The coal fields of southeastern Kansas were formed during the upper carboniferous stage of the paleozoic era more than sixty million years ago, but the early history of the coal industry of southeastern Kansas begins only a little before the middle of the nineteenth century. The pioneer residents, Indian traders, hunters and others, discovered surface croppings of coal and used it as fuel for their own use. Later it was carted to small towns and cities and traded to merchants for food and clothing. Many teamsters dug the coal from the outcroppings on the surface and made a livelihood by hauling it across the prairies to small villages. In the early years only outcropped coal was removed. Later it became necessary to remove the dirt in order to get more coal. The first stripping operations were accomplished principally by hand labor, by the use of picks and shovels where the overburden was very shallow. Later the dirt was removed by use of teams, plows, and slips. This method was used until 1898 when the Kansas and Texas Coal Company installed a steam shovel. It was not considered a success, and the experiment was abandoned. In 1918 another steam shovel was brought into this area. With improved machinery it was successful and in a short time many other steam shovels were stripping the land for coal. These first machines were equipped with dippers that removed one or two cubic yards of earth, but in a short time machines were equipped with dippers that removed six or seven yards of earth. The next development was the introduction of electric shovels, the first being introduced by the Pittsburg Midway Coal Company in 1918. These shovels had dippers that removed ten to twelve cubic yards of earth. Since that time these dippers have been made larger and larger until today one may see in this area the largest electric shovel in the world. One scoop of the dipper removes thirty-four to thirty-six cubic yards of earth, or fifty to sixty tons. The boom on the machine would reach to the tenth floor of an office building and it would be able to pile dirt on top of the Union Station building at Kansas City, Mo. In 1939 the Pittsburg Midway Coal Company stripped 525,691 tons of coal from 202 acres of land. The pay roll for that year amounted to $378,000, the taxes paid, $32,000; the pay roll per acre, $1,866; and the tax per acre, $159; and all of this on land assessed at $20 per acre for agricultural purposes. The earth has been piled up in ridges, row after row, having the appearance of a low range of mountains. The older pits, where the overburden was from twenty to twenty-five feet, now appear as furrows and long ridges, which have gradually become lower and lower and more level through the processes of erosion. These older pits are now covered with vegetation, herbs, shrubs,