My wife's grandfather and I decided to take a little road trip on Friday afternoon to see Treece, KS and Picher, OK. For of you that don't know these towns were abandoned less than 10 years ago. In the early 1900's they discovered zinc and lead there and became a mining town providing much of these minerals to companies that made artillery for World Wars 1 and 2. At one point there were over 20,000 people living in the area.
These towns are one of a few in the USA to be evacuated and declared uninhabitable due to environmental and health damage caused by the mines the town once serviced.
If you ever watch Walking Dead you would imagine this place as being a part of it. Where Treece, KS used to be there are street signs, light posts, paved roads, fire hydrants but no buildings except for one dilapidated church that had graffiti tagged all over it. The only remains of houses were the concrete slabs they sat on. The government came in and burned or tore down all the buildings and left zero remnants of them save for a few concrete steps to porches that couldn't be removed. While there you are surrounded by mountains and mountains of toxic metal-contaminated mine tailings or chat. All the land with the mines is fenced off with "No Trespassing, Property of the USA" signs. They say the mine shafts would fill up with water and the kids would go swim in it. When they got home it would appear they were sunburned but little did they know...they were acid burns. The water was the color of orange tang because of the minerals it would pick up flowing through the mine shafts that weren't closed correctly.
In Picher, OK the only buildings that remain is the school, a few abandoned duplexes and oddly enough a US Marshals office. We drove around for an hour looking at empty neighborhoods and mountains and mountains of chat. It's amazing to think that this town wasn't officially abandoned until 2012 but it is completely cleaned out.
I came away from the road trip amazed by how much chat had been dug up, how quickly the towns had disappeared but probably creeped out the most by the apocalyptic feeling of two towns with nothing except for a US Marshals office with a full on Mobile Unit and multiple US Marshals SUVs parked in front.
Thanks for reading if you did.
These towns are one of a few in the USA to be evacuated and declared uninhabitable due to environmental and health damage caused by the mines the town once serviced.
If you ever watch Walking Dead you would imagine this place as being a part of it. Where Treece, KS used to be there are street signs, light posts, paved roads, fire hydrants but no buildings except for one dilapidated church that had graffiti tagged all over it. The only remains of houses were the concrete slabs they sat on. The government came in and burned or tore down all the buildings and left zero remnants of them save for a few concrete steps to porches that couldn't be removed. While there you are surrounded by mountains and mountains of toxic metal-contaminated mine tailings or chat. All the land with the mines is fenced off with "No Trespassing, Property of the USA" signs. They say the mine shafts would fill up with water and the kids would go swim in it. When they got home it would appear they were sunburned but little did they know...they were acid burns. The water was the color of orange tang because of the minerals it would pick up flowing through the mine shafts that weren't closed correctly.
In Picher, OK the only buildings that remain is the school, a few abandoned duplexes and oddly enough a US Marshals office. We drove around for an hour looking at empty neighborhoods and mountains and mountains of chat. It's amazing to think that this town wasn't officially abandoned until 2012 but it is completely cleaned out.
I came away from the road trip amazed by how much chat had been dug up, how quickly the towns had disappeared but probably creeped out the most by the apocalyptic feeling of two towns with nothing except for a US Marshals office with a full on Mobile Unit and multiple US Marshals SUVs parked in front.
Thanks for reading if you did.
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