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All the United States Ohio McConnelsville Big Muskie Bucket

Big Muskie Bucket

All that remains of a gigantic earth-moving machine.

McConnelsville, Ohio

Added By
Stacey Baer
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  Atlas Obscura user sbaer27
  Atlas Obscura user sbaer27
Giant chain links connected to the Big Muskie Bucket   sbaer27 / Atlas Obscura User
The Big Muskie Bucket (looking northeast), May 2013   Eric Gunderson/CC BY SA 3.0
The Big Muskie Bucket (looking south) at Miners’ Memorial Park, west of Caldwell, Ohio, May 2013   Eric Gunderson/CC BY SA 3.0
Big Muskie prior to its demolition.   Brian M. Powell/CC BY-SA 3.0
Big Muskie near Chandlersville, Ohio, July 1974   U.S. National Archives and Records Administration/Public Domain
Workers on boom, notice how small they are compared to the size of the boom to give an idea of the size of Big Muskie   brownbob / Atlas Obscura User
Drone view of the Bucket   TravelwithAustin / Atlas Obscura User
Standing on a hill 1/4 mile away from Muskie   brownbob / Atlas Obscura User
People working on boom   brownbob / Atlas Obscura User
Workers walking on boom 1974   brownbob / Atlas Obscura User
Family standing a half mile away from Big Muskie 1974   brownbob / Atlas Obscura User
Looking at rear side of Big Muskie   brownbob / Atlas Obscura User
Tractor trailer parked near walking shoe lower right while Muskie was being repaired   brownbob / Atlas Obscura User
Miners Historical Park Placard   dmkoczur / Atlas Obscura User
Ronald V Crews Memorial   dmkoczur / Atlas Obscura User
Miners Memorial Park Placard - 2nd side   dmkoczur / Atlas Obscura User
Big Muskie from a few miles away in 1974   brownbob / Atlas Obscura User
Workers standing on the walking shoes with truck parked underneath dragline   brownbob / Atlas Obscura User
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About

A huge metal bucket large enough to hold two Greyhound buses side by side has sat unused in an Ohio park for more than 20 years—a reminder of the once-booming American coal market.

The bucket once belonged to Big Muskie, the largest single-bucket digging machine ever created. 

A true engineering marvel, it's hard to conceive of its sheer scale. The massive machine stood nearly 22 stories tall, and its bucket weighed over a million pounds when loaded. Running it required enough electricity to power more than 27,000 homes.

Big Muskie was purchased by the Central Ohio Coal Company in 1966 to help meet increased demand for coal. The size of the machine required that it be built on site. It took more than 300 railcars and 250 trucks to get all of the pieces together at the Muskingham Mine, and two years to build the machine. 

The behemoth digger worked by dragging its bucket along the ground to strip away layers of soil and rock that covered high-sulfur coal. For 22 years Big Muskie did this, moving twice as much earth in that time as was removed during the original construction of the Panama Canal.

In the early 1990s, demand for coal had declined significantly, and the immense cost of powering Big Muskie could no longer be justified. It was shut down, and for years sat in limbo, until 1999 when it was disassembled so the land it was on could be environmentally remediated. There were efforts to have it preserved and relocated intact, but the money could not be raised. All that remained was the bucket.

Big Muskie’s 230-ton empty bucket currently resides in Miners’ Memorial Park, which is dedicated to educating visitors about the Central Ohio Coal Company. Chain links still connected to the bucket are each the size of a small child, and visitors can climb inside the bucket and imagine what it took to make such an enormous thing move.

Related Tags

Coal Mines Machines Energy

Community Contributors

Added By

sbaer27

Edited By

AaronNetsky, Meg, brownbob, TravelwithAustin...

  • AaronNetsky
  • Meg
  • brownbob
  • TravelwithAustin
  • dmkoczur

Published

August 8, 2017

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Sources
  • http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2184
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Muskie
  • http://www.caterpillar.com/en/news/caterpillarNews/history/the-story-of-big-muskie.html
  • http://little-mountain.com/bigmuskie/
  • http://www.stripmine.org/muskie1.htm
  • http://the-working-man.com/big-muskie.html
  • http://touringohio.com/southeast/morgan/big-muskie.html
Big Muskie Bucket
OH-78
McConnelsville, Ohio
United States
39.699269, -81.731279
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Morgan County Dungeon

Malta, Ohio

miles away

Caldwell Historic Jail & Museum

Caldwell, Ohio

miles away

Crash Site of the USS Shenandoah

Buffalo Township, Ohio

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Ohio

Ohio

United States

Places 240
Stories 22

Nearby Places

Morgan County Dungeon

Malta, Ohio

miles away

Caldwell Historic Jail & Museum

Caldwell, Ohio

miles away

Crash Site of the USS Shenandoah

Buffalo Township, Ohio

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Ohio

Ohio

United States

Places 240
Stories 22

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