No, I am not going to talk about those cities, I just listed them to make a point that most of us have no idea what was there before they were settled. I would guess that most of them were wilderness areas inhabited by Native Americans and/or abundant wild life, but I don't know for sure.
Have any of you heard of Times Beach, Missouri? No, well I haven't either and guess what, it does not exist anymore. So, where did it go? Well, let me start from the beginning of the end to this town. It all started when the unpaved roads through the town caused a lot of dust so the city, who couldn't afford to pay a lot of money, they found Russell Bliss, a waste hauler, just six cents per gallon to spray its roads with oil. So far no problem, right? Wrong!! The waste oil that he sprayed was actually hexachlorophene tainted with dioxin. Dioxin is very dangerous poison that can remain in your body for more than ten years. He mixed six truckloads of waste that he had gotten free the year before and was supposed to safely dispose of since it was tainted with dioxin.
The children of Times Beach loved to slide around in Bliss' purple-tinted goo. Soon people started getting sick and in 1979, the EPA came to town and took soil samples and found that the dioxin was off the charts. To make a long story a little shorter, they bulldozed the town and then in 1999, that bulldozed town was reopened as Route 66 State Park.
So, what was there before the State or National Park you are viting was built on that site? Just wondering. Now, you all have a great day, you hear?
I remember seeing a large mural at the Sacramento (Crocker) Art Museum years ago, which depicted this area as a desert-like area with small hills and a river. The artist was so good you could see (and feel) the heat rising off the desert. I'm not sure of the time-frame of the scene, but it could have been even before the Spanish invasion of the Americas.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing what all sprung up in the desert. Lots of towns and cities that are still there.
DeleteI wonder if they still take soil tests in that park, or if it's: out of sight, out of mind?
ReplyDeleteI would think that "out of sight, out of mind" would fit. Of course, I don't know.
DeleteThat reminds me of that 1982 movie Poltergeist, where the long dead bodies pop up in the swimming pool that being dug out.
ReplyDeleteThat is why I don't have a swimming pool. You can always take a dip in my swamp if you come to visit. The part that I dug out should be at least ten feet deep.
Deleteany cottonmouths be a popping up out of the swamp?
DeleteI was trying to remember the town that was moved, while i read this. lol
ReplyDeleteI would think that there were more than one.
DeleteThe gov't finds ways to recycle the unwanted.... we volunteer at the site that used to house nuclear bombs up in Maine. Spills? Probably more than airplane fuel...... Tests? Constantly!
ReplyDeleteJust down the road a piece from me (about 8 miles) there is a site of an old creosote plant. They tried to clean it up and took lots of dirt out of it, but it still sits there. Bet we could get it cheap. . .
DeleteWe grew up a block from an operating DDT plant, then it was closed down, dug up, and dirt in barrells houled out. There was also a talc plant just a bit further. We used to sack that in little paper bags and throw them on Halloween,, lol. Also a chemical plant. All these were operating back then.
DeleteI remember when Conroe Creosote was still operating. People had been creosoting posts for generations to preserve them, and I don't think they had as much cancer then as they do now.
DeleteThen the authorities decided they had to change the way that treated lumber was made. We had been inhaling all those toxic fumes for decades.
We can't seem to get away from chemicals, even in the grocery store!!
Happy Tails and Trails, Penny.
Greetings human, Dizzy Dick,
ReplyDeleteTake some of those cities and start again. Seriously, my human has a pretty good idea what Vancouver, Canada was like before it became Vancouver, Canada.
Pawsitive seasonal wishes,
Penny :)
Gee Penny, I didn't know your human was that old (grin).
DeleteWhat an interesting history lesson, Dizzy! and wow.... I want to wish you a Merry Christmas!
ReplyDelete