Still Haven't Visited: Kansas City Seyz Goodbye To Steamboat Arabia

Sorry dudes . . . This one NEVER held any interest from me given that a much younger elementary student TKC was chided for falling asleep during a presentation about the old school boat during it's initial fundraising efforts.

Our favorite Steamboat memory given that we always skipped a tour of the place despite our lifetime residence right here in River City . . . 

Let's not forget the boring museum cancelled a string of really fun C-list hipster concerts in the River Market that were gaining momentum for the neighborhood.  

Recall . . .  

"In April 2012, the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City's River Market forced the cancellation of the outdoor summer concert series due to severe sound vibrations from the music. The museum’s owners reported that the heavy bass shook the building so intensely that fragile, 150-year-old frontier artifacts were rattled off display shelves, and chunks of concrete broke loose from the ceiling, threatening the irreplaceable collection. To protect the world's largest cache of pre-Civil War cargo, city market operators halted large-scale live music events—a restriction that shaped local development for over a decade until the museum's announced relocation departure in late 2026." 

And so . . .

TKC hopes that River Market concerts return now that the boring Steamboat junk fest sinks back into history.  

 Of course we share a much more sentimental note . . . 

“We have told the Steamboat Arabia’s story for 35 years,” Matt Hawley, the museum’s manager, said. “Kansas City has told us they are ready to tell a new story. So we’re trying to find wherever the next chapter is.”

Inside the museum is a 171-foot scale model of the steamboat that sunk 170 years ago in the Missouri River. In 1988, it was recovered by Hawley’s Grandfather, father, uncle and friends. 

After cleaning, polishing and relocating the artifacts into what used to be a vacant warehouse, they built the roof around it and opened the museum in 1991. 

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Fox4KC:  Kansas City to say goodbye to a piece of history after Steamboat Arabia Museum closing