Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas • Hacker News Board

Re: Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas

#11

Post by topgrain2 » Thu, Jul 09, 2026, 3:27 PM UTC

fowkswe wrote: post #2

I grew up in Joplin, MO which is part of this mining area. The remnants of that industry have left this region highly polluted. Much of the soil in these towns is contaminated and some places like Picher, OK have been declared superfund sites. Picher is a ghost town now, completely abandoned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma The tailings from the mining operations are referred to as “chat” and were depo…

> The tailings from the mining operations are referred to as “chat” and were deposited into massive piles of small rock. We would play in these “chat piles” as a kid. Probably exposing ourselves to heavy amounts of lead and zinc dust.

I spent countless hours as a kid swimming in flooded coal mining strip pits, collecting fossils from those exact sorts of piles you mention (there's some cool shit there! They dig up so many layers so you get stuff separated by tens or hundreds of millions of years all accessible on the surface, shell fossils were extremely abundant and there were some sections full of fossil ferns of the same species more often associated with Illinois) and if I biked a couple miles down an arrow-straight road from our house, I could see an operating coal power plant in the distance, pumping nastiness into the air.

I reckon cancer's in my future. Whoops.

Re: Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas

#12

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 09, 2026, 3:49 PM UTC

fowkswe wrote: post #2

I grew up in Joplin, MO which is part of this mining area. The remnants of that industry have left this region highly polluted. Much of the soil in these towns is contaminated and some places like Picher, OK have been declared superfund sites. Picher is a ghost town now, completely abandoned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma The tailings from the mining operations are referred to as “chat” and were depo…

[deleted]

Re: Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas

#13

Post by skyberrys » Thu, Jul 09, 2026, 4:11 PM UTC

topgrain2 wrote: post #10

msisk6 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here; grew up in Joplin before escaping to move to California in 1988. It was wild growing up in that area with the chat piles hundreds of feet tall towering over these little towns. When I was in high school the drinking age across the state border in Kansas was 18 so every weekend we'd all go over to the night clubs in Galena. For folks interested in such things, Joplin has a Mineral Museum in Schifferdecker P…

> It was wild growing up in that area with the chat piles hundreds of feet tall towering over these little towns. Especially when the area is extremely flat. Town I lived in (near, but not, Galena), the only places it was possible to snow-sled were man-made, with the only publicly-accessible one being the banks of the sole road overpass for miles around (I wanna say it went over railroad tracks? But it might have bee…

I really appreciate you highlighting exactly how exceptionally flat Kansas is. I've never thought of a place as flat for Kansas, now I'll pay more attention when driving through it. I was already startled by how far horizons seem in Kansas.

Re: Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas

#14

Post by Ancapistani » Thu, Jul 09, 2026, 5:23 PM UTC

fowkswe wrote: post #2

I grew up in Joplin, MO which is part of this mining area. The remnants of that industry have left this region highly polluted. Much of the soil in these towns is contaminated and some places like Picher, OK have been declared superfund sites. Picher is a ghost town now, completely abandoned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma The tailings from the mining operations are referred to as “chat” and were depo…

I’m about two hours SE of you. Towns around me include Lead Hill and Zinc. There’s also a road known locally as “Chemical Ranch Road” - it was one of the testing grounds for Agent Orange.

Cancer rates are significantly above baseline, especially neurological cancers.

Re: Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas

#15

Post by skullone » Thu, Jul 09, 2026, 5:24 PM UTC

GenerWork wrote: post #8

FloayYerBoat wrote: post #5

I consulted in IT for ~10 years, and tried to take interesting jobs in interesting industries, after burning out in big healthcare. One of the more interesting gigs I took was working for a lead smelter! They smelted all their lead from recycled materials, mostly batteries. That is why you get a relatively lot of money back for your used battery. They have ~15 customers and a LINE of more waiting if they could suppor…

Who exactly is buying lead from a lead smelter these days, battery and ammo manufacturers?

There's a billion lead acid batteries out there which are conceivably infinitely recyclable

Re: Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas

#16

Post by pimlottc » Thu, Jul 09, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

MisterTea wrote: post #6

fowkswe wrote: post #2

I grew up in Joplin, MO which is part of this mining area. The remnants of that industry have left this region highly polluted. Much of the soil in these towns is contaminated and some places like Picher, OK have been declared superfund sites. Picher is a ghost town now, completely abandoned. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picher,_Oklahoma The tailings from the mining operations are referred to as “chat” and were depo…

Somewhat OT but the band Chat Pile uses thematics of these industrial wastelands left behind as a backdrop along with stories of the lives effected. Great band with visceral and pointed lyrics. I'd start by listening to God's Country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chat_Pile https://chatpile.bandcamp.com/

I had no idea about the meaning of their name before this, thanks!

