Treece

Overview

A town under the chat piles

Treece sits on the Kansas side of the state line, across from Picher, Oklahoma, in the old Tri-State mining district. Mining formed it in the early 1900s. It took its name from realtor J. O. Treece and got a post office in 1917. The mines around it sent out lead, zinc and iron ore, above all during the two world wars. The census counted 749 people in 1930.

Mining left the town ringed by chat, the gravelly waste left after the ore was taken out, in piles up to 200 feet high. The EPA declared the district contaminated in 1981. In the EPA's records Treece is unit OU4 of the Cherokee County Superfund site, not part of the Tar Creek site in Oklahoma, as one NPR photo caption had it. In 2009 an EPA test found 8.8 percent of the town's children had elevated blood-lead levels, three times the state rate. Poor mining practice also left the ground riddled with sinkholes.

Congress funded a federal buyout in October 2009, and 80 residents applied. By 2012 homes had been sold or torn down, the water tower was sold for scrap and the roads were ripped up. A Kansas law dissolved the city on April 5, 2012. Accounts of who stayed differ. Wikipedia, citing a May 2012 New York Times story, says one couple turned down the buyout and remained; NPR's photographer put the number still in town at about a dozen that July. One of the last two residents died in 2016.

Timeline

Boom, poison and buyout

1. Early 1900sMining in the Tri-State lead and zinc district forms Treece, named for realtor J. O. Treece.
2. 1917The first post office opens.
3. 1930The census counts 749 people, the highest figure in the census record we found.
4. 1970sThe last mine closes, by NPR's account. The population falls from 225 in 1970 to 138 in 2010.
5. 1981The EPA declares the Tri-State district contaminated. Treece falls in the Cherokee County Superfund site, unit OU4.
6. 2009An EPA test finds 8.8 percent of Treece children with elevated blood-lead levels, against 2.9 percent statewide. On October 29, Congress approves money for a buyout.
7. 2010Eighty residents apply by the August 31 deadline.
8. 2012Homes are sold or demolished, the water tower goes for scrap and roads are torn up. On April 5 a state law dissolves the city.
9. 2016Timothy Busby, one of the last two residents, dies on August 30.
10. 2020In September the EPA starts cleaning up 530,000 cubic yards of mine waste, soil and creek sediment in the Treece unit.
11. 2025The EPA still lists the Treece unit as under construction: revegetation remains at two work areas, and more cleanup is planned.

What's here

Posted lots and cleanup ground

By 2012 most buildings were gone and the streets had been torn up. NPR reported that July that the land would be auctioned that fall, on condition that no one live on it. We found no record of the sale or of who owns the lots now. A November 2016 photo looks north up the former Washington Avenue across an overgrown field and a line of power poles.

In Google Street View imagery from September 2024, three streets that run south from Southwest Grove Road into the townsite are closed or posted. Kansas Avenue has a “Private Property” sign. Mound Street is shut by a pipe gate signed “Private Property” and “Keep Out,” and the street between them is blocked with orange plastic fencing. From the state-line road on the south side, brush covers the lots.

The EPA counts Treece as its own cleanup unit. Work on 530,000 cubic yards of mine waste, soil and creek sediment there began in September 2020. The EPA's site page, updated after a September 2025 review, still lists the unit as under construction, with revegetation left at two work areas and more cleanup planned. Lead, zinc and cadmium are the main contaminants.

The historic maps below show the change. The 1886 sheet predates the town. By 1918 a small street grid labeled Treece sits on the state line, with Blue Mound to the east, and the 1958 and 1961 sheets show the mining country around it.

• Overgrown lots behind gates and signs (2024)
• Former street grid
• Mine waste under EPA cleanup (2025)

Historic maps

Treece on USGS maps, 1886–1961

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

18861:125,00019181:62,50019581:24,00019611:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Baxter Springs is the closest town, about 13 minutes east. From Joplin the route follows historic Route 66 through Galena and joins the Baxter Springs route on US 166. Both end on Southwest Grove Road at the townsite's north edge, because the streets into it from there were gated, fenced or posted in September 2024.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Directions go to the gate at Mound Street on Southwest Grove Road, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Photos

Treece in photos

An abandoned filling station at US 69 and the state-line road, about half a mile east of the old Treece city limits (May 2021)Looking north from the state line up the former Washington Avenue, November 2016

Visitor reports

Been to Treece?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Treece

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Kansas index.

• Oswego18.7 mi NW · Labette
• Monmouth25.6 mi N · Crawford
• Beulah30.4 mi N · Crawford
• Litchfield32.2 mi N · Crawford
• Valeda33.5 mi W · Labette
• South Mound36.9 mi NW · Neosho
• Ladore38.2 mi NW · Neosho
• Mortimer41.9 mi NW · Labette

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Treece, Kansas", retrieved October 2026: early-1900s mining origin, name, post office, ores and wartime peak, census figures, decline after the 1970s, Superfund unit, buyout dates and applicants, dissolution, the couple who stayed (citing the New York Times, May 2012), chat pile height, the 2016 death.
2. NPR, "How To Make A Ghost Town" (Claire O'Neill, July 12, 2012): demolition, the water tower, torn-up roads, sinkholes, chat and lead, the 2009 blood-lead test, the last mine closing in the 1970s, about a dozen people left, the planned land auction.
3. EPA, "Cherokee County" Superfund site profile, Cleanup Activities, read October 2026, updated after the site's seventh five-year review of September 10, 2025: OU4 Treece under construction, revegetation remaining at two work areas, more cleanup planned.
4. EPA, "Cherokee County Superfund Site, Cherokee County, Kansas - Fact Sheet, July 2021": the 530,000-cubic-yard cleanup at OU4 begun in September 2020; lead, zinc and cadmium as the main contaminants.
5. Google Street View imagery on Southwest Grove Road at Kansas Avenue, Mound Street and the street between them, and on the state-line road, captured September 2024: the Private Property and Keep Out signs, the gate, the orange fencing and the brush. Imagery at US 69 and the state-line road places the filling station photo.
6. Dylan Edwards, "Treece KS.jpg", Wikimedia Commons, taken November 22, 2016: the former Washington Avenue as an overgrown field.
7. U.S. Census Bureau TIGERweb, 2010 boundary of Treece city: the old city limits. Elevation from a USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Status checked against the sources above on October 22, 2026.

Photo and map credits

• An abandoned filling station at US 69 and the state-line road, about half a mile east of the old Treece city limits (May 2021): Robert Jones, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
• Looking north from the state line up the former Washington Avenue, November 2016: Dylan Edwards, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Joplin 1886, 1:125,000; Columbus 1918, 1:62,500; Neutral 1958, 1:24,000; Picher 1961, 1:24,000.