Picher, Oklahoma: America's Deadliest Ghost Town 

You should do a show about Centralia, Pennsylvania. It has a similar story, with the exception that there is a wildfire that burns underground - many years after the fires started.

Thanks Simon. What's wrong with your camera? The image is gradually becoming more noisy and out of focus.

@@rosemariemerritt5035

The video already mentions the superfund siTE.

Lots of family live rural south of Columbus just a few miles north of Picher, they do not drink the well water.

It's a story representative of all too many of these mining communities, I fear.

And that somehow makes it okay that pretty much everyone who mined there, and a lot of their family members got sick or died from inhaling lead/heavy metal dust and generations of kids were mentally retarded there because they were poisoned by lead/heavy metals before and after they were born?

Perhaps we could get a Casual Criminalist on this?

The Bible and Freeman case is just horrific. Lauria's mom is trying to pass a law to make sure that murderers have to serve a certain amount of their sentence and can't use good behavior to shorten it.

@@Terron35 I think that's a fantastic idea. My heart goes out to those people for sure.

@@tamarinmangold1414 It would be an interesting case to look into for sure, but definitely a rough one.

What is the perpetrators name?

Mining also damaged the area around the town of Butte, Montana. Guess who won't let them clean up any further? The regulations set forth by the EPA.

“I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Rmbr THAT quote…

Tell me why a lot of *accidental* spills and contaminations can't be cleaned up? Oh, that's right. *regulations*. Why, even when regulations is there still so much pollution in the air and water nothing we do will make any impact to clean it up, even in THREE lifetimes? Businesses are already regulated to death and the economy reflects that. You want your groceries to cost even more?

Sure. But we really don't need the FAA holding up Space X.

​@mattseman5682 , as Montanan, that is factually incorrect. Butte and anaconda have been part of a superfund site since the 1980's. Not to mention the treatment plant, funded and built by the EPA. The Montanan constitution guarantees a clean environment, and sure as shit we take that seriously. Theres a reason the Tintina mine is hotly debated and protested by pretty much everyone outside of WSS

🍪

Looks a right dump

@@bear1245 You be right

It's crazy how much this wasn't in the news. I've lived in oklahoma my entire life and only found out about this last year.

I also grew up near that area. In the 70's the high school football coaches would run the players up and down those chat hills.

Yes. Interesting story. I remember passing it on I44 when I moved to Missouri.

The chemical, dioxin, that contaminated New Times Beach was made in Verona, MO, only a 40-minute drive from Picher, OK.

God's country is pretty great.

Imhoff didn't elect himself.

His constitutiants voted him back in so they must have liked his policies

I hated Imhoff. He was horrible. I never voted for him here in OK

@@ryansauchuk7290 He basically IGNORED extreme North East Oklahoma. The entire population of Miami, Picher, Quapaw, Wyandotte, Fairland, Commerce, Peoria, North Miami, Cardin, Afton, Narcissa, Dotyville, Grove, Jay, Bernice, Colcord, Kansas, Oaks, West Siloam Springs, Brush Creek, Bull Hollow, Butler, Cayuga, Cleora, Cloud Creek, Copeland, Deer Lick, Dennis, Dodge, Dripping Springs, Drowning Creek, Flint Creek, Indianola, Kenwood, Leach, New Eucha, Oak Hill-Piney, Old Eucha, Rocky Ford, Sycamore, Tagg Flats, Twin Oaks, White Water, Zena, Chloeta, Eucha, Pryor Creek, Adair, Chouteau, Disney, Grand Lake Towne, Hoot Owl, Langley, Locust Grove, Pensacola, Salina, Spavinaw, Sportsmen Acres, Strang, Ballou, Cedar Crest, Iron Post, Kenwood, Little Rock, Mazie, Murphy, Pin Oak Acres, Pump Back, Rose, Sams Corner, Snake Creek, Sportmans Shores, Sportsmen Acres Community, and Wickliffe COMBINED amounts to less than 120,000 people (that's Ottawa, Mays, Craig, and Delaware counties). That's barely the population of Broken Arrow, much less Tulsa or Oklahoma city, so why should he even care? Besides, people here have voted Republican for GENERATIONS because the Democrats can't be bothered to even show up, much less try to actually, you know, REPRESENT. I mean, yeah, ok, sure, they could have voted for someone else, but WHO CARES?! The Republicans don't, but they at least kinda pay lip service. The Democrats can't even be bothered to do that! The Democrats don't understand why people in rural areas vote Republican. It's because the Democrats DON'T EVEN SHOW UP! Heck, when McCaskill was Senator for Missouri for 12 years, she visited Southwest Missouri 3 times (I think???). Josh Hawley (whom I despise) has visited that many times in just 6 years. (Just to be clear, I live in Joplin Mo, but I have family and friends in Quapaw, which is like 45 minutes from me.) So yeah, sure, tell us we just have to vote for someone else. Like it actually MATTERS when you live in BFE.

