If the fertility trends of the last 40 years in
the advanced countries continues during the next
40 then it is highly likely that most cities and
towns which won't be able to offer distinctive
tourist attractions or highly specialized
services on the one hand or highly automated
goods on the other will also gradually disappear.
Keith
At 02:01 03/09/2012, Ed wrote:
Here's what Wikipedia says about Picher:
Picher is a
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_town>ghost
town and former city in
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa_County,_Oklahoma>Ottawa
County,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma>Oklahoma,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States>United
States. Formerly a major national center of
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead>lead and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc>zinc mining
at the heart of the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_district>Tri-State
Mining District, over a century of unrestricted
subsurface excavation dangerously undermined
most of Picher's town buildings and left giant
piles of
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_metal>toxic
metal-contaminated
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mine_tailings>mine
tailings (known as
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chat_(mining)>chat)
heaped throughout the area. The discovery of
the cave-in risks, groundwater contamination and
health effects associated with the chat piles
and subsurface shafts—particularly an alarming
1996 study which showed
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_poisoning>lead
poisoning in 34% of the children in
Picher<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma#cite_note-3>[4]—eventually
prompted a mandatory
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_evacuation>evacuation
and buyout (via
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminent_domain>eminent
domain) of the entire township by
the<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_Protection_Agency>Environmental
Protection Agency and the incorporation of the
town (along with the similarly contaminated
satellite towns of
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treece,_Kansas>Treece
and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardin,_Oklahoma>Cardin)
into the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tar_Creek_Superfund_site>Tar
Creek Superfund site.
A 2006
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Corps_of_Engineers>Army
Corps of Engineers study which showed 86% of
Picher's buildings (including the town school)
were badly undermined and subject to collapse at
any
time.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma#cite_note-4>[5]
A <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujita_scale>F4
tornado which destroyed or damaged 150 homes in
May 2008 accelerated the exodus. The town ceased
official operations on September 1, 2009 and the
population plummeted from 1,640 at the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_Census>2000
census to just 20 at the
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_States_Census>2010
census. As of January 2011, only six homes and
one business remain, their owners having refused
to leave at any price; the rest of the town's
buildings (excepting
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Register_of_Historic_Places>designated
historical structures) are scheduled to be
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demolished>demolished by the end of the year.
Picher is one of only a few locations in the
world (along with others such as
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilman,_Colorado>Gilman,
Colorado and
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittenoom,_Western_Australia>Wittenoom,
Western Australia) to be evacuated and declared
uninhabitable due to environmental and health
damage caused by the mines the town once serviced.
A very, very sad story.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[email protected]>Ed Weick
To:
<mailto:[email protected]>'RE-DESIGNING
WORK, INCOME DISTRIBUTION,EDUCATION'
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 8:53 PM
Subject: [Futurework] Picher, Oklahoma
Just took a look at Picher, Ray. Huge mine
diggings all over the place. One of them, just
west of town, contains a "Harrell Park". Was it named after someone you know?
Ed
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Keith Hudson, Saltford, England http://allisstatus.wordpress.com
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