{"id":405,"slug":"treece-treece-kansas","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Treece is the town that was bought out — the Kansas lead-mining town founded by accident in 1914 when a stuck truck's crew drilled a hole and hit ore. The chat piles were mountains of toxic waste; the ground kept caving in; the EPA bought everyone out and the town was disincorporated.","The town was the mining — the Picher field's Kansas half, the lead and zinc that made the bullets for two world wars, the hundred subsidences that swallowed roads. The children swam in the contaminated mine water and came home with red skin they thought was sunburn.","The town is gone — the $3.6 million buyout, the last mayor's farewell, the empty site where the town was. The file keeps the end: the mining town that became a Superfund site, the buyout that emptied it, and the chat piles that are the only landmark left.","Treece is the archive's buyout file — the lead town that was evacuated, the chat mountains, and the town that no longer exists."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Treece is the archive's toxic file — the town the EPA bought out, the chat piles, and the place that's off the map.","A town that was bought out keeps its waste — the file's suggestion being that Treece's hold is the chat: the toxic mountains, the subsidences, and the town that the government paid to disappear."]}],"name":"Treece","aliases":[],"type":"GHOST_TOWN","type_label":"Ghost Town","cats":["GHOST_TOWN","INDUSTRIAL_DISASTER"],"groups":["ghost-towns"],"desc":"Lead and zinc mining left underground workings, surface-collapse hazards and contamination; federal relocation approval followed in 2009.","full_desc":"A ghost town in Treece, Kansas, Treece is filed here for what the record attaches to it. Lead and zinc mining left underground workings, surface-collapse hazards and contamination; federal relocation approval followed in 2009. The archive files it under ghost towns and industrial disasters. The dossier holds 2 documented facts — a documented spine with no haunting reports attached. Visitor status is unverified; confirm before making the trip.","address":null,"city":"Treece","county":"Cherokee","state":"Kansas","postal":null,"region":"Midwest","lat":37.20239,"lon":-94.7937,"coord_kind":"COUNTY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"UNKNOWN","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":null,"research_notes":"Distinct from neighboring Picher, Oklahoma. Historical blanket cleanup-complete language does not establish current site safety; no mine or capped-waste access inferred.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":57.9,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.85,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":1,"paranormal_claim_provenance":null,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[],"history":[{"description":"Lead and zinc mining left underground workings, surface-collapse hazards and contamination; federal relocation approval followed in 2009. Treece's history is documented — boom, bust, and desertion all on record, the lore layered on top. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. 'Mining Town Minerals' documents the entry. Documented ground is what separates this file from pure legend — this is part of it.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Mining Town Minerals","url":"https://www.kansashistory.gov/kansapedia/mining-town-minerals/15118","publisher":"Kansas Historical Society","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}},{"description":"EPA’s January 2023 fact sheet documents the community buyout and continuing Treece remediation, with land-use controls on capped waste areas. The town's documented rise and abandonment is the record the rest of the file stands on. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. Sources including 'Cherokee County Superfund Site Fact Sheet, January 2023' carry the record. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":null,"date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Cherokee County Superfund Site Fact Sheet, January 2023","url":"https://www.epa.gov/ks/cherokee-county-national-priorities-list-npl-superfund-site-cherokee-county-kansas-fact-sheet-0","publisher":"United States Environmental Protection Agency","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}}],"legends":[],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access details are unverified; research before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Mining Town Minerals","url":"https://www.kansashistory.gov/kansapedia/mining-town-minerals/15118","publisher":"Kansas Historical Society","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1},{"name":"Cherokee County Superfund Site Fact Sheet, January 2023","url":"https://www.epa.gov/ks/cherokee-county-national-priorities-list-npl-superfund-site-cherokee-county-kansas-fact-sheet-0","publisher":"United States Environmental Protection Agency","type":"GOVERNMENT","authority":1}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Treece","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treece","desc":"Topics referred to by the same term","extract":"Treece may refer to:\n\nTreece, Kansas, a small town in the United States\nChuck Treece, session musician and professional skateboarder\nHenry Treece, poet and writer (now known mainly for his historical novels)","img":null,"score":89},"counts":{"claims":0,"history":2,"legends":0,"entities":0,"sources":2}}