THE ARABIA STEAMBOAT MUSEUM

[deacon_frost]

I was able to finally get a chance to tour the Steamboat Arabia Museum in Kansas City this weekend and thought I would share some pictures. You can google it and find out the history if interested but basically it was hauling goods when it went down pre civil war period and when they dug it up most everything was perfectly preserved

 

[Vetus Vitrum]

Excellent, I watched a video about this boat a few weeks ago, it's amazing they found it buried in a farmers field so far away from the river. Thanks for sharing.

 

[UncleBruce]

Excellent, I watched a video about this boat a few weeks ago, it's amazing they found it buried in a farmers field so far away from the river. Thanks for sharing.

The CORP OF ENGINEERS ruined the rivers by channelizing them. The rivers used to flow with the land naturally. When they "STRAIGHTENED" them out it created mass flooding downstream as the water literally RUSHED through creating havoc. The cure was to build levies. What a bunch of boneheads.
The ARABIA was in the original riverbed and was in the FIELD due to the river being channelized.

 

[UnderMiner]

I remember reading somewhere that the location of the wreck of the Arabia was well documented and at some point in the 1890's there was a salvage operation conducted to remove all the whiskey that was on board. Imagine they likely were drinking pre-civil war era whiskey through the 1890's and maybe into the early 20th century if someone stored it for awhile. So there may be 1850's era pontiled whiskey bottles in 1890's and 1900's era dumps in the area from the whiskey salvaged from the Arabia.

 

[deacon_frost]

I remember reading somewhere that the location of the wreck of the Arabia was well documented and at some point in the 1890's there was a salvage operation conducted to remove all the whiskey that was on board. Imagine they likely were drinking pre-civil war era whiskey through the 1890's and maybe into the early 20th century if someone stored it for awhile. So there may be 1850's era pontiled whiskey bottles in 1890's and 1900's era dumps in the area from the whiskey salvaged from the Arabia.

You are correct one of the short films stated that a salvage crew previously tried to find the supposed 400 barrels of whiskey that was said to be on board by driving huge casons in the ground and pumping water out (the later crew used huge water pumps) and going down to the ship. From what I understand they only found some boots ect and sealed the hole in the boat and abandoned the mission. I think the film said the second crew found the ship buried at 40 something feet. And it was in a corn field

 

[UnderMiner]

You are correct one of the short films stated that a salvage crew previously tried to find the supposed 400 barrels of whiskey that was said to be on board by driving huge casons in the ground and pumping water out (the later crew used huge water pumps) and going down to the ship. From what I understand they only found some boots ect and sealed the hole in the boat and abandoned the mission. I think the film said the second crew found the ship buried at 40 something feet. And it was in a corn field

That's too bad they never found any whiskey, I would have guessed whiskey would have been one of Arabia's primary commodities. It's quite possible alot of the wreck's content had been plundered in the immediate aftermath of the sinking.

Sometimes when I find a bottle from as far back as the 1850's I have to remind myself that I was not the only one looking for it and likely way back in the 1850's there were bottle collectors (since bottle deposits were high) who found 99% of them mere moments or days after they were lost. So just like the 1890's salvage team of the Arabia and the late 20th century salvage team, they may have been looking for loot that was scooped up far before them by past salvage efforts that had simply gone undocumented.

 

[Hladnopivo]

What an amazing collection! Great that they have it on public display. Too many are just stored in warehouses and archives.

 

[sandchip]

The book, Treasure in a Cornfield, is as amazing as the museum itself. Probably the best book I've ever read, covering the extraordinary, almost unbelievable, feat accomplished by this family. Oh, and without one penny of government money.

 

[deacon_frost]

Yes they did it all on their own and that’s pretty amazing. I wonder if they have recouped the money by having the museum or not. One of the guys involved tragically died in a car wreck while in his 50’s and the museum has a display with some of his hunting and fishing gear with a nice tribute to him