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I was in picture back in 07 when I was going to drug court and I was up there for 6 months and they were evacuating the town then because of the contamination to the water and everything it was a kind of creepy though yeah granted but it had been a booming little town for a while there and cute too it's sad that all them houses had to go to waste though I mean not even very old and turn around within 6 months had to be abandoned sadly
Thanks for the video. I lived the first 11 years of my life in Picher. Dad worked the lead & zinc mines in Picher until they closed. Happiest years of my life were lived there.
Fantastic job. Nice steady camera work, excellent narration on the history of what we are seeing, and especially love the date/time/map stamp at bottom of screen to tell us exactly where we are. Thanks.
Very nicely done Chris consider me subscribing all the way from Australia. It's fascinating the amount of damage corporate greed can do to people that live there, Picher reminds me of the West Australian town of Wittenoom(which was blue asbestos)
Honestly, the problems in Picher were not caused by corporate greed, in all honesty it was truly caused by military necessity. Those mines produced nearly all the lead and zinc needed for two World Wars, 3 military police actions, and several countries fights for independence. Your country of Australia and 99% of Europe and the South Pacific owe those mining companies and miners a great debt of gratitude. Those greedy corporations mined the key ingredients that made the bullets, shell casings, and Machinegun firing pins that were used by the Royal Australian Air Force, to keep the Japanese from bombing Perth, into oblivion. Having said that During the late 1930's there was a concerted effort by the mining companies to shut down the mines, the Federal Government stepped in and said not no but HELL NO, those mines were to remain open as the US government was anticipating another world war and thus arming for it. After WWII another shutdown effort was thwarted again the Government said NO, because the forces of Israel needed American Arms to fight the 1947-48 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, then months later the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. From 1950-1967 the mines now being heavily government subsidized went into production for the Korean Conflict and the first portion of the Vietnam War. In 1967 the mines were close to petering out of the richest zinc ore the US government finally allowed them to close but retained the option to reopen the mines if needed in the future.
@@shayneramsay1388 Its no problem, I am a traveling associate professor that regularly visits NEO University in Nearby Miami Oklahoma. Nearly every Documentary on Picher leaves out the US government factor, and lays blame solely on the mining companies but in this case its intellectually negligent to leave out the US governments involvement as it does factor into the larger picture of what went on in the Tri-State Mining District.
@@shayneramsay1388 your welcome, I do my best to set the record straight about the reality of the situation in Picher, as I am an associate professor who travels to many universities educating others about these mining superfund sites. I also participate in the testing done for the US Army Corp of Engineers who oversee the water contamination in nearby Tar Creek, and am based out of NEO University in Miami Oklahoma. So many of these documentaries about Picher leave out the US Governments involvement even the most well funded documentaries leave out the US Government's involvement especially the subsidizing of the mines and the preventing of closure in favor of wartime materials. I find this intellectually dishonest to leave that portion out as it only tells half the story and paints only half of the overall picture of what really went on in the Tri-State Mining District. It also leads people to the wrong conclusions about the Mines, Miners and Mining Companies who's contributions helped win modern Histories biggest wars.
My Father Charles Raymond Simmons was valedictorian of the first graduating class of Pitcher Oklahoma Highschool and went on to be an explosives expert. Your research and history of this video is excellent everything's will documented, you had a great overview and comprehensive history and good music, thank you.
Chris! What amazing history and so well delivered. You are commendable for telling stories that you would think people wouldn’t care about, but it truly is the history of manufacturing in the mid West you are expert at sharing. Oh, so happy you played your signature music track towards the end! Thanks bro and congratulations on the new car. Aren’t those made in Mexico now? 🤔
Thank you so much for this video I watched it and it's entirety, What brought me here is I was in a rehab called the Ark in Miami, Oklahoma and we would pass by these towns often,seeing thst miais near by. Great video thumbs up 👍🏼
Very well researched. Sad to see the self-destruction, and realize the many lives that were ruined by diseases because of this toxic chemical disaster; with no end in sight.
Oklahoma people are really much more friendly than that person you ment in picher. I remember when people lived there. Then I remember when my parents went by again and suddenly it was empty. Sad very sad. We live between Bartlesville and Tulsa Oklahoma. Much friendlier.
