Big Muskie was a dragline: a digger that hauled its bucket in with cables, instead of swinging an arm like an ordinary excavator. Bucyrus-Erie never built another of this model.
It was the largest dragline ever made.
From 1969 to 1991 it dug coal at a mine in Ohio.
It weighed 13,500 short tons (12,247 metric tons).
Its bucket?
It could grab 325 tons of earth in a single bite. A pair of Greyhound buses could sit inside, side by side.
It did not crawl on tracks.
It stepped on huge hydraulic feet and crept along at 0.1 mph.
Electricity came through a cable that dragged behind it. The machine used as much power as 27,500 homes.
After the shutdown, a campaign started to save it as a museum.
In January 1999, Central Ohio Coal Co. announced that a contract to take it apart for scrap had already been awarded.
The bucket was saved.
The rest was dismantled and recycled.
It was built to move a mountain with a single bucket.
Falling demand for high-sulfur coal and a huge power bill made it too expensive to run.
Enjoyed the story?
Follow Colossal Facts for a new story every day.
Or watch them as short videos on Facebook →
