Day Trippin' to visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum

by Bill Althaus, Grain Valley News

Have you ever dreamed about going back in time to an adventurous time in the Midwest when Kansas City was the hub of American transportation thanks to the Missouri River?

The “Mighty Mo” was a treacherous waterway for explorers, businessmen, hunters and trappers, and families who were in search of a better life out West.

Well, you can take that trip, without leaving your backyard by visiting the Arabia Steamboat Museum.

Located in the heart of downtown, across the street from the City Market, the museum is a unique Kansas City attraction.

It is a virtual time capsule that captures life on the American frontier in the mid-19th century.

Visitors have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to experience everyday objects that made life possible for pioneers in the 1800s.

Voted “Favorite Kansas City Hidden Gem” by Visit KC, the museum is one of Kansas City’s most popular attractions. It is the largest single collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the world, featured by National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian Magazine, PBS, Antiques Roadshow, Good Morning America, Southern Living, CNN, the History Channel and many other news and entertainment organizations.

​Once inside the museum, you will see one of the Arabia's original paddle wheels, a collection of food – including the world's oldest pickles - to adult and children's clothing, leather goods, glassware, perfume and cologne and the large tree trunk, that rested on the bottom of the Missouri River, that struck the hull, causing it to sink in 1856.

The Steamboat Arabia was one of many casualties of the perilous Missouri River—the longest river in the United States that claimed nearly 400 other steamboats over its 2,500-mile course.

In September 1856, the Arabia was carrying over 200 tons of cargo intended for general stores and homes in 16 Midwestern frontier towns. The steamer was still fully loaded when it hit a tree snag and sank just 6 miles west of Kansas City. Due to erosion, the Missouri River changed course over time, and the Arabia was buried underground for over a century – along with all of its precious cargo. Lying 45 feet deep beneath a Kansas cornfield, the Arabia’s payload was protected from light and oxygen and, thus, was remarkably well preserved.

In the winter of 1988, five men from Eastern Jackson County and their families, banded together to begin the adventure of a lifetime - recovering the Steamboat Arabia's long-lost treasure.

They were hoping to find undamaged barrels of whiskey and gold, but what they discovered was much more valuable – an insight to the life and times of Missouri River travels in the 1850s.
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In 1991, the Arabia’s cargo was transformed into the Arabia Steamboat Museum, a top Kansas City attraction and favorite local destination in the historic City Market. 

The collection is a work in progress as preservationists continue to clean 60 more tons of artifacts in a preservation lab that’s available for visitors to visit and watch their painstaking work.

The Steamboat Arabia Museum provided much of this information.

The Museum is open 10 a.m. To 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

The Arabia Steamboat Museum is located at 400 Grand Blvd.,

Kansas City, Mo., across the street from the City Market. You can call 816-471-1856 or email [email protected] for more information.

Next week, Day Trippin' will visit with Matt Hawley, whose family was a part of the original excavation of the Arabia - and he has quite a tale to tell.