Hell on Earth

Posted By: David on September 7, 2011 No Comment

Those people who have a hard time believing in man-made environmental destruction need to go to hell. In this case, Picher, Oklahoma.

Once a powerhouse of lead mining, the town now boasts the title of the most toxic place in America. Huge piles of cancer-causing mine waste surround the town, and although residents were warned to leave many stayed behind and suffered the inevitable health effects.

As a functioning town, Picher is dead. The post office, city hall and high school closed in 2009, and this past January the last commercial structures were demolished. There was one building that survived, however, and that was the Old Miner’s Pharmacy. The owner, Gary Linderman, refuses to leave and he stubbornly continues to serve customers who come in from the surrounding areas to view the disaster Picher has become.

Besides Gary, six other people have remained in the town; a town that even the EPA declared was too toxic to clean up.

The pathos and heartbreak of Picher comes through poignantly in the video below.