Towns and Nature: Coshocton C: Conesville, OH: AEP 1959-2020 2.2gw Power Plant, Simco-Peabody Coal Mine and Coal Chief, Marion 5760

Coal: (Satellite, this is at the south end of what they stripped, see the topo maps below for better information.)

Tattoos of a lot of strip mining: (Satellite, I don't know if this was all one mine)

I found the Wills Creek Dam while looking for this mine and learned about "dry dams."

Ron Altier posted
Someone asked what the big shovel on 541 was called.......Coal Chief
Marc Richcreek: It was called the "Coal Chief" and this one was located off of SR83. The one that was out on 541 west was not named to my knowledge and was a much larger machine and was also a dragline and not a shovel. (if this old man's memory is correct) hahaha...
Ray Cook: This was one of 3 70yrd shovels. The name was coal chief. We also had a 50 yard dragline. The shovel started stripping by Conesville power plant.
Chris Smalley: Look at that 65 Biscayne!! I mean yeah the coal chief is awesome but let’s not overlook that classic beast as well!!
[That is one advantage of Detroit making at least minor changes every model year. Old photos can be dated.]
Bill Drotar Jr.: I'd be curious to see a map of approx how much area the shovel worked.
Brent Gress shared
Coal chief which was used around power plant conesville ohio
Ray Cook: Coal Chief. Started stripping in 1957 to 1991. I worked there from 1980 to 1990. Best job ever.
Mike Colegrove: That's the undercarriage for the mobil launcher still in use at NASA Cape Canaveral.
Dave Morse: 5760 Marion!
Ron Altier posted
Here is a picture that allows you to compare size to a car. I honestly don't remember if took this picture or not. It been a long time. Looks like a 65 Chevy in front.
Ron Altier: I worked at CV power plant and I was told it ran on a huge extension cord (cable) We could tell when it was using power, it had its own electrical panel in the control room and when it lifted, the meters would go way up.
Andrew Smith: If I remember correctly, it peaked out at around 4MW.
William Guilliams: i done a lot of electrical work on this and laid cable for it when i worked there, it was a 7200 volt cable.
Michael J. Stiers: I painted the indian chief on it. I remember using a 6in house brush for the eye lashes. I had to drive back about a 100yds in my pickup to see where I was in the painting.
Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park shared
Simco-Peabody's Marion 5760 "Coal Chief" near Coshocton Ohio.

Andi Reddick commented on Ron's second post
[Note the worker at the edge of the roof.]

George Brownie Leach commented on the post

If you grew up in Coshocton County, Ohio then you remember. posted
"Coal Chief" Simco-Peabody Corporation
Julie Lynn: It was off of hwy 83
Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park shared

1 of 8 photos added by Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park
Don Reynolds: I also operated one in Illinois, Mecco Mine Victoria Il., for several years. In this picture the coal is not very deep when the operator can see over the high wall. Looks like a shallow box cut. I made a shallow box cut in some farmland once like this once. We never got off mates, the coal was soft as slack.
Maybe it's not a box cut . Maybe the coal is just cropping out along a hillside.
Joe Burkiett: I ran one of those in Illinois. Marion 5761
Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park shared
Jay Simeral: Where did it operate?
Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park: Jay Simeral the Coal Chief operated near Coshocton Ohio. It's the same Marion shovel model as the Mountaineer.
Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park shared

Arthur S. Bennett Jr. posted, cropped
This is The Coal Chief that worked at Simco Peabody Surface Mine.
David Powell: Lots of YouTube videos of the Coal Chief. Check em out.
Michael Cairati: All the big shovels they built around here to mine coal I think Broken Arrows 8700 was the only one saved, the rest were cut up for scrap.
Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park shared
cable excavators/shovels of the past shared

Andi Reddick commented on Arthur's post
Here’s the picture from the Coshocton Tribune from 8/4/91 showing dad standing in front of the Coal Chief.

Andi Reddick commented on Arthur's post
My dad .. shovel operator Ding Jones on the corner of The Coal Chief in early August 89.

Chad Emerson commented on Arthur's post
One my father took when we went out to see it, late '70 or early '71.

Randy McKee commented on Arthur's post

Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park shared

This mine obviously supplied this mine-mouth power plant.

Plant Nameplate Capacity: 2,174.8 megawatts (MW)
Units and In-Service Dates: Unit 1: 148.0 MW (1959), Unit 2: 136.0 MW (1957), Unit 3: 161.5 MW (1962), Unit 4: 841.5 MW (1973), Unit 5: 443.9 MW (1976), Unit 6: 443.9 MW (1978)
Unit Retirements: Units 1 and 2 retired in 2005, Unit 3 retired in 2012, Units 5 and 6 retired in May 2019 and Unit 4 in May 2020
[gem]

Conesville Industrial Park, Apr 2021
[Note that there is a second tall brown smokestack behind the white smokestack.]

Unit 5 was used for some sort of CO2 sequestration study. [unt] I assume the results were negative because the plant was shut down in 2020. The smokestacks have been blown up already.

Erich Skelley posted
Assembly of Conesville unit 1 turbine. Photo credit Clarence Sidwell. Photo dated approx 1959ish

ReBecca Lyons, Aug 2019

Note the conveyor belt that went Northeast and then East. Since they started stripping in 1957, this is what they mined in five years.

1962 Conesville and Willis Creek Quads @ 24,000

I presume the "purple land" is what they did by 1978.

1978 Conesville, Willis Creek and Plainfield Quads @ 24,000

The purple that was west of the Muskingum River might have been the Broken Arrow Mine. The references I saw to Broken Arrow were vague. (Update: the mine west of OH-16 was the Broken Arrow Mine and it featured a Marion 8700 dragline.)