May 1, 2019 - The 25th Annual Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park will be held May 11, at Sally Buffalo Park’s Wallace Lodge in Ohio.

Doors will open at 5 p.m., dinner will begin at 6 p.m., and the auction will start around 8 p.m.

Bryan Coulson (left) shows off one of the coveted prizes for the Annual Coal Reclamation Banquet to be held May 11, at Sally Buffalo Park’s Wallace Lodge. The wood-carved American flag was designed by Jeff Roscoe. Marilyn Monzula and George Bedway show off some of the old equipment used in the heyday of the coal industry.

Dinner will be followed by keynote speaker Steve Hook who will speak and do a PowerPoint presentation about the life ad times of Central Ohio Coal Company’s Big Muskie, the worlds largest dragline ever built.

2019 marks the 59th anniversary of the dedication of Big Muskie held May 22, 1969. 

The Central Ohio Coal Company is famous for having Big Muskie, the world’s largest walking dragline ever built, having many draglines, shovels and the Muskingum Electrical Railroad.

Hook is a retired Central Ohio Coal Company engineer and current Morgan County, Ohio engineer. Hook and his wife Michelle live in Morgan County, Ohio. Hook logged 33 years with AEP, virtually all of it at Central Ohio Coal Company where he held stints as reclamation engineer, engineering superintendent, and operations superintendent before his retirement. He has been Morgan County engineer since 2005 and is responsible for maintaining over 342 miles of roads and 210 bridges. “Even when I was working at the mine, I always thought I would like to be a county engineer,” he remembers. “Working at Central Ohio Coal Company was great training,” he said. “I was involved with the mine’s haul roads and I dealth with state and federal agencies just like I’m doing today.”

The auctioneer this year is Steve Birney, who has done this once before and has been associated with Harrison County Farm Bureau and 4-H all his life. Some items to auctioned are a hand crafted American Flag made of wood designed to hang on a wall by Jeff Roscoe, local chainsaw artist of JR Creations and a chainsaw sculpture of a bear with hard hat and miners light donated by local chainsaw artist Dan Kidd, of Conotton Creek Woodworks. For those planning some get away time we currently have attraction and sports related tickets that will be auctioned off for Dollywood, National Aviary, Grease at the Benedum Center, Amish Country Theater, Drovers Inn & Tavern, Cherry Valley Hotel, Pittsburg Pirates, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Columbus Crew,  Akron Rubber Ducks, Cincinnati Reds, Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Mahoning Valley Scrappers, Cleveland Monsters, COSI, and Washington Wild Things. Other items to be auctioned off are coal related framed photos including two of the “Big Muskie”, a variety of pictures, baskets from Harrison County’s three wineries, Hanna Coal Magazines, coal mining glasses, patches, Cleveland Browns gift bag, One night stay and food voucher for Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, a 16×16 R&F Coal decal, scale models, Ohio Lottery gift bag, t-shirts with vintage machinery on them, Clark Gable post cards signed by Gable’s son and stepdaughter, watch fobs, and much more. If you have items to donate, call and bring them with you.?

The dinner is a buffet style dinner that includes fried chicken, beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, noodles, green beans, salad, desert and drinks.

For reservations, information, or to donate items for auction contact 740-391-4135, 740-942-3895 or email info@hcrhp.org.

Mail reservations to HCRHP, 143 South Main St., Cadiz, OH, 43907. Make checks payable to HCRHP. Tickets can also be purchased at the Harrison County Visitors Center, 143. South Main St., Cadiz, OH, Tuesday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The group can be found online at www.hcrhp.org, www.coalpark.org and facebook.com/hcrhp.

The Harrison Coal & Reclamation Historical Park is a 501 ( c ) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of mining, construction, agriculture, transportation, logging, and oil & gas history and equipment