Steamboat Arabia Museum

Got family? And maybe some guests who need a different type of winter day outing? Try visiting the Kansas City River Market. It is open year round, but in case the outdoor produce stalls arent quite full, step inside the Arabia Steamboat Museum, just east of the Market. This amazing site will capture your familys attention young and old alike.

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400 Grand Blvd.

Kansas City, MO

816.471.1856

www.1856.com

Got family? And maybe some guests who need a different type of winter day outing? Try visiting the Kansas City River Market. It is open year round, but in case the outdoor produce stalls arent quite full, step inside the Arabia Steamboat Museum, just east of the Market. This amazing site will capture your familys attention young and old alike.

The 25,000 square foot museum tells the story of how an adventurous local family located and recovered a 130+-year-old steamboat from the Missouri River. The Arabia Steamboat carried passengers and freight to the Western frontier during the mid-1800s. And, like many, the Arabias paddlewheel caught a tree snag and sank along the nearly impassable Missouri River in 1856.

The notion of pristine treasure buried beneath the river where David Hawley and his family spent much of their youth still intrigued them as adults, and finally convinced them to research and unearth the Arabia in 1987. Initially, their plans were to sell whatever treasure was found in the farm field along I-635. However, when they realized they had unearthed a unique collection of historic frontier artifacts, the family established the Museum to preserve and display their findings.

Set against the backdrop of an operating 28-foot paddlewheel and a 6-ton stern section of the boat, visitors learn about the Arabias history in a guided tour and video presentation. Ours concluded with a visit from David Hawley, who shared the familys commitment to this project and fielded questions about the mystery behind many of the objects. Then, we walked back in time. The glass-covered displays with frontier motifs help place the objects in context, yet the shear number of everyday items, ranging from pickles and ketchup to rubber shoes, sewing supplies, precious jewelry and porcelain dolls, is nothing short of amazing, or awwwesome, as the younger visitors would say. For the technological visitor, there are hundreds of tools and equipment on display as well as a working preservation lab, where visitors watch artifacts being prepared for preservation. The vast freeze-dryer stabilizes artifacts awaiting treatment and is an interesting link to the familys original business, refrigeration.

After viewing the cargo, you can stand on a full-sized reproduction of the boats main deck with its original boilers and steam engine. Murals recreate the steamboat passengers view of early Kansas City and its surrounding communities. As you peruse the deck, relive the Arabias excavation through a photographic display and view a timeline of other buried steamboats. In this historic setting, Kansas Citys rich history came alive at least for an afternoon. Plus, you cant help wondering about all those other steamboats. What lies awaiting the next excavators? Will it be you?

All Aboard!

Hours: Visit the Arabia Steamboat Museum Monday Saturday, 10 a.m. 5 p.m.;

Sunday 12 5 p.m.

Admission: Purchase tickets in the gift shop. Adults $12.50, Seniors $11.50,

Children $ 4.75. Groups of 25 or more are $10.50 per person.

Tours leave every 30 minutes from the gift shop. Allow approximately 1-1.5 hours to visit the Museum and gift shop.

Group Tours: Student and Youth Tours are available by appointment; the guided tours are recommended for ages 8 & up (groups of 20 at $4.75/child or $7.50/child for an interactive program). Middle school students can participate in a three-hour interactive program that includes cleaning artifacts for $9.75/child.