After four years of being subjected to spraying in horse arenas and along some 23 miles of roads, horses began dying, birds dropped from the sky, and people developed various illnesses. Bliss, however, mixed the oil with dioxin-bearing toxic wastes that he procured from Northeastern Pharmaceutical and Chemical Company, which produced Agent Orange. To alleviate the dust, the city hired Russell Bliss, a local waste hauler, to treat specified areas with used oil. But the horses, as well as miles of unpaved streets, caused a major dust problem. Historically, it has been categorized as a small population, lower-middle-class area raising and training horses was a major occupation. Louis, it was initially a summer resort, a role that ended with the Great Depression.
Founded in 1925, a mere 17 miles from St. Times Beach did not follow the typical route to becoming a ghost town: I experienced only a modest boom followed by a major bust. However, the heart of the country has its own version: Times Beach, Missouri, no longer exists, although a mound marks the site of original structures and roadways dot the area. Most people associate ghost towns with the Wild West, locales that prospered during the rich gold and silver strikes, later abandoned when the veins ran out in Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, Wyoming, and California, visitors can roam the dusty streets, imagining a rowdier and livelier past.
