Pollution brings end to Oklahoma mining town

[Beartracks]

Posted in Enviro section, but posting here, too, for local interest. :)

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PICHER, Okla. - They could pass for mourners at a funeral.

They line up along the main drag in front of empty cafes and shops and rusted mining equipment fenced off with barbed wire. Passing time, some from this blue-jean crowd press hands and foreheads against windows of stores. Businesses that died so many years ago it's hard to remember what they sold.

...

When the lead and zinc mines all around here closed down, many folks told themselves and promised their kids that Picher could go on and even be the same. There would always be church, high school football and the Dairy Queen.

But that was nearly 40 years ago, and all the praying and wishful thinking can't undo what's happened here. People are leaving, escaping the reality of life in one of the worst environmental nightmares in the country. A voluntary federal buyout is hastening the exodus.

This is a town's last stand.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24555711/

[YellowRubberDuckie]

1. And recently leveled by a tornado.