PICHER, Oklahoma (CNN)-- Wearing powder blue pants and a plaid fedora, 84-year-old Orval "Hoppy" Ray arrived ... "like Las Vegas," Hoppy recalled. See photos of the town » When the mines slowed ...

PICHER, Okla ... quiet northeastern corner of Oklahoma, near the Kansas and Missouri borders. Among those still living and working in the town is 59-year-old Gary Linderman, who has owned ...