A chill wind tore at the warmth provided by the late-winter sun as I stood atop the chat pile in Picher, Okla. I clutched my jacket around me in silence as I watched John Sparkman bend his solid ...

A once-thriving Oklahoma town is now known as one of America's "most toxic ghost towns." The town structures that weren't demolished, destroyed by fire or a tornado, or collapsed are abandoned and ...

Picher, Okla., a mining town in the northeast corner of the state, has managed to survive labor unrest, economic collapse and horrible pollution. But within a year or two, a federal buyout will likely ...

NEW YORK — Audience members watching “The Picher Project” last night might not have previously known about “America’s most toxic town,” but by the end of the evening, they did — all in the form of a ...

Piles of chat tailings -- the useless, gravelly refuse left after the zinc and lead were taken out -- rise like foothills around Picher and Cardin, spreading unsafe levels of lead whenever the wind ...

The reason most residents of Picher won't be able to rebuild their homes following a massive tornado is plainly visible from most parts of town. Massive piles of lead and zinc mining waste - known as ...

The northeastern part of Oklahoma is home to eight federally recognized tribal nations, including the Quapaw. It's also where one of the largest mining booms in the country took place. That's where ...

Why do Oklahoma's premier noise-rockers have to play mini-golf outside? It's all part of making the leap from local upstart to underground sensation. The guys in Chat Pile are grumpy. They don't want ...