‘Chat Heap’ public art on display in Rogers

A new art installation on a fence in the outdoor beer garden at Ozark Beer Co. in downtown Rogers recounts a complex event in the history of the Quapaw Nation in northeastern Oklahoma.

Chuck Davis, a renowned Ozark photographer and curator, is the creator of the “Chat Heap” fence wall display, which depicts the environmental legacy of Picher, Okla.

Picher was once the richest zinc and lead mining center in America, fueling the munitions of two World Wars, but was devastated by the extraction. After the mining companies departed, they left behind 70 million tons of chat — cancerous, toxic tailings — choking Quapaw Nation’s leased lands, filling children’s sandboxes, and leading to a federal Superfund evacuation. Picher ceases to exist as a community, but the chat remains. And remediation has been slow.

According to a news release, Davis has been an artist for over 50 years and uses his work to confront complications in representation and the multigenerational impacts of forced relocation and environmental migration. By placing “Chat Heap” in a revitalized space in downtown Rogers, Davis asks viewers to look closer at the soil beneath them and the cost at which the modern world was built.

“Chuck (Davis) reimagined an ordinary grey fence as a place for showing art, and we’re grateful for him turning that space into one for reflection,” said Marty Sutter, marketing director of Ozark Beer Co. “The Arkansas Department of Transportation estimates 12,000 cars travel past this stretch of Arkansas Street each day, which is nearly double the number of visitors to Michelangelo’s David.”

The installation at 109 N. Arkansas St. will remain in place for the remainder of 2026. The space is open to the public during normal taproom hours.