Big Brutus
Big Brutus
Directions: From K-7 and K-102 Jct, 6 miles West, 1/4 South, follow the signs (you will see it before you get there!)
Nearest Town: West Mineral, KS
Contact: ph. 620/827-6177
Fee: Yes. Camping with hookups is available for those folks who like to travel in those four-wheel traffic jams (motor homes).
Photos Copyright Harland J. Schuster. Please do not use without permission.
Big Brutus is Huge! Standing 160 feet tall and weighing 11 million pounds, Brutus is a monster. (Note the people in the lower right.) It was constructed in 1962 at a cost of $6.5 million. Brutus was brought to the site in pieces and put together right there. The machine ran entirely on electricity, and had a maximum crawl speed of .22 mph--about 1/4 of a mile per hour.
The huge bucket stands silent now. In it's day this machine stripped the rock and soil off of the coal seam, then other machines removed the coal itself. The bucket has a capacity of 150 tons or enough to fill 3 railroad cars.
The huge machine was controlled from this small room. From this seat the operator controlled the shovel. A crew of three were required to operate the machine. During it's last month of operation, April, 1973, the electric bill was $27,000. It was no longer cost effective to operate Big Brutus, and P&M pulled the plug (so to speak). The huge mechanical beast crawled from the pit of its own making, took one final complete rotation, and lowered its bucket to the ground forever.
P&M attempted to sell the shovel, but with no luck. Brutus, the second largest electric shovel in the world, was a victim of its own size. It was simply too large to economically move to another location. Eventually, motors and other components were salvaged, and the shell of the beast was left to rust away in silence.
Luckily, a group of volunteers interested in preserving Brutus and turning it into a museum was formed. P&M donated Big Brutus and several acres of the surrounding land to the group. When you realize the task which faced the volunteers, and the shear amount of labor it took to get Brutus ready for viewing, this feat is as amazing as Brutus.
The view from the top! From 160 feet up, people on the ground look like ants. If you are 13 years old or older, and weather permitting, visitors are allowed to climb to the top of the boom. This is not for those who are afraid of heights. It also helps if you don't have the sense the Good Lord gave a goose--like me--but you can't beat the view. Crowd thins out a bit, too. Note: During a visit to Big Brutus in 2004, I learned that the climb to the top is no longer open to the public due to insurance reasons.