Wow, small world I spent my teen years in a small town north of Bartlesville. I went to college at NEO in Miami and then transferred to Stillwater, but ultimately Finished my Graduate degree in Tulsa. In Highschool I was in the 4-H and had friends who went to Caney Valley, Did you by chance go to Caney Valley? Cause your name seems familiar to me.
Commerce, Oklahoma is the birthplace of Mickey Mantle. I live in Tulsa and have driven numerous times through Picher, Commerce, Quapaw and Baxter springs Kansas. Picher was supposed to on the superfund cleanup, but the feds haven’t done much. It’s still a disaster area. Used to be a nice area to live, but the corporate greed of mining destroyed it.
@falkwulf3842 No, I was raised in Tulsa, OK? Went to Lee school, Horse Man junior high, and graduated from Central High School. My dad lived in small towns. I, as an adult, have moved to smaller towns. I just think a small town is much safer than bigger towns. Because of my dad living in smaller towns around Bartlesville, I have gravitated that way as well. I like Bartlesville much better than Tulsa. There are some great people and smaller towns out around Bartlesville.
It reminds me of the legendary Centralia, PA. I actually been through this area about 40 years ago when I was a kid. I briefly lived in the Joplin area back then.
Agreed. Tough to get the local prideful to move sometimes though even if it means a better life for them. Some ppl just don’t like being told what to do
Chris, not a very happy story to say the least. All this is new to me so thanks for taking time and posting. The only real "Ghost Town" I have been to is in the city of Buana Park in California, it's the Knott's Berry Farm Ghost Town....... Thank again for your time, work and posting. mike
I really thought your video was very interesting I never knew anything or heard anything about those towns. Good job on telling the stories about those towns and their History
Mickey Mantle was from that general area. (Baxter Springs/Commerce). His dad “Mutt” worked in the mines, and died young from cancer, or “termites” as Mantle described cancer in his posthumous autobiography “Seven”. Seven vividly described his upbringing, the baseball, and of course the alcohol and womanizing with friend Billy Martin. Mantle died in 1995 following a liver transplant.
Mispronounced Miami, Douthat and Peoria. My Dad, his brothers and His Dad worked the mines in Picher. They lived in Quapaw. When I was a kid (early 1970's) the chat piles were huge and guys drove dirt bikes and dune buggies over them.
Born in Tulsa, Lifelong Tulsa resident. I've driven thru there and it's got a bad vibe. This was a good, comprehensive documentary well worth watching. The possibility of sinkholes is a great reason to stay away. In tulsa, we have inactive coal mines below a heavily populated area that have open holes in neighborhoods.
We passed through there in June 22nd but we didn't know the history thank you for all the information on your video I wanted to stop there but my husband was driving and he didn't like the idea now I am glad we didn't stop
Multiple studies have been done on this. Essentially the dust that does get blown by the wind does not travel a huge distance and the amount that does get dispersed over a wide area. If you notice in the video when he shows the Tar Creek clean up area that includes where the dust is likely to accumulate and they monitor the air quality in the area.
@@ChrisHarden The most dangerous parts of those tailings (CHAT) piles is the heavy metals, even very strong winds cannot carry the metals very far even in dust form. Were talking mere feet because of the metals density and specific gravities. I regularly visit NEO in Miami as a traveling associate professor who happens to be in the field of heavy metal and noble metal mining. NEO has an entire lab setup for testing and monitoring of the air and ground water quality and mineral content there of.
I noticed there was just a small label at the bottom of the screen that this area supplied 75% of the lead and zinc needed for munitions during WWI, & WWII. The area also supplied the lead and zinc for industrial battery manufacturing for cars to semi's and industrial equipment. You mentioned that people would travel by train from Carthage MO to work the mine. Yes they did, they would work and stay in Picher for a week to two weeks then go home for a week and then go back just like oilfield workers did. About the resident you encountered at the beginning of your video. You were probably the third or fourth person that month there flying a drone and videoing the area. Imagine having someone show up in front of your house once a week doing the same thing. Jerome AZ is not a ghost town. There is an abandoned ghost mine, but the town is far from a ghost town. I know some people in the area. It is an art and tourism area that I visit at least twice a year. It's on a beautiful drive from Sedona to Flagstaff. If you go there try the Haunted Hamburge restaurant.
