Treece, Kansas doesn't exist anymore.
Founded in 1917 around a mining operation, the town was for decades a major supplier of lead, zinc, and iron ore. Then the reserves dried up and the local economy collapsed. Then people started getting sick, and eventually they realized just how toxic the land was after all that mining.
Residents abandoned Treece in 2012 as part of a government-funded relocation program after the US Environmental Protection Agency named it one of the most environmentally devastated places in the country. Where churches, a city hall, and small businesses formerly stood, torn-up roads and murky, orange waters remain.
Before the exodus, Brooklyn-based photographer Dina Kantor traveled to Treece on numerous occasions to document a community that would soon cease to exist. She kindly shared her journey with us.
A hundred years ago, a mining company truck broke down on its way to Oklahoma. The crew dug a hole to pass the time, so the story goes, and discovered a reserve of lead and zinc underground.
Source: New York Times
Treece, Kansas, was born. The town led zinc and lead production in the US by the 1920s, and supplied metal for most of the ammunition in World Wars I and II.
Source:New York Times
Luck ran out by the 1960s. The reserves dried up, and the mining companies went bankrupt or left, taking their employees with them. The population fell to 138 by 2010.
Source: US Census
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