UE - Exploring the Picher, Oklahoma Ghost Town

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  • Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
  • A result of one the greatest man made environmental disasters in history, the neighboring towns of Cardin and Picher, Oklahoma and Treece, Kansas now sit abandoned. After extensive mining in the area, the contamination of soil and water rendered the land uninhabitable. Adults suffered from high cancer rates and children suffered from stunted mental development. Residents were paid to leave, and most of the buildings demolished.
    In 1920, Picher's population was almost 10,000. In 2000 it dropped to 1,640, and in the year 2010 fewer than 20 people lived there... No one remains in Cardin, and currently only 2 people reside in Treece.
    Music: I Am The Highway - The String Quaret Tribute To Audioslave
    Their music can be found here: • I Am The Highway - The...
    Watch the full 24 minute unlisted version of this video here: • Video

Комментарии • 61

  • @rebekahredden2681
    @rebekahredden2681 8 лет назад +18

    This was my hometown. I graduated here. I lived there 4 blocks from the school. This video seems like it is someone else's hometown. I got cold chills inside the school.

    • @bunny17551
      @bunny17551 8 лет назад

      went through elementary here....i. a junior in high school now...

  • @8uddyR1ch
    @8uddyR1ch 8 лет назад +25

    The Wiki on this town is interesting. An EPA nightmare. 40% of the children had lead poisoning. 80% of the buildings had been undermined by the local mining operations and are at risk of collapse. 2000 census shows less than $11k per capita. These people were very poor, and could not afford to move, thus leaped at gov't checks to relocate. Incredibly sad. Mining company's greed not only gave the adults cancer, but poisoned the children, and ruined their homes. Just unbelievable.

  • @HollyElizabethJean
    @HollyElizabethJean 9 лет назад +2

    I am completely obsessed with the church at 2:45 This is the first I've gotten to see the inside. I keep telling myself I need to drive up and see it for myself. Awesome video.

  • @TheIgby8776
    @TheIgby8776 5 лет назад

    Thank you for posting. I won't be able to see it in person, so thank you for posting this material. It is truly appreciated, from everyone who can't make it there!

  • @KurisuYamato
    @KurisuYamato 7 лет назад +1

    What amazes me is in how good a shape so many things, like the high school, are - I know it hasn't been too long but it also doesn't take that long for nature to start to wreck up a place (or vandals to do their damage).
    The stores shown a little ways in are obliterated now - just the shell of the "gutted" one remains, and I think the mining museum was also burned down by arsonists (long after the preserved materials were removed, thankfully), there really is barely anything left now in 2017 from what I can see, but it's still an amazing place. Even just a ways away from the high school is a house that looks to be in amazing shape, still lived in by one of the few people who refuse to leave.

  • @Brianthehistorynerd
    @Brianthehistorynerd 8 лет назад +6

    Cool vid and the music is fantastic it's Audio Slave I am the highway

    • @missmyvinny
      @missmyvinny 7 лет назад +1

      A perfect soundtrack for it.

  • @tabithaalspaugh7569
    @tabithaalspaugh7569 8 лет назад +10

    the old mining museum is no longer standing. It was the last building of history that used to be the town. Some kids burnt it too the gound. Im from Miami, Ok by the way.

    • @BackyardExploration
      @BackyardExploration  8 лет назад +2

      +Tabitha Alspaugh Well that really sucks :(

    • @TheJoeSwanon
      @TheJoeSwanon 8 лет назад +4

      I'm gess the local fire dept. didn't put it out :(

    • @KrK007
      @KrK007 8 лет назад +1

      +jonathan lavezzi There is no fire department, or local government of any kind. The land is under the authority of the Quapaw Tribe, who patrol it occasionally, but there's no real services of any kind. There are very, very few people left anywhere in the area.

    • @TheJoeSwanon
      @TheJoeSwanon 8 лет назад +1

      +KrK007 I know obviously there is no local fire department ... it was a joke calm down bro

    • @TheJoeSwanon
      @TheJoeSwanon 8 лет назад +3

      +KrK007 wow A little sensitive there? Overreact much ?

  • @carolmahoney2109
    @carolmahoney2109 9 лет назад +1

    Awesome video. You really capture the apocalyptic essence of the former town of toxic Picher.

  • @HeavensDemon966
    @HeavensDemon966 9 лет назад +4

    Interesting to see.
    My mom grew up in Treece Kansas. Her maiden name is Treece. It was her grandfather, or some other relative of hers that built the bare necessities for the foundations of all of the houses around Treece as it became a boom town in the early t900s. Hence the name Treece, Kansas.
    My grandmother lived in Treece until she died in the 1990s. As children visiting their grandmother over the holidays in the 70s and 80s, those massive and towering chat and gravel piles were our playground. With two brothers and one sister (a total of 4 grandkids including myself) we use to climb those chat and gravel piles and play "King of the Mountain". We would wrestle eachother and toss eachother down form the tops of those mountainous piles of chat and gravel, then rub eachother's faces in it. Often, we were not satisfied with just being "King of the Mountain". We would have to push each other into the toxic water around the chat and gravel piles on the way home. Of course, we were not aware of how toxic that area was. I hope we did not stunt our emotional, or mental, or physical growth because of it.

