What It Was, Was a Big Muskie Bucket

My pa,l Denny, made a comment on my North Carolina 2012 summer trip blog entry and told me what the Big Muskie Bucket was.

I did some more research on it at Roadside America.

The Big Muskie was the largest earth moving machine.  Just the enormous bucket remains, hence "Big Muskie Bucket."  Today, it sits on the edge of the valley that it once destroyed.

Built in 1969, it could move 39 million pounds of coal and rock every hour from rich coal seams 100-150 feet down.  It could swing its boom 600 feet and moved slowly on four giant shoes.

It continued working until 1991 and then stayed where it stopped.  In the 1990s, a bill passed called the Surface Mining Reclamation Act that required its removal.  Another one in southeast Kansas called Big Brutus still stands.

A "Save the Big Muskie" campaign failed to raise enough money to save it and in May 1999, it was destroyed for scrap except the bucket.  The original owner, American Electric Power turned the bucket into a centerpiece for a display.

Located at Exit 25 Caldwell off I-77.  Go west on SR 78 16 miles to Miners Memorial Park.

Nothing at all to do with fish.  Wonder how it got the name Big Muskie?  Maybe it looked like one.

Looks Like I'll Have to Check It Out the Next Time I'm Through There.  --RoadDog