Museum of Art)įrom 2008 to 2017, he kept returning. Installation view of Picher, Oklahoma: Catastrophe, Memory, and Trauma (photo by Michael S. “The tornado had leveled houses in a significant part of the town, leaving only building foundations and pavement still in place.” “I first visited Picher in 2008, shortly after the tornado,” photographer Todd Stewart told Hyperallergic. Underground tunnels periodically open into gaping sinkholes. Following a mandatory evacuation and buyouts, spurred by its 1980 designation by the Environmental Protection Agency as part of the Tar Creek Superfund Site, its homes are boarded up, its mining museum is lost to arson, and its schools are abandoned. These hills of chat, a fine gravel byproduct of lead and zinc mining, are a toxic relic of the industry that polluted the community’s earth and waters for decades in the early 20th century. A EF4 tornado wrecked more than 100 homes and killed six in its corner of northeastern Oklahoma, scattering bits of buildings and possessions at the base of the chat piles. Yet every year, its identity as a town is eroding. Picher is often cited as the most toxic town in the United States. Todd Stewart, “Chat Pile” (2008) (courtesy the artist)
