The Roots of Motive Power Museum in Willits [Video]

It’s not as easy as it looks. The Roots of Motive Power Museum puts you in the driver’s seat of a classic steam machine.

WILLITS, Calif. — At the gateway to Mendocino County’s redwood forest, it’s not uncommon to see a plume of steam rising above the Roots of Motive Power Museum in Willits. It’s one of the few museums putting visitors in the operator’s seat and teaches them how to run antique steam shovels.

Ken McCrary, 73, and Ed Kimball, 19, are the museum’s steam shovel instructors. It takes two instructors because it takes at least two people to operate the 1932 Bucyrus-Erie 50-B steamer.

McCrary and Kimball take turns in the steam shovel’s 100+ degree boiler room while the other runs the shovel outside. Both jobs have their positives and negatives.

“You either sweat running the boiler or eat dust in the operator seat,” said Kimball.

Steam shovels date back to the 1830s and they revolutionized construction. …