The Town That Coal Built

Rich Hill, Missouri, was linked to the Marion 8200-5 walking dragline Midway Princess, a coal shovel whose seventy-three-cubic-yard bucket, known as Big Mouth, was donated by P&M Coal Company to the city. The machine had a total working weight of 6,800,000 pounds, a boom length of 275 feet set at a 35-degree angle, a maximum digging depth of 125 feet, an operating radius of 251 feet, a bucket capacity of seventy-three cubic yards, a bucket weight of forty to forty-four tons, an average step length of 7.0 feet, and normal electrical requirements of 800,000 KWH per month. Big Mouth was moved from Amoret, Missouri, to Rich Hill on June 21, 1993, with time and labor donated by P&M employees, P&E Erection Company, and S-Corts Service.

Rich Hill, Missouri · United States