Re: Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas

#17

Post by topgrain2 » Thu, Jul 09, 2026, 6:47 PM UTC

skyberrys wrote: post #13

topgrain2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was wild growing up in that area with the chat piles hundreds of feet tall towering over these little towns. Especially when the area is extremely flat. Town I lived in (near, but not, Galena), the only places it was possible to snow-sled were man-made, with the only publicly-accessible one being the banks of the sole road overpass for miles around (I wanna say it went over railroad tracks? But it might have bee…

I really appreciate you highlighting exactly how exceptionally flat Kansas is. I've never thought of a place as flat for Kansas, now I'll pay more attention when driving through it. I was already startled by how far horizons seem in Kansas.

Lots of the central-eastern portion of the state is the beautiful Flint Hills area, which is obviously… hilly. Much of I-70 (the main route across the state east-west) features long horizons but lots of low hills in the distance. The West, central, and southwestern parts have the slowly but consistently rolling, low hills of something like the film The Wind or the famous painting Christina’s World (the one with the girl on late summer or early fall green-and-tan grass, looking away from the viewer toward a white farmhouse up a low hill). They’re all much flatter than much of the country, but they’re not flat flat. They’re not Central Nevada flat.

South-central and southeastern Kansas are about that flat. Though with somewhat more trees.

[edit] I mean the remake of The Wind from a few years ago. I’ve never seen the original Lillian Gish film.

[edit edit] Further, those kinds of super-long views like you mentioned are actually kind of hard to come by on the really flat parts of Kansas. You need a little elevation (for the spot you're at) to get over obstructions like bushes, trees, barns, corn, et c, and that's what delivers those impressively-long views that vanish at the horizon in other parts of the state. That's why you need to find one of the (many) very-straight rural roads in the really flat parts of KS to see the "flat all the way to the horizon" effect. Or stand on the roof of a barn or something like that.

Re: Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas

#18

Post by msisk6 » Thu, Jul 09, 2026, 8:09 PM UTC

topgrain2 wrote: post #10

msisk6 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here; grew up in Joplin before escaping to move to California in 1988. It was wild growing up in that area with the chat piles hundreds of feet tall towering over these little towns. When I was in high school the drinking age across the state border in Kansas was 18 so every weekend we'd all go over to the night clubs in Galena. For folks interested in such things, Joplin has a Mineral Museum in Schifferdecker P…

> It was wild growing up in that area with the chat piles hundreds of feet tall towering over these little towns. Especially when the area is extremely flat. Town I lived in (near, but not, Galena), the only places it was possible to snow-sled were man-made, with the only publicly-accessible one being the banks of the sole road overpass for miles around (I wanna say it went over railroad tracks? But it might have bee…

There used to be a big chat pile called Snowball on the north side of Joplin near the old Eagle-Picher smelter. I once saw someone fly off the top of that in a hang glider.

My grandfather on my mom's side was a miner in the lead mines. Or so I've been told; I don't remember him as he died when I was a baby. My grandmother lived near Snowball in what is best called a shack. No indoor plumbing; had to use a outhouse. She did have a telephone, although it was a party-line; you had to check the line was clear before using it.

So, yeah, that move Winter's Bone captured the feel of the area and the effects of systemic poverty really well.

Re: Lead Mines of Galena, Kansas

#19

Post by FloayYerBoat » Sun, Jul 12, 2026, 3:22 PM UTC

GenerWork wrote: post #8

FloayYerBoat wrote: post #5

I consulted in IT for ~10 years, and tried to take interesting jobs in interesting industries, after burning out in big healthcare. One of the more interesting gigs I took was working for a lead smelter! They smelted all their lead from recycled materials, mostly batteries. That is why you get a relatively lot of money back for your used battery. They have ~15 customers and a LINE of more waiting if they could suppor…

Who exactly is buying lead from a lead smelter these days, battery and ammo manufacturers?

80% of their customers were car battery companies, and I think Johnson? makes most car batteries in america (under different brands). Ammunition is the other big customer.