Our street was hectic and noisy for two months last summer as a storm drainage system was brought up to snuff. Hearing an at times steady vroom-vroom and ding-ding-ding, I wondered about the ...

The power-shovel industry saw a somewhat revolutionary transition in the 1910s. Steam, the standard power source for these machines since their advent around 1835, was being challenged by the new ...

Captain Richard Thew is credited with building America's first fully revolving shovel and, like most inventions, it originated from an idea to serve a specific need. Back in the 1890s, Thew, captain ...

On Oct. 24, 2020, Mike Oberloier, along with a group of volunteers and his brother, Bill, lifted an historic steam shovel from the dry lakebed of Wixom Lake. Four years later, Oberloier is making ...

I smiled when I saw the rusted metal wheels of the steam shovel lift from the mud and turn easily after sitting idle submerged in water on the bottom of a lake bed for nearly 100 years. That happened ...

Photograph of a rail mounted steam shovel loading dump cars for two waiting steam locomotives. The hillside next to the shovel and locomotives appears to have already had dirt cut out of it. Steam ...