Day 69 - Merriam to Paxico, Kansas

Well, our landlord just left and we're all paid up and settled into our camp for the evening in the little village of Paxico, Kansas. WHERE, you say? Well, it's about halfway between Topeka and Junction City here in the flat lands of eastern Kansas. We ran into our future camp host while wandering the streets of Paxico, population 211 plus, looking for his camp named Mill Creek. We had pre-anticipated the GPS instructions and turned a tad too quick and he drove up as we were blocking two streets simultaneously while turning around.

As the camp host stopped to let us maneuver on the tiny dirt roads he rolled down his window and, seeing him do that, I rolled down mine. "Can I help you," he asked.

"We just turned too soon," I responded. "We're headed for the camp over there." I pointed behind me.

That's when he smiled and told us that he was the camp host. "Just go on over," he said. "I recommend space number 12. I'll come by after while and see you." And that was that. We could have had our choice of campsites, I suppose, since the park was only about 10% full, but space 12 seemed level enough so we pulled in there. I did have to place blocks to boost the rear end a couple of inches, but on the positive side, we were about thirty feet from the laundry room, which Concetta was excited about since Monday was laundry day.

I looked up Paxico on the web and discovered the following: "Paxico is a city in Wabaunsee County, Kansas. The population was 211 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Topeka, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1887, the Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway built a main line from Topeka through Paxico to Herington. The Chicago, Kansas and Nebraska Railway was foreclosed in 1891 and taken over by Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, which shut down in 1980 and reorganized as Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas Railroad, merged in 1988 with Missouri Pacific Railroad, merged in 1997 with Union Pacific Railroad. Most locals still refer to this railroad as the "Rock Island"."

Paxico has a sort of "wild west" look to the main street and there's several antiques shops to tempt the passersby. Other than that, and possibly a bar or two, I didn't see too much. But the place IS cute, and no mistake. If you happen to be passing by, the camp host here is a great guy, a one-time RVer himself, and he'll treat you right.

But before we get too far into the here and now, let me tell you about this morning. Our main thrust in the early part of the day was to backtrack a few miles east of Kansas City, Kansas and attend a very special museum in Kansas City, Missouri. This time I can't tell you that it's one that I have been wanting to see for several decades, for I had long ago forgotten the article I had read in the National Geographic Explorer about the museum.

I'm not even sure just when I read the article, but events that triggered the magazine piece happened in 1988 and 1989. After extensive research a group of individuals determined that back in 1856 a side-wheeled steamboat had gone down a few miles north of Kansas City and virtually nothing had been salvaged from it. The boat had run into a tree trunk that had become embedded in the river bottom and the solid, immovable stump (photo lower right) had skewered the boat, ripping it's hull below the waterline. The boat with over two hundred passengers and crew sank to the bottom of the Missouri in ten minutes.

Thankfully, the Missouri was not very deep at that point and some of the boat's superstructure projected out of the water. Using a single rowboat, all of the passengers and crew were rescued. A solitary mule was the only fatality in the wreck.

At the time it was reported that some whiskey barrels had been salvaged, but nothing else of value was rescued. The salvage team determined that the course of the Missouri had changed many times before organizations like the Corp of Engineers took steps to keep it on one place. According to the team's research, the steamboat, Arabia, was no longer underwater, but might now be found quite a distance from the river channel in the middle of a farmer's cornfield.

As you might guess, the farmer was contacted and agreed to allow excavation of his field during the winter months when nothing was growing. According to Wikipedia, "In 1987, Bob Hawley and his sons, Greg and David, set out to find the boat. The Hawleys used old maps and a proton magnetometer to figure out the probable location, and finally discovered the Arabia half a mile from the river and under 45 feet (14 m) of silt and topsoil.

The owners of the farm gave permission for excavation, with the condition that the work be completed before the spring planting. The Hawleys, along with family friends Jerry Mackey and David Luttrell, set out to excavate the boat during the winter months while the water table was at its lowest point. They performed a series of drilling tests to determine the exact location of the hull, then marked the perimeter with powdered chalk.

Heavy equipment, including a 100-ton crane, was brought in by both river and road transport during the summer and fall of 1988. Twenty irrigation pumps were installed around the site to lower the water level and to keep the site from flooding. The 65-foot-deep (20 m) wells removed 20,000 US gallons (76,000 l) per minute from the ground.

On November 26, 1988, the boat was exposed. Four days later, artifacts from the boat began to appear, beginning with a Goodyear rubber overshoe. On December 5, a wooden crate filled with elegant china was unearthed. The mud was such an effective preserver that the yellow packing straw was still visible. Thousands of artifacts were recovered intact, including jars of preserved food that are still edible. On February 11, 1989, work ceased at the site, and the pumps were turned off. The hole filled with water overnight."

At first the partners planned on simply selling the fabulously valuable cargo to make back their investment, however once they started recovering the priceless artifacts, they decided to keep the collection intact. They leased a large commercial building basement, large enough to mimic the physical size of the Arabia, which was 171 feet by around forty feet. The building was made of solid concrete and would be a safe place for the priceless collection.

The basement was extensively renovated and glass cases constructed for the collection. Each glass case held "like" items, such as tools or clothing. In addition, there was room for some of the Arabia's machinery, including it's steam boilers, anchor, and a complete section of the stern of the boat.

The entire boat hull was not salvaged in that conservation of the wooden structure would be difficult, and the basement couldn't accommodate it's massive size. Still, one might argue that the hull was the least important of the finds to be displayed, since the Missouri River had long ago carried off the entire superstructure, which included the passenger cabins and the wheel house. The only thing you would have left would be the hull planks and ribs.

Concetta and I were simply astounded with the quality of the displays, the narrative in the display cases, the twenty-minute movie that acquainted us with the discovery process, and the willingness of the staff to answer questions. We were even accompanied for a time by one of the principals, Dave Hawley (photo left), who was just a youngster when he worked with his father on the project. He enthusiastically answered all our questions and spent as much time with us as we needed. We were just so impressed. Dave has written a book, which unfortunately is now out of print. But I was prompt to give Dave my name so that he could let me know when the next printing is available.

Of all the museums, in all the states, that Concetta and I have explored and appreciated, this one just has to be my personal favorite. It's just so unique. Some things, like a shipment of rubber overshoes, have never been found intact before. To gaze upon actual unworn clothes from 1856 was just astounding and exciting. I could have spent the entire day there with no trouble at all.

So, if you're ever in the neighborhood of Kansas City and need something to do for a few hours, you could do no better than paying the Steamboat Arabia Museum a visit. I absolutely GUARANTEE you're going to be as awestruck as we were.