That's a very sad sight. Here in the chippewa valley, they cut enough white pine to make a 100 ft wide road to the moon! Sadly, a lot of it went to waste. There are very few trees like that left around here. I grew up on 29 acres of virgin pine way up north and those trees were 5 ft across and crazy tall. They made 100 ft oaks look like bean poles. Absolutely breathtaking.
Why coal is a great alternative for manufacturing energy. They probably didn't yet know of the immeasurable sums located just to the south in the Powder River Basin.