Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City

I want preface this blog entry with saying the Arabia Steamboat Museum is an incredible place.  Once you're into the museum you will see the staffs' passion, and about fifteen minutes after your entry you will be in awe of the amount and quality of artifacts recovered from the sunk boat.  That said, here were my first impressions when we reached the museum building:

Although the concept sounds fascinating -- a steamboat buried for more than a hundred years, rediscovered so we could examine life during early America -- I was afraid I was in for major over-hyped disappointment when we arrived at a large building that housed the Arabia Steamboat Museum.  I felt we had just visited a major tourist trap.  It was a Sunday and a swap meet was finishing up just outside the building and we found a place nearby for a quick snack - a pastry and $6 PB&J sandwich which was hovering around mediocre in the taste department.  Back at the main building we did manage to find some fairly cheap postcards and then went to an even larger gift shop where we purchased museum tickets.  Guests are allowed inside the museum in intervals, so we waited about 15 minutes before we and about 30-40 other visitors were finally allowed inside.

The unspectacular outside of the museum entrance.  You walk downstairs to the museum.

We're usually not ones for guided tours, our pace is either slower or faster than those around us and we like spending time on things that interest us.  I will admit, however, that the story of the Arabia was interesting enough to keep us well behaved while our guide spoke.  To make a long story short, it was dreams of treasure that inspired a hunt for sunken ships in the Missouri River.  The first artifact found by a team of four treasure hunters was a steam engine, which they later determined was the oldest steam engine in existence.

World's Oldest Steam Engine.

That find inspired more treasure hunting, and while everyone seemed to be aware that the Arabia Steamboat had sunk with a full load of cargo somewhere nearby nobody seriously approached the task of uncovering the ship -- either due to lack of grit or resources.  That was until four men put their minds to it.

Our enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide.

After determined where the ship 'might' be, the four treasure hunters approached a landowner and told them they were looking for the Arabia Steamboat.  To which the landowner replied, something along the lines of, "Oh yeah, the Arabia, it's buried over there."  As simple as that -- they found the Arabia!  Of course digging it up would take a whole lot of effort.

In the photo on the right, you'll see at the bottom the outline of the ship.  Below is a close-up photo.  

At the top of the photo you'll also see a semi-truck.  The Arabia was so big it could've fit at least 6 semi trucks on it!  Now imagine cargo instead of trucks.  That's 200 tons worth of Cargo -- 400,000 pounds!

As you might imagine the hole they had to dig was huge.  They were inspired when they finally uncovered a barrel, and after that barrel after barrel of varying cargo -- so much that they quoted that everyday was like Christmas Day at the Arabia excavation site.

The big hole needed to reach the Arabia.

A close-up of the ship (boilers in the background).

While the original idea was to take the cargo and sell it off, the four inspired leaders of the hunt quickly realized that they had uncovered something special and that they wanted to keep the collection of all this cargo under the same roof.  And voilà, that was the where the idea of their museum began. 

To wrap up the story of finding the Arabia we visited the museum theater and had a video recap of what our guide told us.  It was at the end of the video we were pleasantly surprised to find a family member of the original four treasure hunters.  We were told that the family always makes the effort to greet the guests.  He invited the visitors to ask questions (there weren't many) and asked how many were there past a first visit.  For at least a third of the group this was not their first visit!  They were told they would not be disappointed because lots of new artifacts that had been uncovered over the past month.  For the next fifteen years, as a matter of fact, they would be cleaning, sorting, and preserving artifacts from the Arabia.  "Talk about job security."  The family member joked.

Finally, we were released into the museum -- well actually, just a little bit more talking from our tour guide.  A taste of what was to come -- but the space we were in was small and people were blocking the displays (I took the photos below afterwards).  It was a little too crowded for my tastes. 

Looks like it came right out of the hat box!

And looks like these just came of the boot box!

These coffee beans still have a strong coffee smell!

When we were finally given permission to disburse the crowd went one way and we went the other -- we went into the part of the museum with the larger items on display.  The boat's anchor, bones from the only casualty from the wreck -- a mule that the owner never untied from a post -- the log responsible for sinking the ship, and the three intact boilers which never exploded upon contact with the Missouri River, which is the reason why we can view all of these cool treasures.

The Arabia anchor and capstan (cylinder for winding up rope - don't feel bad, I had to look up the word)

Bones of the mule with the uncaring owner.

The log that sank the Arabia.

Three intact boilers which are in really good condition!

The stuff in this giant room was cool --

Typical menu on a steamboat at the time - calf head ala mode anyone?

