Pipe And Tobacco Artifacts In Kansas City

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jaytex1969

Lifer
Jun 6, 2017
9,517
50,591
Here
We left Texas four days ago for a week in Kansas City. Our itinerary has been rather museum heavy.

Thursday, we visited the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site, a light indoor/outdoor activity to get the ball rolling.

Yesterday, we hit the Negro League Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum, with a heap of KC BBQ in between.

Today, we visited The Arabia Steamboat Museum. This turned out to be a fascinating gem that I'd recommend to anyone.

I suggest you go to the website and get the whole story there, but here are some "Cliff Notes".

In 1856, during the heyday of steamboat travel on the mighty rivers, the Steamboat Arabia went down while heading upriver on the Missouri (The "Mighty Mo", as they called it--"Too thick to drink and too thin to plow")

Steamboats of that era were an important part of the settling of the west and can be likened to interstate travel of today. The Arabia went down with her 200+ TONS of cargo. An, unfortunately common occurrence of the day, she was never recovered.

Fast forward to the 1980's. A series of events motivated a local ensemble to go after finding it. There had been a couple of previous attempts over the decades with unremarkable results.

Using the modern science of the day, the group pinpointed the site. A half a mile inland under a farmer's field, due to the gradual changes in the river's path over 130 years.

The result was the recovery of significant parts of the steamboat, as well as the LARGEST EVER COLLECTION OF INTACT PRE-CIVIL WAR ARTIFACTS.

The fruits of their adventure now are the subjects of the aforementioned museum.

Of particular interest to this crowd, I have a series of photos showing some pipe and tobacco materials recovered.

These steamboats were the lifeline of many merchants surrounding these rivers at the time, so much of the tonnage was mercantile inventory.

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(continued)
 

rmpeeps

Lifer
Oct 17, 2017
1,122
1,765
San Antonio, TX
We left Texas four days ago for a week in Kansas City. Our itinerary has been rather museum heavy.

Thursday, we visited the Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site, a light indoor/outdoor activity to get the ball rolling.

Yesterday, we hit the Negro League Baseball Museum and the American Jazz Museum, with a heap of KC BBQ in between.

Today, we visited The Arabia Steamboat Museum. This turned out to be a fascinating gem that I'd recommend to anyone.

I suggest you go to the website and get the whole story there, but here are some "Cliff Notes".

In 1856, during the heyday of steamboat travel on the mighty rivers, the Steamboat Arabia went down while heading upriver on the Missouri (The "Mighty Mo", as they called it--"Too thick to drink and too thin to plow")

Steamboats of that era were an important part of the settling of the west and can be likened to interstate travel of today. The Arabia went down with her 200+ TONS of cargo. An, unfortunately common occurrence of the day, she was never recovered.

Fast forward to the 1980's. A series of events motivated a local ensemble to go after finding it. There had been a couple of previous attempts over the decades with unremarkable results.

Using the modern science of the day, the group pinpointed the site. A half a mile inland under a farmer's field, due to the gradual changes in the river's path over 130 years.

The result was the recovery of significant parts of the steamboat, as well as the LARGEST EVER COLLECTION OF INTACT PRE-CIVIL WAR ARTIFACTS.

The fruits of their adventure now are the subjects of the aforementioned museum.

Of particular interest to this crowd, I have a series of photos showing some pipe and tobacco materials recovered.

These steamboats were the lifeline of many merchants surrounding these rivers at the time, so much of the tonnage was mercantile inventory.

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(continued)
Spiced Pigs Feet !!
Austin foodies couldn’t resist, bring them back!!
Safe travels, Sir.
 

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
13,140
21,409
77
Olathe, Kansas
Looks like you had a great time. KC has a number of interesting sites but you can't get to them all. Like the WWI Museum, the Truman Library, etc. So much to see and so little time.
 
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mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,433
Finding the sunken riverboat in a farmer's field underground is amazing, but yes the big rivers do meander and wander. Samuel Clemmons/Mark Twain wrote about piloting on the rivers, and how you not only had to memorize the rivers course but equally its continual changes. Those are great artifacts, amazingly well preserved having been underwater and then underground. I like small museums, or relatively small, because they focus on a subject and give a lot of detail. Clemens lost his brother in a riverboat explosion; the boy lived, so Clemens saw him alive, but he died of his injuries soon after. If you stand on the bank of any big river -- the Mississippi, the Ohio, the Missouri -- and watch that vast tonnage of water moving past fast, you can feel the power. As James Dickey, the poet/novelist, said of rivers, they just don't care about you.
 

jaytex1969

Lifer
Jun 6, 2017
9,517
50,591
Here
KC has a number of interesting sites but you can't get to them all. Like the WWI Museum, the Truman Library, etc. So much to see and so little time.

We did spend the entire next day in the WW1 Museum and the complete day after in the Nelson Atkins Art Museum.

Both are WORLD CLASS and I can't recommend them highly enough.


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