Very good Chris, thank you. Very informative. It makes me think, just how much of the USA is destroyed, toxic and polluted. Is there any place man hasn't exploited and damaged? Good video and script. 📽🎬✍️
Funny thing is I was here in October of 2023, doing some testing on the "CHAT" tailings piles for NEO University in Miami (pronounced - My-Am-UH) Oklahoma. Those tailings are full of other dangerous minerals and chemicals. Mostly Arsenic and Cadmium but a few choice others as well. I cant stress how dangerous those piles are but they are also extremely fascinating. As a mining expert I have long advocated for returning the piles back into the mines from whence it came. You will never get rid of the toxicity of it all but you can mitigate it somewhat. When the Tar Creek Superfund site was established the concern was only ground water seepage. The Federal government failed to consider or outright willfully ignored was the fact that the zinc, led, arsenic, cadmium, and a laundry list of other heavy metals and chemicals were already present in the ground and therefore in the ground water long before mining ever was established in the area.
I find this very interesting and have recently moved to Wichita Kansas from Washington State and plan on visiting picher in person saw a documentary about it years ago before they tore the buildings down and there were still a few people that refused to leave living there still
I have been to both Picher and Jerome. Jerome is a fun little town with BnB’s, bars, & a thriving arts community. It’s not in the same league of ghost towns as Picher.
Yes. Picher was one of the largest suppliers of lead and zinc for manufacturing in the US for everything like ammunition for WWI & WWII, car batteries, paint, pipes, gasoline, automotive and industrial vehicles, electronics, x-ray lab and atomic energy research labs to mention a few.
How awful for that area! I live in a gold mining ghost town in California. They've cleaned up the town from old mining tailings. There's too much arsenic in our local water but they swear its below dangerous levels. My health has declined in the last two out of ten years I've lived here. My lungs are taking a hit.😢
You just gotta love assholes like that local trying to intimidate you out of the area like he owned everything there. I dont care what you own. If I am on public property and you come at me like that youll find youself needing dental restoration services.
The only time someone came up on me in the hood when flying a drone was a security guard on a power trip. However this the 2nd time a resident in hilljack territory has had a problem with me flying a drone.
I grew up near Stillwater Oklahoma. My grandmother lived in Ft Scott Ks. We would drive thru Picher or near it on our way to Baxter Springs and then on up to Ft Scott. There would be people riding motorcycles and 4AtVs on that mine waste. Today i wonder if those people are still alive. This was back in the 80s when my grandmother was alive so i havent been thru there since probably 1992.
I am still alive. LOL back in the late 90's while I was a Student at NEO in Miami, we would regularly ride our dirt bikes and 4-wheelers on those piles. We knew those piles were dangerous but locals downplayed it A LOT. Now that I have gotten older and studied what exactly is in those piles I can say I probably took 10 years off my life from my little excursions riding those piles.
Well you know that's something that I've been thinking about recently but not necessarily because of tornadoes more so the economic situation it's getting worse. So for context I live in central Ohio I live in Licking county the prices and basically a bird side view of map in a 200 mile radius of rent and land costs have gone basically stupid but there are counties you can go to to find decent prices on houses people questionable as to where they're going the big problem we have across the map just in the state alone and to be honest I think it's safe for me to assume that this is a problem across most states, is simply where you find the cheap rent you don't really find a lot of jobs so it's not really sustainable but where you find an abundance of jobs even if they're crap the cost of living is way too high the job still doesn't really support it. So I've been thinking recently that you know we have a lot of outpost towns here in Ohio so you go to a lot of counties like Belmont meigs county and Jefferson etc and you end up seeing that there's not really a lot in the name of work there the prices might be you could argue with just down for that to where they might look reasonable but in a lot of cases these areas as you're driving along these far out freeways are two lane roads and they may have a few buildings on either side and that's literally a town I believe that a lot of those towns are already at risk of becoming ghost towns honestly I think that this is going to happen across America and I believe it's going to happen basically somewhere in the next two years it's going to become more noticeable by the time you get 5 years out there's going to be a lot of stuff gone. I mean basically I would say in 2 years I think you are going to end up with an official housing crash I mean we're already seeing foreclosures pick up there's some hints of price drops but the big boys are still out there buying stuff up and they're going to continue as well as even local startups basically it's not just the conglomerates going in and buying up areas and converting them into rental properties now there's actually a lot of local real estate agents that have