Regarding the Joplin Globe article on the mining shafts being closed.....I'm glad to hear this. I remember my father telling us how back in the late 1920's he and other friends would ride motorcycles down those chat mounds.....one of his friends was killed doing this. Fortunately, when he and my mother got married, one of the conditions was that he stop riding motorcycles and never go near the chat mounds again - I guess the promise held...he never did. Margaret researching, BUTTERFIELD, COZARD, THOMPSON, DAVIS, WILLIAMS, PATE