Roger McCoy
(Hover to see captions. Click/tap to enlarge.) The typical riverboat of the nineteenth century had a short life filled with many hazards, and an average life expectancy of only two to five years. The most common hazards were boiler explosions and under-water obstructions such as fallen trees (snags). One thoroughly documented case of the latter was the elegant riverboat, Arabia. The riverboat Arabia began its life in 1853 at a boatyard operated by John Pringle in Pennsylvania. This 171 foot-long riverboat with two side paddles traveled down the Ohio River to St Louis where it began service on the Missouri River. Each river has its hazards, but the Missouri River was known and feared among riverboat pilots for its many snags and submerged bars. On September 5, 1856 this ill-fated riverboat struck a submerged tree and vanished beneath the muddy waters of the Missouri River. Fortunately the 150 passengers and crew made it off the boat safely, but the boat went down and 200 tons of cargo were lost to the muddy river and slowly became buried in the silt. Over the years the river channel meandered and shifted to new positions and left the Arabia buried for more than 130 years. In 1987 a treasure hunter, David Hawley, researched the disaster and decided the steamboat Arabia then lay buried somewhere below a Kansas cornfield west of Kansas City. He was inspired by the possibility of gold and other valuables on the sunken boat. In the winter of 1988 David Hawley, along with his father Bob and brother Greg, decided to excavate to recover any valuables. Years of erosion and shifting channels left the sunken paddleboat 45 feet underground and a half-mile away from the present channel of the Missouri River. The three Hawleys partnered with long-time friend and customer Jerry Mackey, who operated a local fast food chain. Shortly after, the fifth and final member of the team, construction business owner David Luttrell, joined the team—and, together, these five men set out to recover the Arabia’s long lost cargo. As David Hawley pushed through the corn stalks with his metal detector he estimated he was near the middle of what once had been the river's channel. Hawley said he could hardly see where he was going among the tall corn stalks, but he walked back and forth through the field for most of the afternoon when suddenly the chirping of the magnetometer accelerated and he knew he had found the Arabia. Hawley said he suddenly felt excited “like a kid in a candy store.” Hawley, his father and brother had spent years searching for some of the nearly 300 documented sunken Missouri River steamboats hoping to find valuable cargoes of gold or whiskey. They had little to show for their efforts except old, rotted boat timbers and one load of soggy salt pork. But on that afternoon in 1987 they hit a bonanza. After years of searching for wrecks as treasure hunters, the discovery of the Arabia transformed them into archaeologists, fundraisers, and museum builders. During his early research, Hawley found that Arabia had been launched in 1853 on the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania. A newspaper of the time described the boat as a "handsome and staunch packet...furnished throughout with the latest accommodations and improvements for the comforts of the passengers and conveyance of freight.” The Hawleys had also found an 1856 newspaper with an eyewitness account of Arabia's last moments: "There was a wild scene on board," recalled a survivor named Abel Kirk. "The boat went down till the water came over the deck, and the boat keeled over on one side. The chairs and stools were tumbled about and many of the children nearly fell into the water." Amazingly, considering that Arabia sank in less than ten minutes, all 130 passengers and crew survived. The one fatality was a mule tied on deck as the boat sank. Another passenger, J.H. Garside recalled, "We had quite a memorable history in ascending the Missouri River in reaching our destination. The boat Arabia sank just above Kansas City about 6 miles, near Parkville, Missouri at dusk and we were all required to take life boats to reach the Missouri shore and camped there all night until parties from Parkville came down to take us to their town. We stayed there for about 30 days before we could catch a through boat to Nebraska City.” The Parkville newspaper printed an account of the wreck the following day: “On last Friday evening just before nightfall the Missouri River passenger steamer while nearing our city struck a snag which perforated the hull in so serious a manner that she sunk in the short space of ten minutes in twelve feet of water. No lives were lost but the boat and her cargo, which was very large, is a total loss. …We do not know whether the insurance companies will attempt to recover the cargo or not. It would seem to be a hopeless task as the water is now running over her hurricane deck in one or two places where the vessel broke in two. (NOTE: The hurricane deck was the uppermost deck on the boat. The pilot house was often on the hurricane deck.) Hawley’s partner, David Luttrell, owned a construction company and brought bulldozers and a large excavator. The five men were now ready to begin digging in the summer of 1987, but the farmer insisted they wait until the corn was harvested in late September. Finally they began digging in mid-November, working many 12 and 14-hour days, seven days a week. On dry days, sand worked its way into their ears, noses and mouths. During wet weather, the water table rose and they fought mudslides and floods that surged unpredictably out of the spongy, soggy soil. To remove water from the site faster than it seeped in, they installed a system of pumps, each pumping 1,000 gallons per minute. The pumps had to be dismantled to prevent them from freezing at night, then laboriously reassembled the next morning. Bulldozers cut into what had once been the Missouri's channel until they were nearly 30 feet below ground level. On November 30, after 17 days of excavation, one digging machine scraped across a piece of wood. It proved to be Arabia's left paddle wheel. A few days later, the top of a barrel appeared in the ooze. When they pried off the barrel's lid, Hawley reached into the mud and discovered an assortment of fine cups and dishes—exquisite Wedgwood china. Soon the digging crew uncovered thousands of objects in barrels including china, clothing tools and innumerable other items. Aware that exposure to oxygen would quickly destroy fabric and metal alike, the Hawleys stored many items in commercial freezers. Also they rented huge water tanks to store wooden artifacts, including timbers, that needed to be kept in water to prevent shrinking and cracking. In short, everything they found, wood, metal, or fabric needed care to prevent rapid deterioration from exposure to air. In 1991, the Arabia’s cargo was transformed into the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. From fine china and carpentry tools to children’s toys and jars of the world’s oldest pickles, the museum holds an impressive display of Arabia’s artifacts retrieved from the Missouri River, “the river that eats boats.” The collection is a work in progress as preservationists continue to clean tons of artifacts in a preservation lab. The museum of the steamboat Arabia shows a fascinating slice of life in 1850s America.
4 Comments
Molly McCoy
2/20/2023 05:19:16 pm
Ive been to this museum and loved hearing even more info on its history. You always tell a good story, Roger.
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Roger McCoy
2/21/2023 06:55:39 am
Thanks for the nice comment, Molly. I visited that museum sometime in the early nineties, and would love to go again. I'm sure they've added a lot of stuff.
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Norm Hieger
2/27/2023 09:17:05 am
Another good read Roger. It’s amazing how the geography of that river could change n such a relatively short time. Sounds like they must have pretty much destroyed that corn field. I wonder what kind of deal the farmer got?
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Roger McCoy
2/27/2023 10:44:18 am
After the excavation was complete they backfilled the hole and restored the field for next years crop.
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