What is Kansas City’s connection to the Titanic? Not a lot. The city on the mighty Missouri River, on the other hand, has a connection to another significant shipwreck.
The Missouri River, at 2,500 miles long, is the longest river in America and the fourth longest in the world (after the Nile, the Amazon, and the Yangtze). Since the development of steamboats, about 400 have gone down in the Missouri River’s dangerous waters, with over 100 of these catastrophes happening between 1820 and 1870.
In 1856, the Arabia was a riverboat bound for frontier communities in the northwest. She was loaded with almost 200 tons of commodities, including tools, commerce, and federal mail, on September 5th.
The Arabia left St. Louis but barely reached it six miles up river from Kansas City before being entangled in a submerged tree. The ship was doomed and swiftly sunk. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Because of the Missouri River’s dominance, recovery attempts were not thought to Constitute a wise decision. For nearly a century, the Arabia lay beneath the waves, gently buried by a pile of silt.
The one positive aspect of the wait was that the riverboat was kept, having been shielded from damaging factors such as light and air and becoming a perfectly preserved artifact for the day she was discovered. On November 26, 1988, 132 years after the Arabia went down, that day arrived. A guy called Bob Hawley, who operated an air conditioning and furnace repair business, heard about the legend of the missing Arabia.
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Jerry Mackey, one of his clients, expressed his enthusiasm. The five men started out on the endeavor to find her remains alongside Hawley’s sons, David and Greg, and another interested businessman called David Luttrell. Because to erosion and channel alterations, the Arabia was buried 45 feet beneath a farmer’s cornfield rather than under the Missouri River. It took four months to thoroughly unearth the riverboat, which was largely undamaged.
They officially formed the Arabia Steamboat Museum a few years later, in 1991. The museum has the world’s largest single collection of pre-Civil War American relics. Among the items discovered are sealed commodities such as whiskey, ketchup, pickles, and preserved fruits in various jars. The sweet pickles were apparently still edible!
Clothing such as caps and boots, pipes, buttons and beads, dishes, cutlery, and children’s toys were among the items found.
The Smithsonian Magazine and National Geographic have both covered the museum, as have Good Morning America, Antiques Roadshow, CNN, and The History Channel, to mention a few.
However, Hawley and crew did not call it quits following the discovery of Arabia. Another regionally named ship sank in the Missouri River. When the riverboat Malta sunk in 1841 on her voyage to Independence, Missouri, it was filled with goods for the American Fur Company. This shipwreck, fortunately without victims, has remained unknown until this day.