Treece, Kansas; Death By Industry //

Like Picher, OK, Treece was part of the historic Tri-State Mining District. As of May 2012 the city was abandoned and most buildings and other facilities demolished due to pervasive problems with lead pollution resulting from past mining. Two people who had refused an EPA buyout remained in 2012, then one died in 2016. 

Treece and neighboring former cities Picher, Cardin and Douthat were formed as a result of mining operations in the early 20th century. Realtor J. O. Treece lent the town his name. The first post office in Treece was established in 1917. Treece was a major supplier of lead, zinc, and iron ore. During its maximum production, Treece and Picher combined had a population of over 20,000 and produced $20 billion worth of ore mainly during World War I and World War II. 

Treece, Kansas was deemed as uninhabitable and contaminated by the Environmental Protection Agency because of the large chat piles and leftover mine tailings that still exist in the abandoned town today. Wes Enzinna, a writer for The New York Times, visited Treece in 2010 and interviewed some of the remaining residents; they claimed that years before Treece, Kansas was ever ruled contaminated by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) children who swam in the local Tar Creek Superfund site would end up with chemical burns all over their bodies. Some of the chat piles in Treece are up to 200 ft tall and the dust that is blown off of from these piles of mine waste “still contains enough metal to make blood-lead levels among young children here three times higher than the national average.