Arabia Steamboat Museum

Don't be scared away by the price of admission ($17 for an adult) -- this is a wonderful unique experience that is worth the cost! Purchase your tickets at the register in the gift shop, and then proceed into the museum. The first part of the experience is a series of 5 min long videos and then a longer video in a theater. Some of the information is repetitive, but you will learn a lot! I loved getting both the history of the Arabia Steamboat and the story of the excavation! What a unique and impressive story of a local family of adventurers! After the theater, you are treated to massive displays of all of the artifacts found on the ship! And one of the family members who owns the museum and did the excavation was even walking around to answer questions! It was so cool to get personal stories and specific details from him directly! There are two preservation areas where you can watch live as employees preserve clothing and other artifacts! It's not a huge museum, so you can get through it in probably 1-2 hours. You will have to make use of paid lots or limited River Market street parking.

During a long weekend getaway, I visited the Steamboat Arabia Museum inKansas City, Missouri (USA).In 1856, the Arabia was sailing in the Missouri River, but hit a log and sank.The passengers and crew survived, but the 200-ton frontier cargo disappeared in the river.Trade used to occur along the Missouri River, where Steamboats were critical to its success, supplying both domestic and foreign goods to the different companies.Sharing a few treasures recovered from the Arabia's cargo in 1988 that can be found in the museum. I actually did a self tour which was indeed rewarding and knowledgeable.

This is a very neat museum with some KC history. I would recommend! We enjoyed all of the artifacts and videos explaining everything. It doesn't take a long time to go through, maybe an hour. Admission prices are reasonable. Plus, it's located in the City Market, so other shops right there.

I enjoyed the visit here- if you are into history from this period, it is an hour well spent. While they don't have too much of the ship itself on display, they have a great collection of 19th century goods they excavated that was really interesting, and they do a good job of telling the story of what happened. My 10 year old enjoyed it as well.

Here are two reasons to visit the "Arabia Steamboat Museum": (1) The Arabia was a steamboat that was loaded with merchant cargo when it sank. They didn't recover single specimens of artifacts; they recovered whole inventories of trade goods. And the presentation of recovered artifacts is very good; so is contextualization.(2) "Are the days of the museum at City Market numbered?" I read a couple of newspaper articles (online). The museum announced in 2019 that it planned to move when its lease expired in 2026. The museum had signed a letter of intent to move from Kansas City to St Charles--but that plan fell through (Dec-2022).The reason I would not visit this museum again--or suggest skipping this attraction: The entry fee for an adult was $17.98. I went through the museum in about 30 minutes. I had never been to Kansas City before. This was my first visit--maybe it's my last visit. I had a long list of things I wanted to do and places I wanted to visit: The National WWI Museum; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, etc. I do not regret visiting this museum. I just don't think a got a lot of bang for my buck.BTW .. "City Market" provides up to 2-hours of free parking. I believe that the parking lot uses a license plate reader to keep tabs on vehicles entering and exiting the parking lot, and that is how they keep track of how long you have been in the parking lot.

We loved our visit!Kids ages 6, 9 and 11 - there was something for everyone. Lots of videos kept their attention. Plenty of pictures to look at, not to mention the artifacts to see!The story of the Arabia Steamboat, and the American spirit at that time, is beautiful. There are shops and restaurants all around for after your museum experience.

I drove by this place 3 times before I finally saw it. It's in the city market area and I was too busy looking at all the shops and restaurants to see the big sign! I think parking is free, at least I parked right on front and didn't see anything telling me to pay. The museum is on the lower level. I paid upstairs and walked down the ramp. There are 4 video stations along the way telling the story of the ship and the guys that excavated it. The displays were pretty basic, even when I got to the lower level and saw the skeleton of the stern. You then go in to a small theater and watch a 14 minute movie that was a little redundant. Then you exit the theater and WOW! They have display room after display room of all the stuff they recovered. I've never seen anything like it. It is like they have all of the in tact inventory of a large department store from 150 years ago. Just about everything families in the west would need was well displayed. I can't imagine there is a collection like this anywhere else in the country. An employee told me that less than half of the collection is displayed. After the display they have the restoration area and you can see what some of the items look like before they are restored. There are more displays about the people who excavated the ship, the snag that sunk the ship, the boiler, the paddle wheel and the skeleton of the only casualty of the sinking. All in all a marvelously complete story is told. I was very impressed.

This is a terrific museum about the recovery of a mid 19th century steamboat. The storytelling is great, and there is an amazing collection of artifacts, due to the fact that the ship was perfectly preserved in 45 feet of mud for 150 years. It represents the largest collection of pre-Civil War artifacts anywhere. Highly recommended.

I am not a big museum type of guy but I had a free day at a medical conference I was attending and decided to go learn about the steamboat era. In my opinion this is a must visit attraction while in Kansas City, especially for those that want to see what the settlers used to build their new homes and protect themselves pre-Civil War. To top it all off David Hawley was sharing his stories to any of the visitors that wanted to listen. Fascinating how they discovered this steamboat 150 years after it was lost in the great Missouri River.

Took my kids here because it was raining and cold, and we needed something indoors. I'm so glad I did! Both my 12yr old and my 7yr old really enjoyed listening, seeing, and learning about the history of trading and steamboats in American history. They talked about this place for a couple days after we left, so I know it made a nice educational impression on them, which as a homeschooling mom, I live for!