One of my favorite pastimes as a teens was to to go fishing at Ohio Power Lakes. Aep.s recreatiom land were there are over 700 man maid lakes and many nature made, That in it self was a blast but the best feature for me was to watch big muskie ripping away at the land, Built in 1969, owned by Central Ohio Coal Co. Last used in 1991. Cost $25 million to build. A model 4250-W Bucyrus Erie drag line: only one ever built. She moved in her life time over 608,000,000 cubic yards of overburden ( twice that amount during the construction of the Panama Canal) Pictures and video are cool but words can hardly explain the shear aw struck feeling that would overwhelm you when this beast was seen in action, It maid you feel very small and insignificant, Sadly like many other great man maid wonders this toy was dismantled and sold for scrap, The bucket was saved and is now on display at at Miners Memorial Park along rt 78 10 miles east of McConnelsville Ohio, READ MORE>
If you are in the Ohio valley area this is a must see, Not only the memorial park but the entire area is beautiful, There are
several camp grounds parks and scenery, not to mention the Wilds one of the largest most innovative wild life conservation centers in the world. Big muskie is responsible for creating all of this, as this land was reclaimed after she scrapped it clean.
The “Save Big Muskie” campaign failed to raise the millions needed to maintain the Goliath, despite pledges of funding from several sources, including “The Wilds,” a animal preserve built over land once mined by Big Muskie. The area was closed to the public as of March 1999, when salvage started.
In May 1999, Big Muskie was destroyed. The slow walking, surface mining behemoth was dismantled for scrap, high explosives used to blow off its five inch thick cables. Muskie land owner American Electric Power turned the remaining giant bucket into a “centerpiece of a display [telling] visitors about the Big Muskie, surface mining and reclamation … to memorialize the men and women who helped mine and reclaim the area.”
The park, a roadside pull-off on a slope along the valley’s edge, is well maintained, with its own groundskeeper, by AEP. Covered garbage can lids at site have “No fish” written on them, maybe going too far in the other direction. There are picnic tables.
An interpretive display tells Big Muskie’s story. One photo shows an entire high school band playing inside the bucket.
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