Published
Blackout 2 – Asarco Towers
The works are named after the small mining town and cemetery that existed in the shadows of the twin Asarco smokestacks in El Paso, Texas. The residents lived in the town for roughly 100 years to work the mine but were forced to relocate in 1973 once it was proven that the area was unsafe due to pollution (lead poisoning).
Although Smeltertown’s community of over 2500 people was displaced and its buildings destroyed in the 1970s, Asarco didn’t cease operations until 1999 and the towers weren’t demolished until 2013.
[Perales, M., 2013. Smeltertown. The University of North Carolina Press.]