Does Galena have a future?

Last summer, the historic Green Parrot tavern along Route 66 in Galena, Kan., was damaged when a giant sinkhole opened up behind the property. The hole was caused by the collapse of one of the old underground lead mines that dot the city.

Today, an article in the Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World & News confirms what was feared from the beginning —  that the tavern, which had operated in a century-old building since 1942, has been condemned. The city will demolish the compromised building within a month, and owner Mickey Morang has no money to pay for the razing. He and his 80-year-old mother’s home and business were rendered worthless by the hole.

Tucked away in the story is this item:

Galena, like the nearby town of Treece in Cherokee County, is undermined. But unlike Treece, the city of Galena is not seeking a federal buyout so residents can be relocated.

Instead, Galena is seeking a grant that will help pay for drilling to determine how much ground exists between the surface and the ceilings of the mines.

“That will allow them to map the voids so they’ll know where the biggest threat is,” said Jan Garton, a representative for U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan., who is working with Galena and Treece on abandoned mine issues.

Galena has submitted a pre-application for a $500,000 matching grant from the Federal Economic Development Administration that will pay for the drilling, Garton said. The city would come up with $250,000, and the federal government would come up with the other half.

Officials seem to be tiptoeing around this very real possibility: The town is so vastly undermined that a mass buyout and evacuation may be required.

Perhaps the underground study will determine that Galena isn’t as undermined as feared. But the entire town of nearby Picher, Okla., is going through a buyout and eventual abandonment because of the same problem. The possibility that the same fate awaits Galena cannot be ignored.

My message to Route 66 travelers is this: Take extra time for photographs and local color while driving through Galena. That’s because the town could be gone within the next decade or so, joining the ranks of other departed or near-dead Route 66 towns like Times Beach, Mo.; Ocoya, Ill.; Glenrio, Texas; and Summit, Calif.

Lead mining helped create the town of Galena. And lead mining might be the very thing that kills it.