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Kansas Attractions

Meet Big Brutus, The Giant Electric Shovel In Kansas You'll Have To See To Believe

By Clarisa | Published July 31, 2020

If you’ve never thought Big Brutus was big enough for you to stop by sometime, we’d love to prove you wrong. Look at this huge thing! There’s plenty to explore here, even if you stay outside. It’ll take a minute to walk around the whole thing anyways.

Welcome to a giant towering over Kansas, known as Big Brutus. If you haven't seen him in person before, we promise it's even larger than you're thinking as you look at this image.

This Bucyrus-Erie model 1850-B electric shovel was the second largest of its kind back in the 1960s, and today it's an example of just how large strip mining operations can be.

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The sheer size of this giant electric shovel is always going to impress you, no matter how old or tall you may be. It's huge to everyone!

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The shovel you see here was used to dig from 20-69 feet deep into shallow coal seams that would later be mined with smaller equipment.

The Pittsburg & Midway Coal Company donated this monster in 1984 for their upcoming mining museum, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018 — what a piece of history.

Though it's not the largest shovel ever, it's the largest one that currently still exists. If that's not cool enough, we don't know what is.

To get ahold of the museum, you might have to call them at (620) 827-6177 as their hours aren't listed online.

If you’d like to learn more or stay updated, check out the Big Brutus Museum Facebook page.

Does your favorite attraction not make our page? Tell us all about it at this link here and we’ll take a look.

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Featured Addresses

Big Brutus Inc, 6509 NW 60th St, West Mineral, KS 66782, USA