  • @BYLRPhil
    @BYLRPhil 6 лет назад +1

    I grew up in Ketchum, Oklahoma, a few miles away. We used to play Picher/Cardin in sports :-(.

  • @kokkonutfreaks
    @kokkonutfreaks 8 лет назад +12

    Not sure why, but I found this video really sad.

    • @brixusxviii6955
      @brixusxviii6955 7 лет назад +2

      kokonutfreaks
      It's because of the music,
      the eerie silence,
      broken down homes and structures,
      the emptiness inside,
      the "KEEP OUT" and other symbols on the buildings etc.
      It's all broken down destruction. If you've got emotions then this will make you feel sad and in despair.

    • @missmyvinny
      @missmyvinny 7 лет назад +1

      Definitely I think part of it is the perfect music soundtrack, but I was in tears..

  • @KokomoGreenberg
    @KokomoGreenberg 8 лет назад +6

    hey a free box fan!

  • @matthewmcdowell4166
    @matthewmcdowell4166 8 лет назад

    I used to live between Sand Springs and Manford in Tulsa County. There's tons of abandoned warehouses and buildings on the outskirts of Sand Springs.

    • @DreKahmeyer
      @DreKahmeyer 8 лет назад

      +Matthew McDowell I'd be interested in seeing some of them! Know any names of the buildings?

  • @janetruggles6926
    @janetruggles6926 8 лет назад

    Wish you had taken pictures of the part of Pitcher that went down into the mine tunnels. Remember as a child, Dad telling us how while mining under Pitcher, they came up under the bank. Had to fill it all back in. And also remember driving by to see the tops of some of the house's that had fallen into the ground.

  • @bunny17551
    @bunny17551 8 лет назад

    this was my home all through elementary.... i miss it

  • @Teadybear1313
    @Teadybear1313 8 лет назад +1

    those homes look nice to get remodeled would love to see ghosts towns be reused either homeless families and people who have miss fortunes should be able to live there free if they work on the houses and towns

    • @bunny17551
      @bunny17551 8 лет назад +2

      the town is too poisoned due to massive amounts of lead poisoning the ground, doing that would set other lives in risk. add on sink holes from the old mines deteriorating you got a total death trap waiting to spring

  • @rogermonteiro3882
    @rogermonteiro3882 8 лет назад

    I like it. Keep on!

  • @yakk13
    @yakk13 8 лет назад +1

    Don't you have a video of Cardin as well?

  • @TheJoeSwanon
    @TheJoeSwanon 8 лет назад +3

    What kind of condition is the school still in? It look like it was pretty intact. Looks like the most interesting

    • @bunny17551
      @bunny17551 8 лет назад

      the roof was torn off from the 2008 tornado along with its i sides and i think a section of the wall....

    • @doodlebob069
      @doodlebob069 6 лет назад

      jonathan lavezzi the Quapaw tribe police use it as a station. The entire school is still intact

  • @pm41224
    @pm41224 9 лет назад +1

    I just read online that Picher's population has just plummeted to 0.

    • @bunny17551
      @bunny17551 8 лет назад

      everyone was either moved or evacuated after the tornado hit

  • @dieglhix
    @dieglhix 8 лет назад +6

    America's 'Chernobyl'

  • @5nak_music
    @5nak_music 6 лет назад

    My family is from here, I want to visit one day.

  • @bistestander
    @bistestander 7 лет назад

    Is it possible that they might clean this place back up and maybe it'll turn into a full-fledged town again?

    • @BIGBLOCK5022006
      @BIGBLOCK5022006 6 лет назад

      Cellone G With Picher being a EPA Superfund site it will take time to clean up the land and to demolish any buildings left.

  • @TheSomerandomguy1
    @TheSomerandomguy1 7 лет назад +1

    Unfortunately, disaster has struck the town again. The Christian Church pictured in your video has been burned to the ground. There are actually pictures of its final moments in flames. It is a suspected arson and the perpetrators have not been caught.

  • @leepacoindustries55
    @leepacoindustries55 10 лет назад

    I was just there last week…when were you there??

  • @shoukatsukai
    @shoukatsukai 10 лет назад

    Was cardin abandoned for the same reason nearby picher was abandoned?

    • @BackyardExploration
      @BackyardExploration  10 лет назад +2

      Yes it was. A tornado a few years back was the final straw for the area, too. Anyone who hadn't already sold their property to the feds left after that.

    • @shoukatsukai
      @shoukatsukai 10 лет назад

      Thanks for the info. I knew Picher was abandoned, but not its sister Cardin.

  • @sunonthenight5824
    @sunonthenight5824 7 лет назад

    People still live here I think
    According to google maps

  • @TheStrugglerGamer
    @TheStrugglerGamer 8 лет назад

    can you get in trouble exploring these buildings?

    • @brixusxviii6955
      @brixusxviii6955 7 лет назад

      Behold He Rises
      Maybe, if they have trespassing signs or they ordered that no one can enter.

  • @meierghg
    @meierghg 6 лет назад

    I almost made it there today, car broke down

  • @mattobrien6782
    @mattobrien6782 7 лет назад

    Ahh Oklahoma my state

  • @TheGreatgreg1
    @TheGreatgreg1 9 лет назад

    This reminds me of the gallows