The "museum" is actually the Wallace Chamber of Commerce. At their site on River Road just south of I-90 they have put together displays of mining machinery, geology and rock displays, some sculpture and a memorial to the firefighters who lost their lives in the
Great Fire of 1910, which burned several towns in northeast Washington, northern Idaho, and western Montana.
This, another of the machines on display at the Chamber of Commerce, is known as a mucker. These were used to load and haul ore out of a mine. At one time these were the best labour savers available to miners. Muckers are still used in small scale operations but have been supplanted by more efficient methods in larger mines. This unit, still hooked to ore cars, was made by Eimco, who seems to have been the major, if not only, manufacturer of these "Rocker Shovels". You'll notice air hoses and air valves and controllers on the mucker. This is because, since these machines operated underground they couldn't be diesel or gasoline powered. Since compressed air had long been used to power rock drills in mines it was also used to power muckers such as this one.