The Steamboat Arabia
Don Coldsmith, Syndicated Columnist
Monday, May 4, 2009
A FEW years back I was working on a story in which part of the action takes place on a river steamer. If you examine the Great Seal of the State of Kansas, you’ll notice that one of the most prominent features is a packet steamboat.
These specially designed “prairie steamers” traveled the Missouri and the Kansas rivers regularly. Until the coming of the railroads, this was the massive transportation system which moved passengers and freight to the opening West.
I needed to find a bit more information on the industry and decided to visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City. I’d heard and read about it and knew some of the background.
It was a risky industry, with shifting sandbars and floating tree trunks and snags that could rip the hull of a steamboat. It is estimated that there are at least 300 sunken steamboats between St. Louis and Kansas City alone. Some lie at the bottom of the rivers. Others, like the Arabia, were buried beneath the silt, as the river changed its course.
The “Great White Arabia,” 188 feet in length, had been operating on the Missouri for only three years when her end came. She carried 130 passengers and some 200 tons of freight, bound for the frontier cities of Nebraska and Iowa. Many of the passengers were women and children, en route to join their husbands and fathers.
On Sept. 5, 1856, the Arabia struck a jagged sycamore snag at Quindaro Bend, less than an hour out of Kansas City. In 10 minutes she lay at the bottom. The river was shallow, so for a time the upper decks were above water. This enabled the escape of all passengers and crew, either swimming or transported to shore by the one lifeboat. The only casualty was the carpenter’s mule, tied on the aft lower deck;.
In a few days, the Arabia had settled into the soft mud of the Missouri’s bed, not to be seen again for 130 years.
There have always been rumors about the richness of her cargo. News stories of the time speculated about everything from gold to “400 barrels of Kentucky bourbon,” a valuable commodity. Three attempts at salvage, in 1877, 1897 and 1974, met with limited success.
In 1988, River Salvage of Independence, Mo., tackled the task. It was a family project; David Hawley and his father, Bob, brother Dave and a couple of friends, David Lutrell and Jerry Mackey. They located the wreck, deep under Norman Sortor’s soybean field, half a mile from the river’s present channel, using metal detectors. Core drillings verified that it was indeed the boat.
The story of the excavation itself reads like a novel, but within a few weeks they had begun to reach the cargo. Not gold or bourbon, but a full load of another sort of treasure. Cargo, headed for the frontier. Two hundred tons of it, the largest collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the world. Originally it had been planned to sell the artifacts, but it became apparent that it was more important from an archaeological viewpoint. Hence, the Museum of the Steamboat Arabia, in the Old Market area of Kansas City.
I’ve seen a lot of museums, but this has to be one of the finest anywhere. You can see the size and shape of the boat, her boilers and engines, the restored paddle wheel and drive shaft, and most importantly, the cargo. Everyday items for use on the frontier. Canned goods in glass jars — pickles, still edible. Boots and shoes, mostly “straight last.” Right and left weren’t yet in common use. Likewise, lamps for settlers’ homes, designed for whale oil, because kerosene wouldn’t come until later. Many candles, still usable, as well as wooden boxes of matches with which to light them. (The matches aren’t usable, of course).
There are broad-brimmed beaver hats, ladies’ and children’s clothing and hundreds of bolts of yard goods, from silks to ginghams. French perfume, well preserved and with fragrance intact. Of major interest are the tools. Some are unfamiliar, others nearly like those in the hardware store today.
It’s a real education, as well as fun. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission fees are reasonable.
See you down the road.
Author and columnist Don Coldsmith lives in Emporia.