put their money together and that's exactly what they are doing. But I will say that these far out towns like I said you go and drive through the middle of meigs county or something those towns have basically the equivalent of you know who knows maybe 10 businesses for example on either side of the main drag and they don't really have much of a major population I mean a lot of these areas you might have 400 people you could have maybe a thousand people to bottom line is a lot of people are already at the process of leave I think that there is a huge risk of ghost towns springing up literally everywhere. I mean if you go really to any town I don't care if it is big or small and you look around at all the businesses that exist I can say somewhere in the next two years 50% of those will close and I know that you may find it off is doing and that's perfectly fine I seriously care not what anyone wants to you know discredit I mean you're entitled to your opinion but basically the economic situations that I am looking at tells me that what exists today will not exist tomorrow at least 50% of it is gone the income deficiency across the population is too great and by the way it's getting worse and then of course like I said a housing crash in the next two years hey maybe it will be 3 years maybe four years regardless of when it happens it happens and you're going to see the homeless population explode worse than what we've already seen by the way it's still growing. I suppose that those far out towns might provide some sort of refuge for homeless people that can get there and I guess would not have a problem of busting into someone else's building and living there that's probably not going to go over well but people have to go somewhere so where the hell do they go? I mean it's like I live in Licking county Ohio building and then a town that is adjacent to me called Heath Microsoft bought up 750 acres they're talking about building a data center they're supposed to be other tech companies pour into the county that's going to follow these guys but I can say 4 years ago or so with intel was first talked about the rent basically exploded in pretty much a 200 mile radius and so has the cost of land I have seen on Facebook numerous people discuss this and these communities discussions usually end up in the realm of most of us aren't going to be able to actually live here somewhere within the next year to definitely five years out and everybody's always asking the question where the hell are we supposed to go there's basically nowhere for us to go.
Miami is pronounced Mi-am-a not Mi-am-i. Also had relatives that used to live there. And that place is has a really cool place to swim but it's dangerous as it has a mine shaft at the bottom lol. The water actually has a range of colors and a clif with a rope u swing off.
Nah! If Oklahoma is going to take place names from Florida, it should pronounce them like Florida does. There is a small town on Oklahoma called Orlando. Seminole is a small town in Oklahoma. It's also a suburb of Tampa, Florida. Pensacola Dam impounds Grand Lake O' The Cherokees.
😂 Education: No schools left 0 Crime: No people left 0 Economy: No jobs left 0 History: Full of toxicity 0 Recreational Opportunities: Nothing unless you like playing on piles of toxic chat 0 Cost of living: Place can’t be cheap enough to make anyone want to live there 0 Downtown: Nothing left 0 Amenities: Unless you like exploring abandoned underground mineshafts there’s nothing 0
I travel through Picher Oklahoma back in 2017 and I was like what the hell happened in this town. Just a couple years ago I decided to look up the Google route I'd taken from KCK to Fort Polk Louisiana and I found I'd traveled through the most TOXIC TOWN in the USA.
Nothing compared to Phoenix toxic air which is full of heavy metal particles. And 5,000,000 people breathe it 24/7. There are still people in Jerome AZ but it has massive abandoned mines and factories.
Grew up in Oklahoma. Looks like his video was shot in December and as a hunter there, there's not a lot of wildlife activity in the entire state at the time of year.
A few of those houses had garbage cans at the curb, fire hydrants, power/phone lines - do they keep all that shit functioning for so few? What about pizza delivery?
I hope you changed your air filter and cabin filter in your suv after driving thru that mess. One more tornado and the rest of anything standing will be leveled.
I remember as a kid back in the sixties touring s mine there. Went down in some antique elevator. The main thing I remember was the last mile used to pull the carts. He was born underground and had never seen the sun. They brought his feed and water underground. I really felt sorry for him. Supposedly if they brought him above ground he would die.
@@georgeparsons7338 Notice the same thing happened to me. “How dreadful ‘than’ an animal was treated this way….”. Word should be “that”. I care about animals so seeing such a thing would bother me as well. 😔
I would like to know where the mine millings are being relocated. Will they become a problem for a new location. Seems like it would be cheaper to slumped a system away from the water/Tar creek, to a bio pond, and cover. Like in Flint. Anyhow. Very interesting. BTW, Telling the history, Is 100 X better than just showing up and taking video. Very few channels do this, and other channels say " I am documenting this " Lol, WTF? ( No big deal, if it is a kid, learning video and having fun ) But popping off videos every other day, like it is a job. Just lazy and sad. If you ask me.
