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Times Beach is a ghost town in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States, southwest of St. Louis and east of Eureka. Once home to more than two thousand people, the town was completely evacuated early in 1983 due to TCDD—also known as dioxin—contamination. It was the largest civilian exposure to the compound in the history of the United States. In 1985, the State of Missouri officially disincorporated the city of Times Beach. The site of Times Beach now houses a state park commemorating U.S. Route 66—the famous highway that stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California, and passed by the community on its southern end—as well as the history of the Times Beach area.[1] The park opened in 1999.[2] In 2001, the EPA removed Times Beach from its Superfund list. [edit] History
Times Beach was founded in 1925 on the flood plain of the Meramec River, southwest of the river, in a promotion by the now-defunct St. Louis Star-Times newspaper. A purchase of a 20 × 100 ft (6 by 30 m) lot for $67.50 included a six-month newspaper subscription. In its early years, the town was primarily a summer resort, but the Great Depression combined with gasoline rationing during World War II reduced the feasibility of summer homes.[3] The town became a community of mostly low-income housing, and a small population (1,240) lived in Times Beach by 1970.[3] In the years immediately before its evacuation, Times Beach had become a lower-middle-class town.[3] Historically, there had always been a small grocery store and gas station on Route 66 to serve the residents. Prone to flooding throughout its history—its first buildings were built on stilts[3]—the town experienced a devastating flood in December, 1982. It happened just as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was confirming that dioxin contaminated the soil, leading to the town's evacuation by 1985 and complete demolition by 1992. The town was disincorporated by executive order of Missouri governor John Ashcroft on April 2, 1985. The story of Times Beach was featured on History Channel's Modern Marvels, in the episode "Engineering Disasters 20". [edit] Research Tips
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