of collapse.
Here, the water comes out of the ground almost neon orange. Houses, businesses, even the school sit next to towering piles of mine waste -- called chat -- that can be seen from miles away. The waste, which is a leftover rock product from the mining process, looks like pea gravel, but it is full of lead and other metals.
Lead is particularly hazardous for young children, and many children in Picher suffered from learning disorders.
By 2000, the EPA had hauled away tons of contaminated soil and declared the health threat from the contamination alleviated. But another hazard lurked beneath -- hundreds of caverns and sinkholes left from the mining
The federal government began buying families out in 2005 and offered a final buyout last year. A devastating tornado that hit in 2008 killed seven people and leveled the south end of town, striking the final blow for Picher. The high school closed in 2009, as did City Hall.
But a few holdouts refuse to leave. Among those is Gary "Lights Out" Linderman, in his mid-50s, who owns the last remaining business, the Ole Miners Pharmacy. His business survives because he also serves customers in the surrounding area, including former residents of Picher. People magazine named him one of the "Heroes Among Us" in 2007 for serving the remaining residents.
And he's still not ready to go. He told Sewell:
I'm not hard-headed or stubborn, but I have a mind of my own. I'm here for my people. It's not time for me to make a move.
Twenty-eight years after Picher, Okla., was declared one of the most toxic towns in America, the last six residents are watching their town disappear before their eyes.
The yellow brick First Baptist Church fell recently to the wrecker's ball, Abby Sewell of The Los Angeles Times reports, and the other abandoned and boarded-up buildings will soon follow.
"I'd like to have stayed myself," John Harvey, who moved to nearby Miami, Okla., in 2009, told Sewell. "I lived here as a little kid, and I'm not saying where lead ain't bad for you, which I'm sure it is. But myself, I don't think they should have condemned it. They should have left us alone. Should've just left us alone."
Picher, once home to baseball great Mickey Mantle, was founded in 1918 as a mining town. It was the waste from the mining of lead and zinc ore, waste that was used to build driveways and sidewalks and roads, that did in the town. The last mine closed in 1970, but the contaminated land and the water below remained, and the 40 square miles in and around Picher was declared a Superfund toxic waste site in 1983.
Here is how Hailey Branson, writing in the University of Oklahoma's online magazine Routes, described the town:
Picher was too dangerous for people, the government declared, because of the decades of mining that have poisoned the town and left the ground under its houses on the verge of collapse.
Here, the water comes out of the ground almost neon orange. Houses, businesses, even the school sit next to towering piles of mine waste -- called chat -- that can be seen from miles away. The waste, which is a leftover rock product from the mining process, looks like pea gravel, but it is full of lead and other metals.
Lead is particularly hazardous for young children, and many children in Picher suffered from learning disorders.
By 2000, the EPA had hauled away tons of contaminated soil and declared the health threat from the contamination alleviated. But another hazard lurked beneath -- hundreds of caverns and sinkholes left from the mining
The federal government began buying families out in 2005 and offered a final buyout last year. A devastating tornado that hit in 2008 killed seven people and leveled the south end of town, striking the final blow for Picher. The high school closed in 2009, as did City Hall.
But a few holdouts refuse to leave. Among those is Gary "Lights Out" Linderman, in his mid-50s, who owns the last remaining business, the Ole Miners Pharmacy. His business survives because he also serves customers in the surrounding area, including former residents of Picher. People magazine named him one of the "Heroes Among Us" in 2007 for serving the remaining residents.
And he's still not ready to go. He told Sewell:
I'm not hard-headed or stubborn, but I have a mind of my own. I'm here for my people. It's not time for me to make a move.
