Picher Christmas Parade 2024, see the full parade
A town that doesn't exist has a Christmas Parade. They've been doing it for years and it's become sort of a Homecoming for everyone who used to live in Picher or had family there.
- Shannon Becker
- Dec 7, 2024 Updated 21 hrs ago
WHERE DID THE TOWN GO?
HISTORY OF PICHER
Located inside the Quapaw Nation, part of the Tar Creek Superfund site. The EPA declared Picher to be one of the most toxic areas in the United States due to mining.
From 1900 to the 1960s lead and zinc mining companies left behind huge open chat piles aka mining tailings, that were heavily contaminated by lead and zinc metals, cadmium, and others. The metals from the mining waste leached into the soil, and seeped into groundwater, ponds, and lakes.
The Tri-State Mining District. Courtesy ITRC.
For more than 100 years the Tri-State Mining District was a major national center of lead and zinc mining.
The runoff polluted Tar Creek, water wells, the soil. Affecting the townâs residents for generations. 1994 screening result found that 34% of the children in Picher suffered from lead poisoning due to these environmental effects.
Lead poisoning as such can result in lifelong neurological problems.
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