The Approved Alignment

By the eighth week of field operations, Samuel's teams reached the northern mining districts.

The landscape changed dramatically. Fertile farmland gave way to dense pine forests, which in turn yielded to scarred hillsides, haulage roads, spoil heaps, worker settlements, and the gray dust of the coal country.

For the first time, the survey crews began passing through property owned directly by Teucher Mining Company. Coal operations covered several valleys, while iron pits occupied the higher ridges farther east. Heavy wooden wagons drawn by four-horse teams crawled along the dirt roads, hauling coal toward regional storage yards.

Thomas Mercer watched a convoy of forty loaded wagons churn through the mud. "That is what our steam locomotives are going to replace."

"Not replace, Thomas," Samuel corrected, watching the horses strain against their harnesses. "Evolve."