big brutus

Big Brutus is nothing fancy, but very cool. The bucket is big enough to park your car in. It's too bad insurance no longer allows you to clime to the top of the arm, but the view from the cab is still great. Kids will love it.

This is a machine that when you get to the site, looks unimpressive. But once you get up-close and personal, it's humongous. The museum have a lot of history, as well as other machines that will impress adults and children alike. Bring your camera, and see if you can take a picture close to Big Brutus, and show it all.

This is an amazing little odd museum. Big Brutus is a giant ditch digger. It's fun because you get to just run all around it. I enjoyed taking photos inside the humongous bucket. Their little museum is fun to walk around and you get to learn a lot about the area. The staff here were amazing and super nice. I say stretch your feet and walk around a bit because you'll be surprised to be entertained.

This is worth going to see if you are somewhat close. Good museum and good grounds to walk around. You used to be able to walk to the top of the boom, but I guess the insurance company shut that down.

There is not a lot of sights to see in SE. Kansas but Big Brutus is a must see for out of town visitors and they have a nice museum.

I went here on July 9th 2014. Most of my family is from KC and I've known about Big Brutus for over a decade now but over the summer I made a special trip down to see it. This is by far the coolest museum. It beats any other kind of "hardware" museum because of the sheer size of Big Brutus. With it's 1.7 million pound ballast weight, thee machine weighs 11 million pounds (the ballest weight is no longer part of the machine though). Its a self guided tour and the owner/management are really friendly. Would recommend. They have some other hardware there as well such as a small dragline, an older CAT D4 dozer, some smaller stripping shovels and some implements/attachments. There's also a small mining truck. There's even a huge chain saw like implement that was used to remove overburden/get to the coal via strippage. You can walk inside Big Brutus up to the operators cab and walk inside the main house. You can see the engine mounts (the electric engines are no longer there). You can also walk right up the giant winch inside the house. The sub structure of Big Brutus is really neat, you can walk alongside the undercarriage and see the pads/drive sprockets, rollers etc. You can also walk inside the 90 cubic yard bucket. To get inside Big Brutus you walk underneath the sub structure and walk up the staircases. It reminds me of Navy ships on the inside with how its designed internally. I don't have anything negative to say about it. You can no longer walk up the boom at the very top for insurance reasons. I know you used to be able too though but I assume someone rolled their ankle or something. I was told you use to be able to go up there. The engines are no longer in the machine. I cant say enough good things about Big Brutus are the mining museum. There's also an indoor exhibit with some rather large models of various mining equipment. There's a lot of information on the history of mining in the area and mining in general and the history of Big Electric stripping shovels and draglines. Big Brutus is currently the largest and only giant electric rope shovel. All the other big ones were scrapped and "The Captain" which was the largest man made land machine (yes its bigger and heavier than the bucket wheel excavators in Germany) weighing in at 30 million pounds caught on fire and was buried so it does make Big Brutus pretty special because there's no more shovels this size. Big Brutus itself is really clean and looks as if it had the engines and power source it could be good to go back to work (cosmetically speaking). You can even see where they hooked up the electrical supply to the machine. I believe the source of electricity came directly from the local power plant so it must have had one LONG power cord! I look forward to going back. when I was there the fee was 8 $ for one adult. Worth it!

Staying in Olathe on business and having nothing better to do on a Sunday morning, I searched around on TripAdvisor for something out of the ordinary. Well, Big Brutus sure fit that bill. A little more than a two-hour drive took me well off the beaten path, but it was worth the trek. Big Brutus is a 16 story tall, 11 million pound, electric shovel; the largest in the world. The Museum and Visitors Center offers an interesting (although slowly presented) movie detailing the delivery and assembly of Big Brutus in the early 1960’s, as well as other displays covering the mining heritage of Southeast Kansas. Touring Big Brutus itself and the other equipment on display is self-paced. Entry into Big Brutus is a grand scale version of climbing around on construction equipment as a kid. It’s amazing that something so large was actually mobile! Very reasonably priced - a worthy destination!

This is an AMAZINGLY large piece of machinery! Unreal how big it was and the fun part was that we could climb in it and take a tour. It was self guided, but still neat to run around in. I'm sure my kids would have loved it. The museum part was very interesting. I was unable to watch the whole video, but I would highly recommend you do so to learn much of the history of Brutus.

Glad we had the GPS to find this amazing roadside attraction. This is an amazing piece of technology standing 16 stories tall with treads/wheels that are more than 6 feet tall. Sitting in the operators chair it's hard to imagine "driving" a building. My kids and I really loved the side trip.

My kids really enjoyed this little side trip on our way home from Kansas City, MO. Very informative. They enjoyed the climb up into Brutus. He really is massive!

Our grandson was underwhelmed when we pulled into the parking lot but after going through the visitor center he began to get interested. As we walked up to Big Brutus, he was beginning to get excited and after the tour, he was very impressed. Definitely worth the trip!

We were not going to make the trek out to see this at first but then we thought, why not. Imagine driving down flat country roads in Kansas, passing farm after farm and then out of nowhere you see this incredibly huge machine. I think one scoop of dirt with this will fill something like 6 train cars. If you have young boys or are still a kid at heart you should make the trip out to see this. The drive out is nice too because you get to see some great countryside. There is a little shop there too.

This was my second time to Big Brutus, and it was just as huge and awesome and interesting as the first trip. It was just my husband and I the first time we went about 10 years ago, but this time we happened to be driving through southeast Kansas on long trip east with kids so we stopped again. It is so huge, you can see it before you get there, and that really builds the anticipation of it for the kids (ours are 9 and 6). It doesn't take long, so it is worth pulling off the highway to find it. It was still in great condition, and the small museum has some interesting information in it. You will be able to climb up in it and look around, and you cans till get to the "drivers" seat, but you can no longer walk up the boom. When we were last there you could walk up part of the boom, but they have signs that explain for insurance reasons, it is totally closed. Still thrilling to see. It was $8 for adults and $5 for kids, totally worth it. They have a cute T-shirt I bought for my son. Small gift shop, but I love off the beaten path gift shops and I usually always buy something. Overall a thrilling start to our road trip.

I've always been interested in history, and this place sounded like a fun day trip destination. It didn't disappoint. The staff was very knowledgeable, the museum was interesting, and Big Brutus itself is really a site to behold. The tour was self guided, and it was really neat how you could go into Big Brutus and actually sit in the operator's chair. Definitely a cool piece of Americana, and worth the trip!

If you travel through or are in Pittsburg, this attraction is worth the search to find it. My Grandkids loved the gigantic coal shovel. It is stories high and you can walk through the stories and sit at the controls. No better way to understand the history of this area. Attached museum is also very well done.