Big Brutus Coal Scoop, Kansas

Once the second largest electric-powered shovel in the world, now a museum. The 16-story coal scoop, which could be moved at a rate of 1/5 mile per hour on its set of eight tank treads, scooped the overburden off a seam of coal in a mine near Hallowell, Kansas, from 1963 to 1974. Its bucket capacity was 150 tons (enough to fill three railroad cars). The mine, now reclaimed, its pits filled with water and stocked with fish, is adjacent to where Big Brutus sits today. The machine was retired largely due to the cost of operating it: the electric bill from its last month of operation was $27,000.