In the 1950's, the Pierce, South Agnew, and Morton mines used a Marion 1150 Dragline to strip glacial till from above the iron ore body, and this stripping bucket belonged to a Hanna Mining Company dragline. Mining companies valued these enormous machines for their large capacity, high productivity, and low cost. The displayed bucket had a 30 cubic yard capacity, approximately 600 bushels, and was designed as a sludge bucket, with large drainage holes that made it possible to dig muskeg, lake sediment, and tailing while leaving behind most of the water. Draglines worked opposite of the traditional wire rope shovels that predominated on the Mesabi Range for ore production. With a boom the length of a football field, the operator could swing the bucket forward and drop it to the surface with its open end facing toward him, then roll the heavy cable on the drum to retrieve it. The boom was then swung to cast the material off to either side, though normally the material was dropped into a hopper that fed onto a moving conveyor, with several transfer points, on its 2 mile journey to an oscillating feeder for stockpiling. When the dragline had to move, the pontoons on either side were forced down to the ground, lifting the machine slightly and sliding it forward on its belly pan, while material under the dragline's weight was compacted into a surface similar to a roadway.