The Tri-State district was a historic

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 cut, ...

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 ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

district located in present-day southwest

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

, southeast

Kansas Kansas () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its Capital city, capital is Topeka, Kansas, Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita, Kansas, Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebras ...

and northeast

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. The district produced lead and zinc for over 100 years. Production began in the 1850s and 1860s in the Joplin - Granby area of

Jasper Jasper, an aggregate of microgranular quartz and/or cryptocrystalline chalcedony and other mineral phases,Kostov, R. I. 2010. Review on the mineralogical systematics of jasper and related rocks. – Archaeometry Workshop, 7, 3, 209-213PDF/ref ...

and Newton counties of southwest Missouri. Production was particularly high during the World War I era and continued after World War II, but with declining activity. As jobs left the area, the communities declined in population. The Picher, Oklahoma mines were finally closed in 1967, and the "Swalley" mine near

Baxter Springs, Kansas Baxter Springs is a city in Cherokee County, Kansas, United States, and located along Spring River. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 3,888. History For thousands of years, indigenous peoples had lived along the wate ...

in 1970.Brockie, Douglas C., et al., ''The Geology and Ore Deposits of the Tri-State District of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma,'' in Ridge, John D., ''Ore Deposits of the United States, 1933-1967;'' Vol 1, Ch. 20, pp. 400 - 430, 1968, American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/T/TR014.html ''TRI-STATE LEAD AND ZINC DISTRICT'', Oklahoma Historical Society http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/pic17/pic17_2.html Kansas Geological Surveyhttps://www.mindat.org/loc-23602.html Minedat.org Because of extensive toxic environmental wastes produced from these lead and zinc deposits, known as

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 ...

, large areas have been rendered uninhabitable and damage has been caused to air, land and water quality. In some areas, such as Picher, Oklahoma, the federal government bought out the last inhabitants and the town was disincorporated in 2013. Three large sites in this district have been classified 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 ...

as mining-related

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 Environmental Protection Agency ...

sites: the Tar Creek Superfund site in northeast Oklahoma; the Jasper County and Newton County sites in southwest Missouri; and the Cherokee County site in southeast Kansas.http://www.sagchip.org/planning/NRDR/pdf/TriStateMining.pdf In 2019 EPA announced a plan for continued funding of $16 million annually for cleanup at Tar Creek.

References

External links

Lead and Zinc Mining in Kansas
Kansas Geological Survey
1936 Cherokee County Map
Kansas
Ottawa County Map
Oklahoma Lead and zinc mines in the United States Ore deposits Mining in Missouri Mining in Kansas Mining in Oklahoma {{mining-stub

See also

References

External links