Steamboat Arabia

Oldtimers used to say that the Missouri River, or Big Mo as she is known, was too thick to drink and too thin to plow, but the river was a significant gateway in the expansion of the United States to the west. Mighty Mo is a tributary of the Mississippi and begins its flow in Montana at the confluence of the Jefferson and Madison rivers, dumping into the Mississippi just north of St. Louis, MO. Though tens of thousands of hearty settlers navigated its waters, such a journey was fraught with perils at every swirl of her powerful waters. During the expansion years, over 400 steamboats were destroyed by ice jams, succumbed to fire, wind and rocks, with another 300 'snagged' by the most serious of these perils, sunken tree trunks and branches. Without modern day sonar and other equipment, steamboat captains had to depend on sharp eyes and an alert crew, but even with those, a sunken tree could pierce the hull and sink a steamboat in a matter of minutes. The Steamboat Arabia was one of the Mighty Mo's vicitms. Built in 1853, the Arabia was one of Pringle's Boat Builders biggest successes. A relatively safe and luxurious boat compared to most, Arabia travelled the Ohio and Mississippi rivers for Pringle's before being sold in 1855 and moving to the Missouri. Arabia left St. Louis for her final voyage on August 30, 1856 heading for the Town of Kansas, which is modern day Kansas City, Missouri and beyond. After a short stop in Westport, now a community south of downtown KCMO, she left for Parkville, MO and her next stop. Arabia would never arrive in Parkville. Twilight had descended and it was suppertime on the Arabia, September 5th, six days after leaving St. Louis. The waters were calm and the passengers, along with more than 200 tons of cargo bound for the frontier, sailed along in quiet complancency, unaware that disaster loomed just ahead. Suddenly and without warning, a the hulking trunk of a walnut tree, with roots deep in the loamy silt of the river's bott