Brian Zinchuk is editor and owner of Pipeline Online
ESTEVAN – What happens when you have a giant dragline bucket that could use a little bit of a touch up?
If you’re Melanie Memory, director of the Souris Valley Museum in Estevan, you make some calls.
The 43 yard retired dragline bucket is on display outside of the museum, on the west side of the energy city. It’s been 15 years since it’s been updated, and it was due.
Before. Photos courtesy Double J Oilfield Construction
But this little project didn’t start with the bucket, but rather the locomotive near it. It, too, needed some paint, and Memory said they spent three years fundraising to be able to get it done. The work was done by Double J Oilfield Construction of Estevan, and took place in late June and into July.
But when it came to the bucket, Double J owner Ryan Penill said he’d be willing to sandblast and paint it, for free, if they could get it delivered.
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So the next call went to Travis Packer of Skylift Services. He and his brother Warren arranged for the crane specialist company to do team lifts to load and deliver the 60,000 pound bucket to and from Double J.
The work was wrapped up in late July and the bucket was delivered on July 31 back to museum.
The museum got its start from the collection of Stanley and Georgean Durr of the Bromhead area, which focuses principally on the early 20th century period of development in the region. However, as coal mining is a significant part of the story of Estevan, there’s a corner of the museum devoted to coal development, with numerous photos by David Grass, a local miner.
Indeed, in the coming weeks, a brand new virtual tour via VR headsets will be initiated at the museum. It’s meant to take the place of the frequent on-site mine tours that used to be provided, but were discontinued several years ago. Southeast College and Westmoreland Mining partnered with the museum in putting the VR tours together.
“We’ll have an opening of this on September 10, at 9 a.m.,” she said.
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