Sinkholes and Lead contamination OH MY

                When you think about Oklahoma you think of the beautiful tall grass prairies and unforgettable rolling hills. You never think of a town that is nearly deserted and looking like a ghost town. Sadly the small town of Picher, Oklahoma is about to be demolished over lead contamination. Only a handful of people still reside in the town of Picher, which in the 1920s use to have nearly 14,000 people living in it. In the past few weeks, there has already been a funeral home, restaurant, thrift store, apartment building and other structures demolished.

                Picher, Oklahoma home was once a town of mining and now the last remaining is the town pharmacy, Old Miners Pharmacy. . The pharmacist Gary Linderman says “I have an obligation to people. We are all creatures of habit and closing might throw them off.” This pharmacy in Picher is the only place that the handful of people still living there can get snack food, beverages, over-the-counter medicine and other necessities. One can only image the Old Miners Pharmacy is the only place you can go get those things, due to lead contamination. The processes we do, we need to be so much more careful so these things do not keep happening and leaving these areas of nothing in Oklahoma.

     In 1981 the federal government declared Picher a Superfund site and bought out about 900 homeowners and businesses. Lead contamination can have serious effect of animals, children, adults and the elderly. It is scary to think how those that are still living there are not being seriously affected by this environment. Picher has also suffered in the past years from sinkholes. That nearly swallowed the community into the old mines that are below Picher. The location that Picher is also in,  is a known area of tornados when they are in season ,which has also resulted in many of people of Picher to relocate.

                The government is leaving up a select few of the buildings in Picher, but they are to be remained vacant. They have left a church, mining museum, auction house and a building where mining equipment was sold. Due to the lead poisoning the school district and city government closed in 2009 along with the post office.  As deserted this place is there are still a few souls that roam the grounds of nothing but lead contamination and fields. Linderman states “I’m a farm boy; I’m used to the open spaces.” I personally think I would be one the people who would have left if there is nothing left but torn down memories and a pharmacy.

                Being a geology major and being somewhat leaning towards mining, things like this make we very sad. Because of something I am wanting to do, I could ruin a whole town and leave them with nothing. I feel for those in Picher and this should make our eyes open. We Oklahomans need to be much more cautious in what we do. Sometime small things could lead to a huge thing of nothing. Our Oklahoma companies need to defiantly learn from these things and know there are people’s lives that can be affected forever.

70 to 0 Welcome to Oklahoma

            Oklahoma is in general a unique place, but more so the weather. From the years of my experience I have noticed that Oklahoma is a surprise everyday! I remember in high school a day it was 70 degrees perfect; I excitedly put on shorts that morning. In high school you’re stuck in that dang building for hours and cannot even leave till the bell rings. I walked passed these long windows we had in the third floor hallway and when I looked out it was snowing. Really snow!?! It was 70 degrees and now I have to go scrap snow off my car. Welcome to Oklahoma.

            The 70 degrees to snow is really my favorite thing about Oklahoma. It does what it wants when it wants. With the recent weather that we had it made me think back to that day. A couple weeks ago we had that amazing weekend which was 70 degrees the sun was shining and a couple days later, a blizzard to Oklahoma standards hit and school was cancelled; again welcome to Oklahoma. I really love hearing people’s comments about the weather in Oklahoma if they did not grow up here. “What is this really happening?” “Was it not just 75 degrees the other day?” Well my friends this is the amazing place of Oklahoma.

            The weather we had the past few weeks I know it is winter but if you look outside right now you will realize it is once again 70 degrees outside. OH NO! Will we have another blizzard? Please please no! I think our environment here enjoys playing games on us. Like this week’s weather prediction is AWESOME with a little wind on Thursday but who knows about next week, everyone maybe rushing to Wal-Mart again and make it look like Hurricane Katrina is about to hit. Oklahoma’s environment is just crazy. I feel like living through the crazy weather is a great thing. Tomorrow is always a new day in Oklahoma.



Maxwell Shrader digs snow out from
 around his car near
 15th Street and Yorktown
 Avenue on Monday.
MIKE SIMONS / Tulsa World



            Unlike the weather I think our nature is a very unexpected also. Some plants, flowers, and trees that are not suppose to survive the insane weather we have. The plants, flowers and trees end up battling it out and making our state beautiful once the snow, rain or droughts stop. The snow storm we had a couple years back that made all of Tulsa’s power go out and snow was on the ground for weeks there was this little spot of grass in my mom’s yard that was still somewhat green. Now how in the world does that happen? The miracle of the snow, I am not sure but it still happened, the Oklahoma patch of grass survived INSANE.

            In all I have learned, is that when you are living in Oklahoma you better be ready for anything. Even in the summer you may want to keep that snow shovel available, you never know. People can blame in on global warming and green house gases and I am a firm believer in all of it, but I somehow see Oklahoma with a bubble around it and our state does whatever whenever it feels like it. For those people who are looking into moving to Oklahoma I think we should have a brochure called 70 to 0 welcome to Oklahoma weather it’s a surprise.