Big Brutus

This area of Kansas is apparently famous for at least two things, a history of coal mining, and fried chicken. We sampled one of the chicken restaurants on our first night here and today our friends here came over for lunch and then took us out to see Big Brutus. It is a big electric shovel left from the coal mining days here. It operated from 1963 to 1974 and was left in its final strip mine. In 1984 it was donated to be a museum and a memorial to the coal mining industry in southeast Kansas. Approaching it from the museum building, it is an imposing structure.

Here are a couple of pictures to give you a little perspective on the size. Note Janice standing in one of the tracks. It is taller than a 15 story building.

And the cute old couple in the scoop. The scoop will hold three railroad cars of material.

Best part of all was that you could actually climb through the machine! Here is the rear of the operator's cab.

The operator's cab with Janice and our friends in it.

Bob "operating" the machine.

The cable and winch used to raise and lower the bucket.

Bob standing in one of the tracks.

Our Kansas friends.

Some of the other machines there, it started to rain so we didn't get to see them all up close.

It was a real enjoyable day and a big thanks to our friends for taking us there and sharing it with us..

Our rv park here has about 12 sites, all of them pull through with electric and water. There is a sewer dump at the end that we will be using tomorrow when we leave for Branson.