 It may not look like it, but this is one of the USA's most contaminated towns. It was also the home to 15,000 people in its heyday, until it was gradually abandoned. You see, this is the town of Pitcher in Oklahoma, and living here would seriously reduce your life expectancy. Children would be found to have high levels of lead in their blood, and if that wasn't bad enough, parts of the town were being swallowed up by giant potholes. The story of Pitcher is all too familiar, or industry boom, then gradual fade away, leaving behind contamination, which would leach its way into the very water the town's residents would be drinking. The very thing that would make the town a success would be its dismantling. Today I'm looking at Pitcher Oklahoma, and welcome to Plainly Difficult. A Vital Town This is Pitcher Oklahoma. Its story begins in 1913, with a discovery on a plot of land. What you may ask? Well, it's this stuff, lead. This metal is pretty important, and not just for the flashing on your roof. But it wasn't only lead, but also zinc, that was found on Henry Crawfish's property. Within months, the new town basically just sprung up around the discovery. The new town took on the name of O.S. Pitcher, the owner of the Pitcher-led company, the organisation who was going to exploit the site. The same company also dug the community's first well. Newspapers reported rather excitedly that the town was born overnight. Pitcher was incorporated in 1918 in March, and became Oklahoma's most northeastern incorporated city. Before incorporation, the mines around Pitcher found a very large financial boom from a European disagreement, also known as the First World War. Lead and zinc are apparently very vital in the killing machine. So after its incorporation in 1918, the city would continue to grow, and by 1920, Pitcher had a population of just shy of 10,000 people, with a peak in population in 1926 of over 14,000 residents. Not only that, but in total, some 20,000 people would be working in and around the city, bringing in plenty of business for local outlets, and of course fueling the mining operations. So the mining operations were subsurface, i.e. below the ground, and as such they spread out underground, including under the city itself. The method of mining was a familiar subject on this channel, that was the room and pillar technique. This is where rumours excavated, with pillars of rock to support its roof. It creates kind of a crisscross pattern, and it is a rather common method. However, the mines were prone to flooding, and as such they needed constant pumping out of water. You see, the land was leased to the mining operations from the Korpor tribe of Oklahoma, whom had originally owned the area. Part of the original lease agreements meant that each 40 acre tract had to have its own mining operation. In total, 248 mils operating in the area would continue up until the 1930s. This produced a lot of chat, of which a large significant proportion is still there today. Let me just look at this satellite image of the area. Chat is fragments of silica rock, limestone and dolomite waste that was rejected during the lead sink milling operations that accompanied the lead sink mining. Waste piles mounted up all around Pitcher and in the wider Tar Creek area. This is all pretty bad, and as more would be extracted, this problem would continue to get worse. By the late 1930s, a centralized milling plan resulted in mill consolidation, and the waste piles would even still continue to pile up. During the areas peak production period of between the 1920s and 1930s, some 130,000 tons of lead and 749,000 tons of zinc were produced annually. However, after WWII, the ore deposits would begin to show signs of depletion. As such, the population started to take a bit of a nosedive. This was further exacerbated by prices of the metals which took a dip after the war. As such, mining operations began winding down, and only really a few small companies mined under Pitcher passed the mid 1950s, as the mines slowly closed down, lead and zinc operations ceased in Tar Valley, and in Pitcher in 1967, of which the last material was exported around 1970. This is where the town would really take a toxic turn. You see those pumps used to stop the mines from flooding didn't just help keep the operations ticking along, but also protected the water table from contamination. You see the water began to fill up the mines, accumulating roughly 76,800 acre feet of mine water underground. What was the problem, you might ask? Well, the oxidised materials in the abandoned mines began to dissolve, generating a weak acidic solution. The acidic water then went on and reacted with the surrounding rock within the mine workings, further dissolving minerals. This resulted in an increase in concentrations of heavy metals, most notably iron, cadmium, lead, nickel and zinc, in the water within the now flooded mines. The now toxic water would rise to the surface and flow into the Tar Creek. This was, first noticed just a few miles down the road in Commerce, Oklahoma. This was around 1979, and the toxic water got the attention of the EPA. The bottom of Tar Creek became stained red, as well as on downstream bridge abutments and cliffs, in the Neosho River downstream of its joining with Tar Creek. In 1980, the governor of Oklahoma created the Tar Creek Task Force. This was made up of various local, state and federal agencies, to investigate the effects of the contaminated water coming out of that mine drainage. Now all during this time, picture was hemorrhaging its population due to the economic impact of the cessation of mining in the area, but those who stayed had their drinking