Treasure in a Cornfield

During lunch at Randy and Wanda's ranch in Texas a week ago, Randy showed Murray and I a book titled 'Treasure in a Cornfield' written by Greg Hawley and he said there was a museum in Kansas City that displays what the book is about. Coincidentally, at around the same time, Joe Bill and Sandy's sister in law Betsy had suggested that when we were all in Kansas City that we should not miss calling in to visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum. As it turns out, the book is the story of the recovery of the Steamboat Arabia! That settled it, the four of us paid a visit to the museum and were amazed at the story of the steamboat recovery and the museum artefacts and presentation.

The Arabia - an Artist's impression

In 1856, the steamboat Arabia sailed out of St Louis headed upriver for the pioneer settlements of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska lined along the Missouri River. 

It was carrying about 130 passengers and 200 tonnes of cargo (including merchandise such as tools, clothing, crockery, jewelery, guns and food items for pioneer stores along the route) when it hit a snag about 5 miles north of Kansas City - where we are right now. The passengers were all saved, but within hours the steamboat and its cargo had sunk to the bottom of the Missouri River. Fast forward 131 years later, and an enterprising family headed by Bob Hawley and his sons Greg and David, plus 2 family friends decided to locate the steamboat's whereabouts. They had plans to retrieve the cargo and sell it to make their fortune. Their research showed them how over time the Missouri River had moved eastwards by about 1/2 a mile from its original path, and they pin pointed the location of the wreck to lie in a Kansas cornfield. They negotiated with the owner and in no time their powerful proton magnetometer detected the high metal shafts of the boilers. They soon mapped out the rest of the wreckage and found it buried under 45 feet of river silt and topsoil, with the steamboat still sitting in water, courtesy of the high water table. If you can magnify the photo below you will get a good idea of what they faced in recovering the cargo.

Buried in silt and surrounded by water

Murray Sandy and Joe Bill listen attentively to the Guide's information 

Crockery and Glassware

Medicine bottles and perfumes

Childrens' soft leather shoes

Assorted pens, glassware, beads

Here are the four of us with Bob Hawley

Once they began retrieving the contents of the cargo, they realised that salvaging it all and retaining it for historical purposes for the world to share was more important that the money they would get by selling the historical artefacts. When you walk through the museum you get a vivid picture of the tools, foods eaten and clothing worn in the 1800's. There are beads, hatpins, dresses, hats, lamps, pipes, wooden matches, boots, tools, china, perfumes, coffee, tinned oysters, pickles and fruit, with most foods still edible in their preservation liquids. The salvage team not only brought everything up to the top, but they are still relentlessly and painstakingly restoring all the recovered merchandise. An amazing feat. The results can be seen flawlessly displayed in the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City's historic River Market District. A guide briefly talks about the initial history, then a wonderful video continues the story. At the end of the video, Bob Hawley himself came and took questions. Sadly his son Greg (who wrote the book Randy showed us) had died in a car accident in 2009, just a mile from our motel here. If you are ever in Kansas City, don't miss a visit to this Museum. You won't be disappointed! In the gift shop I even found a delightful red cardinal wind chime for my garden back home - yes I know, yet another red cardinal!