Jan 17, 2015 1 min read

The Senator John Heinz History Center recently ended an exhibit of numerous items from steamboat Arabia. It sank on the lower Missouri River in 1856. A group found it in a cornfield – the river meandered – and it was excavated. They opened a museum in Kansas City dedicated to it in 1991.

The exhibit at the Heinz History Center contained cargo borrowed from the museum. It was advertised in their publication, on radio stations, and newspapers as “Pittsburgh’s Lost Steamboat Treasures.” Brownsville is mentioned later; however, the major headlines emphasized Pittsburgh.

I remonstrated, to no avail.

However, as if often the case, there is an irony with this issue. The Arabia was actually built, as were hundreds of steamboats unknown to the Heinz History Center in West Brownsville. Brownsville is indicated in the records because that’s where the banks and engine manufacturers were located.

John Kent Folmar

California

Folmar is the president of Monongahela River Buffs.