Years of ore mining, ending in the early 1960's, left the land with thousands of open unprotected mine shafts. Chat piles (mounds) of lead and zinc fragments up to five stories high are still a common sight in the area; not obvious, but equally as troublesome are underground quarries filled with water 300-400 feet deep and heavy machinery abandoned when operations ended. In the late 1960's many homes were built on the land due to reduced property costs. Soon after, incidents of collapsing homes and fish kills in nearby waterways, including the Grand Lake of Cherokee, prompted a federal investigation. In the 1970's, this area, known as Tar Creek, was listed on the federal Superfund list—a register of uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as priority for cleanup.
COH's involvement in Tar Creek and its many problems was the result of reactions to newspaper articles in the Tulsa World concerning Tar Creek. Contacts were made witht he UCC's Wider Church Ministries, the Kansas-Oklahoma Conference and L.E.A.D. to determine ways to assist the work at Tar Creek. Our goal is to provide support and encouragement to the L.E.A.D. Agency in Miami, OK as they work to alleviate the environmental disasters brought about by the mining activities that took place in this area known as Tar Creek.
Detailed information about Tar Creek and the L.E.A.D. Agency is availble from:
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