@@itsoundzgood insufferable! a whole book gaslighting people about climate change. and we're supposed to trust him with science because he's a senator? fuck no.

💯😱😰

Oof that's rough..we gotta care more about our planet...smdh..😡

@@Aliyah_666 Agreed, unfortunately once people realize that means a different standard of living and a new normal, they stop caring, or at least try not to think about it rather than make real changes.

I work in langley, oklahoma, drive over there all the time Around the area to do hvac jobs, it is eerie

You watched a tornado in oklahoma.... from your porch... in florida???

​@@patrickaycock3655Miami, Oklahoma. You could have just looked it up yourself. Would have taken less than 5 seconds more than likely. You know more than one place can have the same name, right? The embarrassment of watching arrogance and ignorance meet.

@@crampusmaximus8849 lmao you forgot that television exists so its quite possible for them to watch a tornado in OK while in florida. And how childish you must look coming in here as a keyboard warrior with a condescending attitude. You made an assumption that i was unaware that more than one place can share a name. Tell you what come out to egypt and say that stuff to my face. Ill let you google it.

@@patrickaycock3655 No, this is Miami (My-Am-Uh) Oklahoma just a few miles down the road from Picher OK. It's also quite common to watch tornadoes from one's porch in Oklahoma.

America belongs to the White man, sorry… not sorry!

When enough money is to be made there is no limits to what will be done. Greed is just too tempting, too addictive. Only nature itself can and will end it. It will balance out somehow given enough time. Life will heal. I think those people you speak of that was robbed of their homes and lives would have liked that. Somehow wouldn't be surprised if they already knew..

Before it was the Quapaw tribes land it was someone else's that the Quapaw took for their own use that's how the world works

@@jejbsh2191 ...and yet it was the private corporations and government that absolutely f'd up the land for all future generations. Also "that's how the world works"? Really? C'mon. We can recognise that, yes, that's how things have tended to be without just fatalistically shrugging and accepting that it has to be that way.

Yeah, and once it was no longer useful, they gave it back and pretty much wiped their hands of it.

Pretty sure he has.

I first heard of Picher when I watched that episode of Life After People. Heavy stuff.

Too much lead intake also leads to brain problems like voting republican.

me to i get excited when the Light reflects of Simons head

ALL his videos? On ALL his channels?

@@patrickaycock3655 YES! I love his content! My favorite channel is the Casual Criminalist!

@@elizaschane4104 *salute*

All the people that worked in the mines are just as responsible. They contributed to the problem …

It's why I hate companies like Disney who bend over backwards to appease China telling me what is socially acceptable or not

​@@austinstille12So because they needed to exist and survive they are responsible in some capacity. Not like our government endorsed all this or some big companies saw dollar signs...no no, it's CLEARLY the workers.

​@@austinstille12 found the corporate shrill. Yes the poor people who worked it are responsible. Really? No no the company that made billions and did nothing to clean up the place only have some responsibility the rest is on the workers. Yep found the corporate slave right here.

i work with the Quapaws there, the stories ive heard are terrible

I wouldn't go using heavy metal contaminated material for a road...😬

But like- the companies were still at fault? Doesn’t matter if they had been dissolved by then, they were still the fault. Good grief.

@NotimeforThis-fd4ye yes the companies were at fault. The lawsuit agreed to that as well. But all of this happened in a time before anyone knew the actual risks. It doesn't excuse what happened but it's also not just evil companies. There was a lot more to it.

@@NotimeforThis-fd4ye how do you hold something that doesn’t exist responsible?

Scrolled through the comments to see if I was the only one anxiously staring into the abyss. 😅😅👉🏻

It's also a good example of the US government taking promised lands from Natives People, and once they were done with it, giving it back unusable, destroyed, and unsafe.

Undesirable became Undeniable

I thought we were talking Stardust?

Nicely done, sir, nicely done.

Most, if not all, will have dissolved. No point mentioning non existent companies

@@jellyfishfields5657Possible the same CEOs and people from board of directors are with other companies and carrying on their greedy ways.

Trail still thrives btw. Guess we Canadians diddit right, somehow.

Lol I get the reference.

🍪 no one really cares

Wouldn't be surprised, Cruise is an absolute moron and nuts.