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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 a dioxin contamination that made national headlines. It was the largest civilian exposure to dioxin in the country's history. In 1985, the State of Missouri officially disincorporated the city of Times Beach. ==History== Times Beach was founded in 1925 on the flood plain of the Meramec 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 followed by gasoline rationing during World War II combined to make summer homes impractical. The town became a community of mostly low-income housing, although a small population continued to spend their summers in Times Beach as late as 1970. In the years immediately before its evacuation, Times Beach had become a lower-middle-class town. Historically there had always been a small grocery store and gas station on Highway 66 to serve the residents. Prone to flooding throughout its history—its first buildings were built on stilts—the town experienced a devastating flood three weeks before an announcement by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that led to the town's evacuation by 1985 and complete demolition by 1992. The town was disincorporated by executive order of Missouri governor John Ashcroft in 1985. The site of Times Beach now houses a state park commemorating U.S. Route 66—the famous highway that stretched from Chicago, Illinois, to Los Angeles, California, and passed by the community—as well as the history of the Times Beach area. The park opened in 1999. In 2001, the EPA petitioned to have Times Beach removed from its Superfund list. The story of Times Beach was featured on History Channel's ''Modern Marvels'', in the episode "Engineering Disasters 20".〔"Engineering Disasters" ''Modern Marvels'', History Channel, Viewed March 4, 2010〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Times Beach, Missouri」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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