water leached into by the underground toxic water. On top of this, some residents made use of some of those chats, you know in a milling waste, for things like building roads, parking lots, alleyways, driveways, basically anything that needed general film material. On top of that, to make things even worse, some of the city's children even played on the piles of toxic material, by riding their bikes up and down, climbing, and even in one case using it as part of a running track. Based on the information found on the water by the Tar Creek Task Force, the EPA proposed to add the Tar Creek site to the MPL in July 1981, and the site would officially be added in September 1983. So the EPA originally got involved with the area due to the water issues around Tar Creek, however residents in picture continued to live their lives. In 1984 work on the first area under the EPA cleanup would be known as Operable Unit 1, and this was beginning. In 1984 work on the first area under EPA control, known as Operable Unit 1, began. This was to deal with the contaminated water flowing out of some of the mines. By plugging some of the aquifers and to stop more water getting into the mines, the EPA made use of diking and diversion structures. The town continued on during the cleanup works in the Tar Creek, and by the 1990s concerns were raised about the area's children. Many Native American children in the area had their blood tested in 1994, and it was found that 35% of the children tested had concentrations of lead in their blood, exceeding 10 micrograms per deciliter. The EPA began sampling soils at high access areas, such as daycares, schoolyards and other areas where children played. The sampling found a worrying level of concentrations of lead, cadmium and other heavy metals in the surface soils. In March 1995, the EPA expanded its sampling activity to include all residences on the Tar Creek site. As such, in 1997, residential areas were added to the Superfund site, making it Operable Unit 2. Residents still remained, although the population would continue to plummet, to just 1670 in 2000. During this period, the EPA undertook a program of remediation of the yards and public areas, and education and outreach programs to help protect children's health. Another area, the OU-3 Eagle Picture Office Complex, was added in 2000. But not only was the ground and water poisonous, but the ground itself wasn't even stable. A damming report came out from the US Army of Corps of Engineers in 2004, in which 86% of pictures buildings were deemed likely to experience subsidence. An even complete destruction from the severely compromised ground due to the mining works. Over the years, potholes had opened up, swallowing roads, the occasional car, and even whole houses. As such, the 2004 report's results were hardly surprising, however one of the buildings highlighted for potential unplanned subterranean repositioning was that of the town's school. Time was running out for picture. The federal government started offering buyouts for property in the affected areas of the Tar Creek Superfund site. What was bought out or abandoned was demolished, but some still remained. Picture wasn't actually the only town in the area that was slowly becoming abandoned. Cardin and Oklahoma, and across the border in Kansas, Trees, were also being bought out and abandoned. The area would be hit with another bout of destruction when in May 2008 picture was struck by a tornado. Hicks were confirmed dead and many others were injured. Although to add a bit more salt to the wounds, many more buildings had succumbed to the tornado. The end of the city. So after the tornado, house swallowing potholes and toxic soil, the city's hand for remaining residents voted 55-6 to dissolve the picture cardin school district in April 2009. The final class graduated in May the same year, containing just 11 pupils. The town was by now deemed uninhabitable due to toxic levels of contamination. After June 2009, most of the residents had gone with just 6 registered households remaining. Everyone had been given a buyout and by November 26th 2013, the municipality of picture was officially dissolved. What remained was empty and decaying buildings. Some had been the victims of arson, others were just slowly being reclaimed by nature. Cleanup operations on the site still continue today, with thousands of tons of toxic material needing to be dealt with. Living there was just too unsafe. With high levels of lead in the body, you can experience a number of nasty side effects such as lifelong neurological problems, kidney failure, reproductive issues, and to make it even worse, children are more likely to absorb these contaminants and thus a higher likelihood of developing issues later on in life. Several expectant mothers took part in a study in the early 2000s that tracked neurodevelopment scores once their babies were 2 years old and sadly the results were much lower than average. Picture and Tar Creek is the story of ultimate irony. The industry that put the town on the map was the very same one that took it off. Now would you like me to cover more other ghost towns? Let me know in the comments below. This is a plain difficult production, all videos on the channel created commons attribution share are like licensed. Plain difficult videos are produced by me John in the currently wet and windy corner of southern London UK. I have a second youtube channel and also instagram, twitter or x whatever you want to call it. And I'd also like to say thank you to my financial supporters on Patreon and Youtube members. And all that's left to say is thank you very much for watching and Mr Music, play us out please.