In 1856, the side-wheel steamboat Arabia hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank with 200 tons of frontier supplies. In 1988, Kansas City treasure hunters dug her out of a cornfield — the river had moved — and found the largest collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in existence.
The Arabia Steamboat Museum in the River Market displays that astonishing cargo: fine china, French perfume, pickles preserved in jars, clothing, tools, guns, and even a complete prefabricated house — all bound for frontier stores and all frozen in time by the river mud.
It feels less like a museum than a department store from 1856 that you can walk through, complete with the salvaged hull timbers, engines and paddlewheel of the boat herself.
Only in Kansas City, where the West began, could a shipwreck become one of America’s most charming museums.
