{"id":27401,"date":"2026-01-06T13:21:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T18:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=27401"},"modified":"2026-04-03T01:45:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T05:45:16","slug":"episode-1780-the-big-muskie-this-is-not-a-fish-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=27401","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 1,780: THE BIG MUSKIE —THIS Is NOT A FISH STORY"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE  1,489;  THE STORY OF THE BIG MUSKIE<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

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\"\"\"\"<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
january 3, 2026<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

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540 feet high, 22 STORIES,\u2026bucket has room for an orchestra\u2026see far left.<\/font><\/div>\n

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When George Richey first suggested we take an hour or two to visit The Big Muskie I thought<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
he was talking about a giant muskelunge.  A fish story in other  words.   <\/font><\/div>\n

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This is not a fish story.  The Big Muskie is (was) the biggest drag line ever constructed by Bucyris Erie<\/font><\/div>\n
for the Central Ohio Coal Company which owned 10,000 acres of hilly land in Eastern Ohio.  Strip mining<\/font><\/div>\n
seemed like profitable way to gain access to the seams of soft brown coal upon which the hills rested.<\/font><\/div>\n

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Cut to the construction of the Big Muskie:<\/font><\/div>\n

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Bucyris Erie Company spent 200,000 man hours  planning and constructing The Big Muskie from 1960 to 1969.<\/font><\/div>\n
It would eventually bankrupt the company but in 1969 that was not known.  These were years of glory. Finally<\/font><\/div>\n
it was ready. <\/font> <\/span>It took 340 rail cars and 260 trucks to ship all of the components.<\/span><\/div>\n
  By 1966 the <\/span>world\u2019s largest drag line earthmoving drag line machine was ready to drag<\/font><\/div>\n
the tops Off the Hills that were The stubs of mountains<\/font><\/div>\n
worn down long ago.   <\/font><\/div>\n

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The big Muskie had an immense bucket\u2026so large that two Greyhound Buses could be parked inside<\/font><\/div>\n
with lots of room left over.  (The Bucket is all that remains of the Big Muskie today)<\/font><\/div>\n
The Big Muskie was 240 feet high\u2026as high as an<\/font><\/div>\n
11 story sky scraper.   It could move slowly\u2026an inch at a time.  Once in place it began pulling the tops<\/font><\/div>\n
of  those ancient  mountains.  Ripping The Carolinian forest to rubble\u2026shag bark hickory<\/font><\/div>\n
 walnut, Osage Orange\u2026turning 10,000 acres into a moonscape.   Not pretty.  Ugly and dangerous. <\/font><\/div>\n
The Big Muskie was powered by huge electric motors that were so expensive to run that the five man crew did much of the<\/font><\/div>\n
work at night when electric rates were cheapest.<\/font><\/div>\n

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When we first saw the Big Muskie, we marvelled\u2026as did the local population.  However opinions changed even <\/font><\/div>\n
though the coal company reclaimed the land <\/font><\/div>\n
after the Muskie had chewed it up.<\/span>  9,000 acres have been reclaimed. <\/span><\/div>\n

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From the creation of the big Muskie in 1960 to its demolition in 1999 there was both wonder and anger.<\/font><\/div>\n
Efforts to save the huge machine as a museum failed and it was cut up as scrap in 1999.  Only the<\/font><\/div>\n
great bucket remains.  The Central Ohio Coal Company owned 110,000 acres.   Coal companies around the<\/font><\/div>\n
world held many thousands of acres of both Lignite (brown coal) and Anthracite (hard coal).  <\/font><\/div>\n
  Where does coal originate?  How much remains.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Most coal reserves were created in the Carboniferous period when the earth was warm and covered with plants<\/font><\/div>\n
that lived and died in abundance.  <\/font><\/div>\n
That was some 260 million years ago (round numbers) Some of this dead vegetation got covered with overburden (limestone, clay, etc.. Both pressure and heat<\/font><\/div>\n
turned it to coal.  Brown coal experienced less heat end less pressure than hard coal.  Brown coal is closer to the surface.  burns dirty.<\/font><\/div>\n

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Will we run out of these resources because they are finite?  Perhaps. But the coal reserves took 60 million years to form and<\/font><\/div>\n
200 million years it lay there,  undisturbed.  Great swaths of time.  Inconceivable. We are recent arrivals that<\/font><\/div>\n
 have only been consuming coal for a few thousand years. Coal will be around when many generations of us will be dead and gone.<\/font><\/div>\n

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The Big Muskie had a short life from the engineering idea 1960 to being cut up into scrap steel in 1999.  <\/font><\/div>\n
We were there in 1970\u2019s when visitors were divided into lovers and haters.<\/font><\/div>\n

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COAL MINING\u2019S LEGACY:<\/font><\/div>\n

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Much of the land disturbed by surface mining for coal prior to 1948 was not reclaimed after mining. While most of Ohio\u2019s surface mining took place after enactment of the state\u2019s first surface mining law in 1948, reclamation requirements were not adequate by today\u2019s standard. Prior to 1972, Ohio\u2019s statutes did not require restoration of desirable environmental conditions to the surface mined areas. <\/p>\n

As a result, the state was left with nearly 450,000 acres of land that were surface mined for coal prior to Ohio\u2019s stringent 1972 reclamation law and 6,000 underground coal mines that exist below 600,000 acres of land.<\/p>\n

By 1972 the problems included:<\/p>\n