The Big Muskie

The Big Muskie. . , Big Muskie moved more than 483 million cubic yards of material to uncover nearly 18 million tons of coal over the course of its highly productive operating life., In the early 1960s, increased production was needed to meet rising demand for coal by Muskingum River Power Plant. The increased mining capacity was achieved with Big Muskie, a Bucyrus-Erie 4250-W drag-line. Huge by any standards, the 4250-W was the largest walking drag-line ever built. It also was the biggest machine ever to move on land. Only seagoing vessels the scale of Navy aircraft carriers are larger and still mobile., Big Muskie took approximately two years to fabricate and another two years to construct on site. The Muskie began coal production in May 1969., The 4250-W simply was enormous. The machine's boom was 310 feet long. The house revolved on a 105-foot diameter tub. The bucket - a gigantic 220 cubic yards, twice the capacity of the other large drag-lines that later would operate at Muskingum Mine - could grab 325 tons of earth in a single bite., Big Muskie worked in areas where smaller machines could not reach the full 180-foot depth needed to uncover the Meigs Creek No. 9 seam., When Big Muskie finished uncovering coal in one area, it moved to another. With an overall width of 151 feet, the Muskie required a road wider than an eight-lane highway. This road had to be kept to less than a 5 percent grade., While the sheer size of the machine was its greatest strength, it also later proved to be a significant weakness. The Muskie's huge tub required a flat, level and stable surface to support the machine's 14,000-ton working weight. While most drag-lines drag the front edge of the tub when walking, the 4250-W's unique walking mechanism lifted the entire tub off the ground. This proved to be a significant disadvantage because it prevented the machine from working on cast-blasted material., Big Muskie was idled in January 1991, sidelined by more efficient mining technologies and decreased demand for the mine's high-sulfur coal because of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. Together, these things eliminated the need for this behemoth., For the next eight years, Big Muskie sat like a sentinel watching over the reclaimed land it once walked across and mined. In January 1999, AEP announced all avenues to preserve the huge machine as an exhibit had been exhausted. Big Muskie was dismantled beginning in February 1999, and its site was reclaimed. The machine's huge bucket - the centerpiece of this exhibit is all that remains.,

Big Muskie Facts , . Big Muskie was a Bucyrus-Erie 4250W walking drag-line, the only one of its kind. It cost $25 million. , . 340 rail-cars and 260 trucks hauled parts from Milwaukee to Central Ohio Coal. , . Big Muskie took 300,000 hours and nearly two years to build on-site. , . It was staffed by a seven-member crew. , . Big Muskie weighed 27 million pounds, as much as 13,500 cars. , . From the back of its housing to the tip of its boom, Big Muskie is 487 feet long, one and a half times longer than a football field. , . Big Muskie's 220-cubic-yard bucket could move 325 tons of dirt in a single bite, the equivalent of a two-acre lot, one foot deep. , . Big Muskie's boom could lift a load the equivalent of 33 stories. , . The bucket's swing time - from filling, lifting, swinging and dumping - was approximately 60 seconds. , . Big Muskie could move 39 million pounds of material per hour, or about one bucket bite per minute. , . Each bucket tooth was 3-feet-long and weighed 1,000 pounds. , . Big Muskie "walked" from site to site on four hydraulic-driven size 20-by-65-foot "shoes." , . Big Muskie was powered by electricity delivered by a 13,000-volt "extension cord," or enough power to serve 27,500 homes. , . During its operating years, Big Muskie moved more than 483 million cubic yards of earth-nearly twice that moved to create the 40-mile Panama Canal. , . Nearly 10,000 acres of land mined by Big Muskie were donated to the International Center for the Preservation of Wild Animals in 1986 to create the Wilds, North America's Largest open-range preserve for threatened and endangered species. , Morgan High School Marching Band was photographed in Big Muskie's 220-cubic-yard bucket during the behemoth's dedicated on May 22, 1969.