Ed Mumm’s Earthmoving Fun to Franchise

New Zealand-born Ed Mumm is the founder of Dig This LLC, a hands-on excavating experience in Las Vegas unlike any other where people from 8 to 108 can operate heavy machinery just as if they were on a real construction site. When asked how he came up with the concept, Mumm said that it was from his own personal experience. Long Island Weekly journalist Kimberly Dijkstra reports.

“I’ve always been fascinated with heavy equipment and never had the opportunity to get on and play in it, so I had to do something about it myself,” said Mumm of Dig This!, which opened in 2007 and stemmed from when he and his wife built their house in Colorado.

“I did some excavating work myself and after a couple of hours in the excavator I thought, ‘if I’m having this good a time, I imagine other people would enjoy coming to do this as well.’”

With two locations currently available in Mumm’s homeland of New Zealand (2017) and Las Vegas (2011) – there are plans to franchise in California, Florida, Dubai and Australia.

“A lot of us never really grow up out of our sandboxes. We drive past construction sites every day and wish we can have a go at it, but there have never been opportunities to do it,” he said. “We have eight instructors and around 10 machines available for operation.”

Original article by Kimberly Dijkstra, Long Island Weekly, January 10, 2019.