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June 1942. "Shasta Dam, Shasta County, California. Steam shovel dumps dirt into dump truck." Acetate negative by Russell Lee for the Office of War Information. View full size.
"Excavation has begun for the dam with power shovels operating at various elevations. These shovels will soon be augmented by three 6-yard electric shovels. Each of these shovels is capable of excavating over six tons of material at a scoop." -- California Highways and Public Works (November 1938)
See also "Excavation bucket, Shasta Dam"
https://calisphere.org/item/2ebd80014f846a506c1e8e40d4c6e813/
Written on photograph, K-487-CV Kennett Division. Shasta Dam. Detail of five-yard capacity bucket on Bucyrus-Erie electric shovel of the type used in abutment excavation. B. D. Glaha, Photo. January 25, 1939.
Shasta Dam. R. R. By-pass Tunnel. Electric shovel working in south heading. B. D. Glaha, Photo. January 25, 1939.
http://archives.csuchico.edu/digital/collection/coll27/id/134/
Cool that he brings his boom-box to work. He's probably groovin' to a little Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra but secretly dreamin' about Dinah Shore.
Never let your lunchbox get too far away.
Not shovel and probable probably not steam.
In our neck of the woods, every independently-owned dump truck -- and there are thousands, it seems -- is chrome plated, clean as the proverbial whistle, with boutique-y paint jobs and gold filigree accents. Hard to believe they've ever hauled a single bushel of soil.
Ol' grandpa here could stand a makeover. Five or six hours with the pressure washer, a crate of Simoniz and a fifty gallon drum of that shiny-tire stuff -- who's up for that challenge?
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