Information Sheet
R Tri-State Health and Housing Committee.
1181 “The Menace of the Slime Pile,”
n.d.
One folder,
photocopies.
This is an undated pamphlet that addresses the problem
of dust from the slime piles in the Tri-State Mining District of Missouri,
Kansas, and
In the first half of the twentieth century it became
widely recognized that dust created by mining operations could be harmful not
only to the miners but to the general public as well. The Tri-State Health and Housing Committee
was concerned that uncovered “slime” piles exposed to the high winds of the
Oklahoma and Kansas plains could result in dust clouds of dangerous minerals
known to cause silicosis and other respiratory ailments. The Eagle-Picher Company, which had
concentrated its milling operations at a central facility in 1932, was singled
out for criticism. The Committee
recommended covering the slime piles with coarse chat. Although undated, the pamphlet references
Lallah Sherman Davidson’s South of
Joplin; Story of a Tri-State Diggin’s, which was published in 1939.
For an in-depth account of the entire health
controversy in the Tri-State District, see Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner,
“’The Street of Walking Death’: Silicosis, Health, and Labor in the Tri-State
Region, 1900-1950,” The Journal of
American History (Vol. 77, No. 2), September 1990, pp. 525-552.
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