Treece, Kansas
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Treece is a
ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...
in
Cherokee County Cherokee County is the name of eight counties in the United States: * Cherokee County, Alabama * Cherokee County, Georgia * Cherokee County, Iowa * Cherokee County, Kansas * Cherokee County, North Carolina * Cherokee County, Oklahoma * Cherokee Co ...
,
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
, United States, and part of the historic Tri-State Mining District. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 138. 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
Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
(EPA) buyout remained in 2012, then one died in 2016.


History

Treece and neighboring former cities Picher,
Cardin Cardin is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alberto Cardín (1948–1992), Spanish essayist and anthropologist * Annie Cardin (born 1938), French artist *Arthur Cardin (1879–1946), Canadian politician *Ben Cardin (born 1943), ...
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 Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
,
zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
, and
iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
. 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 World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
and
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. After the 1970s, ore production declined rapidly as did the city's population. In 1981 the Environmental Protection Agency deemed the Tri-State Mining District as contaminated and promised to take actions to clean up the area. The cleanup of Tri-State Mining District lands was divided for EPA purposes into a total of four National Priority List (NPL)
Superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the United States Environmental Pro ...
Sites: the Cherokee County Site, Cherokee County, Kansas; the Orongo-Duenweg Site, Jasper County, Missouri; the Newton County Mine Tailings Site, Newton County, Missouri; and the Tar Creek Site, Ottawa County, Oklahoma. The Cherokee County Superfund Site was in turn divided into seven subsites that were grouped and divided into nine operable units (OUs). The area around Treece was designated OU4. Thus, while Treece is located less than a mile north of
Picher, Oklahoma Picher is a ghost town and former city in Ottawa County, northeastern Oklahoma, United States. It was a major national center of lead and zinc mining for more than 100 years in the heart of the Tri-State Mining District. The decades of unrest ...
, a town which was closed due to lead pollution, Treece was located at a different Superfund site. Picher's residents' property was bought out by the
Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
. Residents of Treece also demanded a buy-out, but at first were not certain of receiving one. As of September 2009, it was reported that the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
wanted to clean up the soil in Treece, instead of moving its residents away.
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
, however, passed an environmental appropriations bill on October 29, 2009, that authorized the EPA to buy out the town. Residents had until August 31, 2010 to apply for a Federal buyout and offers were to be made to the 80 residents who applied in December. As of May 2, 2012 only one couple had rejected the buyout offer and remained in Treece living in a double-wide trailer. Other than their location all other facilities in the former city have been sold, moved, or demolished. Despite all the money spent by the EPA to relocate the people of Treece and tear down the buildings left behind, there has not been much clean up of the mine waste done. In 2012, the State of Kansas officially disincorporated the city of Treece.


Contamination

Treece, Kansas was deemed as uninhabitable and contaminated by the Environmental Protection Agency because of the large
chat Chat or chats may refer to: Communication * Conversation, particularly casual * Online chat, text message communication over the Internet in real-time * Synchronous conferencing, a formal term for online chat * SMS chat, a form of text messagin ...
piles and leftover mine
tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overlie ...
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 Tar Creek Superfund site is a United States Superfund site, declared in 1983, located in the cities of Picher and Cardin, Ottawa County, in northeastern Oklahoma. From 1900 to the 1960s lead mining and zinc mining companies left behind huge open ...
would end up with chemical burns all over their bodies. The reason that the chat piles and mine tailings are so dangerous is because of the high amount of lead that is still left in the rock. While short-term exposure to lead will not necessarily harm you if you are exposed for long periods of time, which the people living in Treece were, it can result in
high blood pressure Hypertension (HTN or HT), also known as high blood pressure (HBP), is a long-term medical condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms. Long-term high bl ...
,
heart disease Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a class of diseases that involve the heart or blood vessels. CVD includes coronary artery diseases (CAD) such as angina and myocardial infarction (commonly known as a heart attack). Other CVDs include stroke, hea ...
,
kidney disease Kidney disease, or renal disease, technically referred to as nephropathy, is damage to or disease of a kidney. Nephritis is an inflammatory kidney disease and has several types according to the location of the inflammation. Inflammation can ...
and reduced fertility. No studies have been done to determine the affects that the toxic environment left on the health of former residents of Treece, Kansas. 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.” That means that the residents of Treece had been dealing and living with dangerous amounts of toxic waste in their backyards for 50–60 years before anything was done to clean up the area. When the mining companies stopped mining, they shut off the water pumps that kept the mines from flooding. This obviously lead to the flooding of the mines and when the water traveled through the already mined tunnels it picked up all the leftover traces of minerals that were left behind. The water then finds its way into the local Tar Creek and other streams, contaminating the water and ruining the habitat of the local wildlife. It is important to add that Tar Creek runs through Treece and many other towns in the area that faced the same issues as Treece.


Geography

Treece is located in southeast Kansas adjacent to the Kansas-Oklahoma border just west of U.S. Route 69.
Picher, Oklahoma Picher is a ghost town and former city in Ottawa County, northeastern Oklahoma, United States. It was a major national center of lead and zinc mining for more than 100 years in the heart of the Tri-State Mining District. The decades of unrest ...
lies one mile to the south.''Picher, OK,'' 7.5 Minute Topographic Quadrangle, USGS, 1961 (1982 rev.) According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...
, the city had a total area of , all land.


Demographics


2000 census

As of the
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
of 2000, there were 149 people, 59 households, and 37 families residing in the city. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...
was 2,134.9 people per square mile (821.8/km2). There were 66 housing units at an average density of 945.6 per square mile (364.0/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 85.91%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, 7.38% Native American, 2.01%
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, and 4.70% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
or
Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...
of any race were 0.67% of the population. There were 59 households, out of which 33.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.5% were
married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...
living together, 10.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.6% were non-families. 33.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 18.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53 and the average family size was 3.26. In the city the population was spread out, with 30.9% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 25.5% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $22,500, and the median income for a family was $28,125. Males had a median income of $26,250 versus $33,125 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...
for the city was $10,122. There were 20.0% of families and 26.4% of the population living below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
, including 40.5% of under eighteens and 19.0% of those over 64.


2010s

As of May 2012, one couple who had rejected an EPA buyout offer remained in Treece. On August 30, 2016, Timothy Busby, one of the two remaining Treece residents, died at the age of 54. He is survived by his wife, Della Busby, who lived with him in Treece until his death, as well as their three grown children and other relatives.


See also

*
List of Superfund sites in Kansas This is a list of Superfund sites in Kansas designated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) environmental law. The CERCLA federal law of 1980 authorized the United States Environmental Protection ...
Next door communities that were also closed down and razed: *
Picher, Oklahoma Picher is a ghost town and former city in Ottawa County, northeastern Oklahoma, United States. It was a major national center of lead and zinc mining for more than 100 years in the heart of the Tri-State Mining District. The decades of unrest ...
*
Cardin, Oklahoma Cardin is a ghost town in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 150 at the 2000 census, but plummeted to 3 at the 2010 census in April 2010. A former center of zinc and lead mining in northeastern Oklahoma, the town is l ...


References


Further reading


External links


EPA officially notifies Treece of buyout
The Wichita Eagle
"Mined Lands" video
KTWU
Mining Town Minerals
Kansas Historical Society * Cherokee County maps
CurrentHistoric
KDOT {{Kansas Ghost towns in Kansas Environmental disaster ghost towns Former populated places in Cherokee County, Kansas Populated places disestablished in 2009 Former municipalities in Kansas