On the very back, the rudder. The tiller arm coming from the city would go upstairs to the pilothouse and as the wheel would be turned, it would pull the rope, turn the arm, turn the rudder, and help steer the rope. Travelers traveled on the main deck. The passengers aboard, 150 of them, were terrified. They were not great swimmers, nor were they dressed to swim. They escape by running to the top of the boat as it rank. With a lifeboat, bringing them to shore, they all arrived. No one died, but they lost all the freight. The 18 50s of the Missouri River was called the golden age of the steamboat. A vote withself on your family, 1856. You are on your way west. The wood deck you see here was the size of the arabia. 171 feet long, 30 feet wide. Wheels. Two date paddle standing on the deck looking across the Missouri River, that is where the river traveler of 1856 would see kansas city, main, the warehouse along the riverfront. Riginal would the wheel we rebuilt turns just as you see, one on the left and one on the right. Between 300 and 400 steamboats have sunk on this river. No one knows for sure how many. This map here shows you. St. Louis to the far right and kansas city to the far left. The name on this river map are that came here over the many years to vote traveled. Beginning in 1820. They have been sinking ever since. We are now in one of the larger galleries of the artifact collection. We have divided our collection up into different groups housewares, tin ware, fabrics, and so forth. We are now in the house works section of the museum. You are seeing behind me all of these, and a lot of these things could not be made yet in the states. A lot of this was imported. For example, the dishes mostly came from england. The flatware, the dishes, the knives, forks, and all that came from england with the name sheffield on there. From all around the world, things came west on steamboats. Frontierourself on the having paid your money and you expect the steamboat to arrive any day and you discover all of this has been lost and you are not going to get it, and it will not be sold in stores, and your personal things are gone. Im sure it was a really bad day for those people, but it allowed us to keep these collections. These have not been used. The dishes you are seeing here have never had any food ever on them. Theres no march marks or scratches. They are pristine. And they are big platters. It is remarkable to see. It is like stepping back in time, really, to imagine that on the frontier. When i think of the frontier, i do not think of beautiful, spectacular dishes like we are seeing. Tinware. Of 10 where andas winter, it was cold, that was ok. We wanted it to be that way. Very steep to allow us to get down to the boat very quickly, but it was all soft sand. It was not at all stable, but in the cold winter nights and cold winter days, the water would freeze, and the strength of that allowed it to be safe enough for us to be down in the hole, but it was very much a race against time because we had to finish this did before it starts to get warm. First of march, this all starts to thaw, and the banks begin to cavein and it is no longer safe to be there. Not many weeks later, it would not have been a good place to be. While most of the artifacts coming back into the cold temperatures of the winter days and nights were better protected because of that, the dishes you see here were not. They would absorb enough of the moisture, being in the water for so long, that to expose them to the cold temperatures would allow them to freeze and to break. Whenever you found dishes, quickly, you ran from the dig where you found them to bring them into a warm and heated trailer to keep them protected. From there, we would transport them back and clean them at night. We dug during the daytime. We arrived back at 8 00 and from 8 00 until midnight, we washed and froze and refroze things. Not the dishes or the iron, but all the organics. The leather. The artifacts we have not yet cleaned or frozen still to this day the artifacts we have not yet cleaned our frozen still to this day. Ton of the hardest things do, not particularly because it is so technical, but mostly because it is so tedious, you take these shoes we found from the earth, and the cotton had dissolved. They are being held now wholly together because of the mud they are packed in. You have to gather together the shoe. We wash and separate and clean the leather, put it back esew all thein and r trim and panels and once reassembled, it goes into the panel and then the freeze dryer. Four months later, it is ready for display. Four months per shoe, and we found about 4000 shoes. We are only about half done with the shoes. Growing up as a kid, photography became a hobby. Then a lifelong passion. Love to do it. Still to this day. One day at the dig, we found a box, opened it up, filled with bottles. Hes had a different high filling each had a different high filling eight had a different each had a filling, so fresh you could have made a pie. A big box larger than all the rest, when opening up the door, turned out it was not a cargo box. It was an ice box where they kept the food cold. Tray. Nd this big copper the leftovers from the last dinner eaten on the boat the day that it sinks. This was the dinner serving tray they carried the food. Supper the arabias last. 80 miles east of here, there is a boat laying in the earth much like the arabia called the malta. In september 1841. Its cargo is different. It was working for the American Fur Company out in st. Louis. On this boat for indian trade goods going up the river. Some things are getting off in kansas city, going overland across along the santa fe trail on the southeast corner. We did a course ample of the boat last year to confirm that there was cargo that was still good on it. You could feel the drill cut through the top of the boat and we went three feet down inside of it to capture whatever we would find their and we found 150 gold buttons, ceramics, black and red wool fabrics and even chunks of lard. It will be a remarkable collection. Is a remarkable collection. It would be hard to imagine anything better than that. I would not say that the next boat or the next would be better. It will be different. It will be from a different time period, and its cargo will be every bit as revealing and is awesome. Our cities tour staff recently traveled to kansas city, missouri, to learn about its rich history. Learn more about kansas city and ater stops on our chore next on history bookshelf, James Robbins talks about his book the real custer on the life and military career of general george custer. Custersns recounts childhood and formative years as well as his time in battle from the civil war to his defeat at the battle of little bighorn. We recorded this event in 2014 at the Hudson Library and Historical Society in hudson, ohio. James i would like to thank all the Hudson Library team. It has been great meeting some of you in the audience. It is great to be out of the beltway. Ohio, alsoer is from grant, sheridan, sherman all have ohio roots