Steamboat Arabia Museum - Kansas City

The visit to this museum warrants a blog all to itself.

Having gone down and remaining hidden for more than 132 years, the Steamboat Arabia is the largest EVER find of Pioneer era, fully stocked, loaded, and preserved cargo.

The use of space on this cargo boat, the sheer volume of supplies, and the condition which they remain today will blow your mind!  The Arabia was headed up river on a quest to supply tiny pioneering village general stores with the last full winter's supply of homegoods, winter clothing, tools, canned food, china, and everything to fulfill the requirements of daily pioneer life.  Another boat was not scheduled to restock the villages again until spring so every centimeter of the cargo hold was used wisely.

Thousands upon thousands of brand new items came alive after being recovered from where the steamboat was found, in a farmer's field.  In time, the river changed couse from where it sunk and the steamboat was hidden from view.