In 1913, the discovery of lead and zinc ore transformed Picher, Oklahoma, into a booming industrial center that provided over fifty percent of the metal for bullets used in World War I. By 1926, the population peaked at over 14,000 residents who lived in the shadow of seventy million tons of toxic mining waste known as chat piles. Unaware of the danger, local children used these massive white mounds as playgrounds and parents filled sandboxes with the lead-laced dust. The environmental horror be