"There were so many chips in Mississippi that construction crews never found the bottom of the pit, Riley said. Officials in Hernando (named after Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto) saw no sense in unearthing all of them. They paved over a portion of the trench to make their sidewalk, covered the rest with dirt and landscaped over it. "

I know there isn't a lot of value any more, but why didn't the officials just dig them all out and maybe sell them for the benefit of the town?