No question about it. The land we mined and reclaimed produced a better crop, had better drainage, was terraced with ponds at the low corners (not last cut impoundments which are awful) and was worth more per acre. The land owner received a royalty on his coal and got his land back in superior condition. The federal surface mine law overreached in many areas but was generally beneficial.
The big thing here is permafrost. Buildable land without permafrost is scarce. A subdivision down the road with typical ranch style houses is looking kind of uninhabitable here and there while subdivisions in Fox (totally mined out and mostly gravel now) will be permanent. Simply excavating forty feet down and backfilling as they did on the 1994 road project clearly doesn’t get the job done. Got to mine it down to bedrock.