The Big Bucket belonged once to one of the largest earth moving machines in the world.The Big Muskie was dedicated in 1969. She roamed the Southeastern Ohio strip mining fields for the next 21 years until the Ohio coal boom turned to bust. During her productive life, she moved more than 608 million tons of overburden. Built for American Electic Power by Bucyrus Erie at a cost of 25 million, it took three years to complete the fabrication, assembly and delivery of the machine.
After no longer being needed, efforts to find a permanent place for the machine failed to come to fruition and the machine was dismantled by AEP.
The remaining piece of The Big Muskie, her bucket, came to a final resting place, just east of McConnelsville and just to the west of Caldwell.
Standing in the bucket is Diana and our daughter in law Abby.
The bucket itself weighs 230 tons and could hold 220 cubic yards of earth.
A park was built to commerate the giant machine and the people who worked the coal fields of the region.
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