Grew up burning lignite, dealing with dust, clinkers, and ash. Haul your own (we did) and it was cheap! We had a drop chute directly into the coal room, which abutted the furnace.
Don't miss it. At all!
There are coal seams still burning (lightening, mostly) underground in ND, and perhaps elsewhere. That orange/pink rock known as scoria that some people use on driveways and for decorative, I understand is naturally cooked clay from same, long ago.
