aarthrj3811
Gold Member
I was wrong about looking for sunken ships in Kansas.
Uncovering a Sunken Treasure
A Conversation with David and Greg Hawley
In 1988, the Hawley family unearthed a steamboat that had sunk before the Civil War. NEH Chairman Bruce Cole talked with the brothers recently about their change from treasure hunters into preservationists and museum owners.
Bruce Cole: You found a steamship full of treasure, the Arabia, in a cornfield?
David Hawley: In Kansas. A weird place to find it, a buried, sunken shipwreck, in Kansas.
Cole: How did that happen?
DH: Well, the Arabia was on its way, as many steamships were back in the 1850s, bringing supplies and passengers to the frontier. The Arabia carried 222 tons of freight, and, on this trip, 130 passengers, to sixteen towns west of Kansas City. About six or eight miles past Kansas City, it hit a tree. The tree poked a hole in the boat and it sank. The passengers survived. Cargo and freight did not. It sank in the mud and was buried by the sediment that was deposited on it by the river. Over the years, the river changed its course and we found it a half mile from the present course, buried fortyfive feet under a Kansas farm field.
Cole: How did you know where to look?
DH: We read an old newspaper printed at the time. It sank on September 5, 1856. The newspaper said that it sank a mile below a town called Parkville. Parkville is still there today. I bought an old map and I drew the old map onto a new map to see where the river channel had once been. I put a circle on the map and just walked back and forth up and down the cornrows with a metal detector and found the boilers and engines.
Uncovering a Sunken Treasure
A Conversation with David and Greg Hawley
In 1988, the Hawley family unearthed a steamboat that had sunk before the Civil War. NEH Chairman Bruce Cole talked with the brothers recently about their change from treasure hunters into preservationists and museum owners.
Bruce Cole: You found a steamship full of treasure, the Arabia, in a cornfield?
David Hawley: In Kansas. A weird place to find it, a buried, sunken shipwreck, in Kansas.
Cole: How did that happen?
DH: Well, the Arabia was on its way, as many steamships were back in the 1850s, bringing supplies and passengers to the frontier. The Arabia carried 222 tons of freight, and, on this trip, 130 passengers, to sixteen towns west of Kansas City. About six or eight miles past Kansas City, it hit a tree. The tree poked a hole in the boat and it sank. The passengers survived. Cargo and freight did not. It sank in the mud and was buried by the sediment that was deposited on it by the river. Over the years, the river changed its course and we found it a half mile from the present course, buried fortyfive feet under a Kansas farm field.
Cole: How did you know where to look?
DH: We read an old newspaper printed at the time. It sank on September 5, 1856. The newspaper said that it sank a mile below a town called Parkville. Parkville is still there today. I bought an old map and I drew the old map onto a new map to see where the river channel had once been. I put a circle on the map and just walked back and forth up and down the cornrows with a metal detector and found the boilers and engines.
