John Mott 04/20/2012

John Mott was born in Picher, Oklahoma, and lived there for nearly seventy years. Picher was a main hub for the lead and zinc mining industry in the United States, producing numerous mine shafts and piles of chat that years later were proven to be substantial health hazards. The contamination was so extensive that eventually the town was evacuated and shut down completely during the late 1990s and early 2000s. John Mott played a significant role in the uncovering of the contamination, as well as in the studies that contributed to the town’s ultimate end.