Trinkets that look brand new!

Lots of broken glass.  These folks are like me, they don't throw anything away!

-- but we had no idea what kind of goodies were around the corner.

The science behind restoration.

Shoes being freeze dried.

Shoe styles from back in the day that could still qualify as stylish!

Styles from back in the day that will probably never make a come-back.

Then was when I decided to look to my left and WOW!  How did I miss this?

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Doorknobs, locks, handles, hooks.  Hundreds of items!

The amazing thing about everything we saw was that it is all in pristine condition!  Normally you would only see items like this that are rusty, chipped, and on its last legs.

The cargo on the ship is the snapshot of what was important to the people of the day, either for work, protection, or pleasure.  The loss of this ship would've made stock in stores low, maybe increased prices, delayed someone building their house -- there were probably thousands of ramifications.  Imagine a ship from China full of computers, iPads, and microchips sinking in the Pacific Ocean.  Losing the Arabia was probably a big deal for a lot of people at the time.

A good idea of what was an important occupation or just necessary survival tools.

Mill stones.

In the clothing department the sturdier materials survived.  What didn't survive was cotton material from which many women's dresses were made.  However, back then the buttons were designed to match the pattern on the dress.

Buttons that would've matched dress fabric.

Sturdier clothing that did survive a more than hundred years.

Leather goods that survived.

The displays were really well done and definitely made one feel as though they were back in time.  Below, even the glass that is in the window frame was recovered from the Arabia.

What's very remarkable is the less sturdy items that survived over 100 years.  Food - pickles that still had a crunch (yes, someone actually ate them), cheese, pie filling, and medicines.

Booze designed as medicine!

And cosmetics --

And so much more merchandise!  Too much to post here.

What I think I appreciated most about this museum is that it's the closest I've ever felt to being taken back in time.  Because when I'm looking at a big display of dishes or food this isn't a reproduction, this is the real thing!  And while there is character in shoes that are worn, plates with faded pattern, or toys with paint removed where little hands used to grab it, this isn't what the early American's saw -- they saw perfection!  And there is something cool in experiencing the same awe the pioneers felt when they looked at the array of perfect goods which inspired images of a better life. 

The benefits of going in the opposite direction -- no crowds when we finally got to the main displays.

So after scouring the museum here's the question you're going to have -- where is the steamboat?  Well, it's buried.  Under 40 feet of mud so it can stay preserved.  Why not bring it up?  Not enough resources and no place to display something so big.  So, it was reburied.  To allow the miracle of mud, no light, and no oxygen to do its preservation work for another -- who knows how long.

However, the stern of the boat is on display at the beginning of the museum.  Though a fairly small piece in comparison to the rest of the boat it did take time to get it finally fully preserved.

The Arabia rudder.

More than three years the stern was dowsed with a preservative after the museum closed.  Remnants of the preservation process left on the museum roof -- a rail (to guide a curtain around the wood)  and a sprinkler system to disburse the preservative.

I had fond thoughts of the museum as I left it.  Why the radical change from my first impressions?  Was it the expertly designed exhibits?  The quantity and quality of the items on display?  Yes, definitely, but there was that one more important thing.  It was the visit from a family member and his comment, "we always try to have a family member greet the guests".  These people are not history experts, not reality show stars, not folks who work at the Smithsonian -- they are a family.  And the sinking of the Arabia didn't result in the loss of lives, didn't involved other nations, and it didn't hold millions of dollars in sunken gold.  And yet the name on the museum entrance is accurate:  The Treasures of the Steamboat Arabia.  Because while the start of their journey was to find valuables, the four initial treasure hunters were smart enough to realize they were uncovering something even more important than things monetary -  they were uncovering and preserving American History.

As mentioned previously, new artifacts are constantly being uncovering.  This museum is definitely worth a visit -- or two.

Arabia Steamboat Museum Website

I always enjoy a good gift-shop, and the Arabia Steamboat Museum wasn't my favorite.  Sure it was full of Kansas City merchandise but I really missed out on anything steamboat or Arabia related - although somewhere in the gift shop they sell perfume that was recreated based on a bottle found on the boat.

Take a whiff of perfume with a nice strong smell - good for covering up the fact that you haven't taken a bath for a while.

For the most part the museum shops that we visited in Kansas City were disappointing -- a lot of the merchandise you could find online.  However, the one exception to this was the gift shop at the TWA museum.  There you will find a really cool mix of authentic retro/antique merchandise and reproductions of items from the hey-day of TWA.  It was small, but I can honestly say probably the coolest museum gift shop I've ever visited.