The Big Bucket

The Big Bucket belonged once to one of the largest earth moving machines in the world.

The Big Muskie was dedicated in 1969. She roamed the Southeastern Ohio strip mining fields for the next 21 years until the Ohio coal boom turned to bust. During her productive life, she moved more than 608 million tons of overburden. Built for American Electic Power by Bucyrus Erie at a cost of 25 million, it took three years to complete the fabrication, assembly and delivery of the machine.




After no longer being needed, efforts to find a permanent place for the machine failed to come to fruition and the machine was dismantled by AEP.

The remaining piece of The Big Muskie, her bucket, came to a final resting place, just east of McConnelsville and just to the west of Caldwell.

Standing in the bucket is Diana and our daughter in law Abby.

The bucket itself weighs 230 tons and could hold 220 cubic yards of earth.

A park was built to commerate the giant machine and the people who worked the coal fields of the region.

The big bucket is located:

Big Muskie's Bucket

Address:State Route 78, McConnelsville, OH

Directions:I-77 exit 25 (Caldwell). Head west on SR 78 -- a winding, hilly, two-lane road -- 16 miles to the Bucket in Miners Memorial Park.

Hours:Daylight hours.

The President Was Born At Gas Station?

For 18 years, I lived in Delaware County just a few miles from the county seat, Delaware, Ohio.

Delaware's most favorite son became a President of the United States. In one of our most odd elections, Rutherford B. Hayes was selected by Congress to be the President after losing the popular vote by almost 300,000 ballots.

All that memorializes President Hayes boyhood home is the marker in the photo sitting in front of a BP gasoline station on East William Street just east of the main downtown intersection in Delaware.

After growing up, Hayes spent most of his adult time at his Speigal Grove home in Fremont, Ohio not far from Lake Erie.

The monument is located in downtown Delaware, Ohio on East William Street (US Route 36) just east of Sandusky Street.

Capital City Niagra

One of the prettier scenes in Columbus is Hayden Falls.

Located where Hayden Run empties into the Scioto River, this waterfall was running at full force after the rains and storms of Mothers Day.

It's one of Central Ohio's little known secrets. During my visit there Sunday, I was the only person looking over the beauty until I was just getting ready to leave.

Although the drop is not huge, about 25 feet is what I've read in other places, it still makes for a beautiful shot of Central Ohio scenery.
The falls is also pretty during the winter when the water freezes. The normal water flow is not as ambitious as these photos represent. Although the area is much more dangerous due to other surfaces being icy from splashing or other typical freezing and thawing.

Hayden Falls is located on Hayden Run Road, just west of US Route 33 (Riverside Drive) and just west of Dublin Road in Columbus.