• The crane itself weighed in at 300 tons.
• The boom measured 150 feet long from center pin to the tip.
• Three interchangeable buckets were used holding from six to eight cubic yards each, with the seven cubic yard bucket being the most commonly used.  Brands included Page, Hendrix, and others.  A different bucket was selected as conditions required more or less teeth, or repairs had to be made.  The Page could dig 75' deep but usually worked only to 60' depths.
• Two diesel engines provided power: a 4-cylinder for the 2 3/4" drag cables and 1 ½" hoist line cables, and a 3-cylinder for the swing cables.
• The oil capacity of the main motor was 55 gallons.
• At its height of production in the early 1990s, Hallett was removing, conservatively, 300,000 tons of material a year.

As previously mentioned, the dragline could walk, but only backwards.  The walking shaft was 50 feet long, and each foot was about 20 feet long, providing considerable stability.  After excavating an area in front to full depth, and as the ground began to cave in, the dragline walked from the edge of the pit to a new digging location.  A cam system lifted the crane itself up, including an edge of the turntable, and walked backwards dragging the turntable with it.  This procedure took about one to two minutes per step, each step measuring six to seven feet in length.  On average, the dragline could dig at one spot for five to six hours.  Several times a year the Page had to be walked to a location on the other side of the lake.  This procedure might take up to eight hours.  This clip from a video taken by Mike Berhow allows us to experience the thrill of seeing one of these engineering marvels actually walking.

Curved, railroad-type rails were attached to the underside of the crane and to the 25' diameter turntable with 100 rollers in-between allowing a 360-degree swivel.  The 20-40 ton turntable was attached to the crane with a single center pin and was supposed to remain stationary on the ground.  In muddy conditions the turntable sometimes slipped and swiveled with the crane.  On these occasions the operator had to wait for the mud to dry.  In November of 1986 the turntable had to be pulled out and rebuilt.

Mike Berhow worked for Hallett between 1982-1983 and 1986-1987 as dragline operator on the night shift.   To illuminate the digging area, three 3,000-watt bulbs were mounted on the crane.  Rare interior views and a video filmed by Mike in 1988 provide an excellent idea of how the machine operated.  These are preserved in the Ames Historical Society collection.

Crane operators Mike Berhow and Randy Page relate several dangerous experiences.  Some images of the dragline show a black scorch mark on the right side of the cab.  An accident involving the oiler and a flammable oil barrel resulted in the crane operator leaping out of the window and getting burned and bruised in the process.  Another time, the oiler noticed a two-inch crack forming in the frozen ground, and instantly shouted up to the crane operator to get the h--- out of there as fast as possible.  The word was put out by management that if the machine ever fell into the pit, it would remain there.  Pressure was always felt to keep the excavations going in spite of bad weather.  The dragline continued to operate in freezing temperatures and in flooded conditions.

According to Al Jensen, company president from 1957-1993, the Ames Page was one of only three walking draglines that operated in Iowa at the time, the other sites being the Hallett plant at Lake View and a gypsum plant in Fort Dodge.  Now none remain.  The Lake View plant scrapped its earlier electric Monighan originally used in the eastern coal mines, as well as a diesel Manitowoc crawler from the early 1970s.  National Gypsum Company in Fort Dodge sold its Manitowoc 4600 “for a song” to a Florida person.  Drill and blast and endloaders are the methods of extraction preferred now in the gypsum mines there.

Many people believe it was great tragedy to lose the Page in Ames.  That machine was well maintained during its career.  The oilman was constantly busy lubricating all moving parts.  As pistons developed problems, rollers broke, or the rails wore down or broke, appropriate repairs were made by the Hallett shop.  Parts were often obtained by seeking out similar machines in coal fields and cannibalizing parts from inoperative draglines.  The Page was rebuilt several times during its Ames tenure.  Finally a main traveling shaft on the right leg broke during the winter of 1992-1993 and was not repaired since extraction was drawing to a close.  You may remember that Hallett opened the south Ames pit in 1993.  Efforts during the summer of 1999 to sell the machine to a mining museum in Pennsylvania were unsuccessful.  The Page was cut apart and sold for scrap in the summer of 2000.  To add insult to injury, according to contract, Hallett had to pay for cutting the dragline apart.  The bill for trucking the scrap away came to $50,000.  This is truly a sad ending for such a dependable workhorse and the last walking dragline operating in Iowa.  The maintenance person from Chicago claimed it was the best working dragline he had ever seen.