In Kansas City in the Farmers
Market area, there is a museum devoted to a steam ship that sank on the Missouri
River back in the 1850s when the Louisiana
Territory was opened for
settlers. My early relative, Dr. Augustus Thorspecken was part of that movement
West.
The Arabia was a steam ship
that was packed full of supplies for the general stores that needed to be
outfitted on the river. When a tree falls in the river, the trunk would sink
and flow down river a bit creating a deadly spear just under the water. The Arabia struck one of these trees and quickly sank. Passengers
rushed to the end of the boat above water. The one life boat was taken by the
crew who quickly paddled away fearing that the water boilers might explode when
they hit the cold water. When the boilers didn’t explode they sheepishly
paddled back and started saving passengers.
The track of the Missouri river
would change each year based of the flooding and flow of silt. A family became
obsessed about finding the wreck which might not actually be in the water
itself. They searched the surrounding land and in a corn field their electro-manometer
found metal as they walked up a row of corn. Each time they hit metal they put
down a flag and soon they had the outline of the steamer.
They got permission to excavate the site and pumped out the
water as they dug below the water level. Old reports showed that the Arabia
had been found once before and the treasure hunters gave up after only finding
a box of boots. The treasure most people hoped for were the many gallons of bourbon
that was being transported in wooden barrels. The booze was never recovered but
inside the ship was like finding the 1850s equivalent of a Wal-Mart. Every day
of the excavation was like Christmas. They found china ware, utensils, clothing,
hardware, and every conceivable daily necessity for life on the frontier. There were
plenty of beads which were intended as trade items with the Indians.
A mule was tied up on the bow of the steamer. An account of
the day said that the owner tried to save the mule but it was so stubborn that
it would not move towards safety. When the ship was found that mule was found
to be still tied to a column of the boat. The more than 100 year old lie was unearthed.
At first the excavators thought they would sell off items to
profit from their find, but then they realized they had to keep the collection
all together as a museum. Only a fraction of the items have been preserved and
they are still conserving items to this day. The family owned a refrigeration
business and that is where everything is stored until it can be preserved. In
an incubator several dozen shoes were being treated and other items were in
storage containers pumped full of nitrogen.
I simply sketched the steamer boats paddle wheel which had
been restored. Original pistons and cylinders powered the wheel. Wandering the
museum I got a good feel for what life on the Midwest
frontier might have been like. This ship that sank and was preserved in the anaerobic
slime has become a true time capsule of what life was like in the 1850s.