Travel Blog

Sue:

So after the Columbus Days fun, we drove 7 miles north to West Mineral, Kansas, which is the home of Big Brutus.

Big Brutus is an 1850-B electric shovel, one of the world's two largest shovels. Some of the pamphlet hightlights are:

- the shovel is taller than a 15-story office building, 160 feet from the ground to the point sheave at the top of the boom

- working weight is 11,000,000 pounds

- 150 railroad cars were required to ship all of the component partsof the shovel

- it ran 24 hours a day for 11 years, ceasing operations in April of 1974

There is a website where you can learn more, and that's www.bigbrutus.org, and if you decide to visit, you can pay a fee and go out and climb all over it. Phil and I declined, but our friend Nick had done it previously and had a good time. But Phil did buy a Big Brutus patch for his patch pants, so we feel we contributed to its upkeep. It seems they want to raise some money to paint the sucker. Maybe we can get a workamping gig when the time comes. I'll do the tires, and Phil can get the rest.