Ruth Graham of The Faster Times has posted a somewhat irreverent look at the giant cross of Cross Ministries in Groom, Texas, and the Big Brutus coal shovel of West Mineral, Kan.
The story is a salute to gigantic things along or near Route 66. The big cross is 190 feet tall, although it no longer is the largest in the Western Hemisphere as once claimed. There’s one in Effingham, Ill., that’s eight feet taller. Graham’s story contains a lot of photos about the other attractions around the big Texas cross if you’ve never seen them yourself.
Big Brutus claims to be the largest electric shovel. It’s 160 feet tall and weighs 11 million pounds. It’s not on Route 66, but 13 miles away from it. However, it’s often a side trip for Mother Road travelers, and Big Brutus promotional literature is commonly seen at Route 66 businesses in Kansas.
Graham said:
John Steinbeck wrote in his great American travelogue “Travels With Charley,” that he was setting out “to rediscover this monster land.” And “monster land” is just right. The cross and the shovel are huge, so huge that each made me laugh to myself with disbelief as they loomed into view. But they were built that way on purpose: Such size is one of the only ways to make an impact — spiritual, physical — on such a comically, magnificently huge land.