“Big Muskie,” as it was called, was a massive, coal mining rig owned by the Central Ohio Coal Company that was operated from 1969 until 1991.
So what happened to the gigantic earth-mover? It was broken down with explosives.
The above video shows the giant machine getting dismantled in 1999. The scrap metal was sold off for $700,000.
“Big Muskie” had a 220-cubic-yard bucket, and it was considered the largest single-bucket digging machine ever created. It cost about $25 million in 1969, which is the equivalent of around $161 million today when adjusted for inflation.
Here’s a longer video (that’s obviously from the 1990s) on the earth-moving machine:
