Editing Cardin, Oklahoma (section)

==History==

===Early history===
When it was founded as a mining town in 1913, this was first known as Tar Creek, after a stream in the area. In 1918, William Oscar Cardin ([[Quapaw]]), and his wife, Isa (Wade) Cardin, had his 40-acre allotment platted and recorded with the county clerk. The town name was changed from Tar Creek to Cardin in 1920. There were 2,640 residents in 1920, many of them mineworkers.<ref name="EOHC-Cardin">[http://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=CA054 Herman McMullin, "Cardin," ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''.] Accessed May 6, 2015.</ref>

This was part of the [[Tri-State district]] of southwest Missouri, southeast Kansas, and northeast Oklahoma, which produced more than 43% of the lead and zinc in the United States in the early 20th century.

===Buyout and shutdown===
The town, along with [[Picher, Oklahoma|Picher]], and [[Hockerville, Oklahoma|Hockerville]], Oklahoma, is located within the Tar Creek Superfund site. This was designated in 1983 under laws intended to allocate federal funding to clean up former mining sites of extensive pollution.

These towns are part of a $60 million federal buyout because of lead pollution, as well as the risk of buildings caving in due to decades of underground mining. Cardin, Oklahoma, officially closed its last business, the post office, on February 28, 2009. In April 2009, federal officials stated that only seven residences were occupied in Cardin and that the town's water service would soon be shut off. Cardin was the first city within the Superfund area to be completely closed down.<ref>Sheila Stogsdill, [http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=12&articleid=20090417_298_0_PCEhom946560 "Tar Creek community to close down"], ''[[Tulsa World]]'', April 17, 2009.</ref> In November 2010, the last family in Cardin received its final buyout payment from the federally funded Lead-Impacted Communities Relocation Assistance Trust. They departed, reducing the town's population to zero.<ref name="zero"/>

Similarly, Picher was officially unincorporated in 2013, after reductions in population due to buyouts and to damage from [[Tornado outbreak sequence of May 7–11, 2008|the 2008 tornado]]. The state and EPA estimate that years more of investment and treatment will be required to reduce contamination to acceptable levels, and restore some of the habitat and landscape.