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Shipwreck · Excavated (museum)

Steamboat Arabia

Sank 1856 · excavated 1988, Buried cornfield near Kansas City, KS
RECOVERED
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Steamboat Arabia: still unexplained.

200 tons of preserved 1850s cargo

The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
200 tons of preserved 1850s cargo
The account

The shifting Missouri River buried her 45 ft under a cornfield. Excavated in 1988, the largest pre-Civil War artifact collection in the world.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on Buried cornfield near Kansas City, KS.
  • What you are chasing is 200 tons of preserved 1850s cargo. Work the documented record of Steamboat Arabia back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Confirm who owns and governs Buried cornfield near Kansas City, KS and get written permission before any search; treat protected or archaeological ground as off limits.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • Pin down the most specific last-known position in the record before going; the search centers on Buried cornfield near Kansas City, KS.
  • What you are chasing is 200 tons of preserved 1850s cargo. Work the documented record of Steamboat Arabia back to primary sources and separate what is attested from folklore.
  • Confirm who owns and governs Buried cornfield near Kansas City, KS and get written permission before any search; treat protected or archaeological ground as off limits.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 39.210°, -94.710° (approx.) View on the Map