Arabia Steamboat Museum Looking for New Home

jerry12 · Post by **jerry12** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:05 pm

How about getting the records of who contributed to the original Bi State. Then assess them in proportion to their contributions for the new museum. They should be held accountable for their orignal screw job. If enough public pressure is put on these "civic minded" they might anty up.

Post by **dangerboy** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:13 pm

jerry12 wrote:How about getting the records of who contributed to the original Bi State. Then assess them in proportion to their contributions for the new museum. They should be held accountable for their orignal screw job. If enough public pressure is put on these "civic minded" they might anty up.

What do you mean "who contributed" ? Bistate was a sales tax, so everyone in the metro contributed at least a little money. It's not clear who you are talking about.

jerry12 · Post by **jerry12** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 3:02 pm

Those who contributed a million dollars to con citizens into throwing 250 mil down a black hole. They knew from the start the museum would fail. Had they not lied to us Science City would never have been built. There is probably no chance Union Station will ever be anything but a drain on taxpayers. David Ucko said it would fail and then they blamed him when it did.

No matter what is done with the building it probably needs a 100 mil endowment. (They blew the original 100 mil endowment on operations) This 100 mil should come from the Hallmark and all the others who are responsible for this fiasco. They have the funds, now pay up.

KCPowercat · Post by **KCPowercat** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 3:14 pm

Wow....I'd guess Jerry12 is in a bad mood today? Let's keep this topic on the Arabia, not Science City.

knucklehead · Post by **knucklehead** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:42 pm

Jerry seems to be under the misimpression that taxpapers have pumped $250 million into science city. Where people get ideas like that is beyond me.

The bi-state only funded the restoration of the building. The Bi-state collected about 120 million for that. The building has been restored beautifully.

The science city / union station combination was always something of a "shotgun marriage". Most people understood that a science museum was a poor fit for a historic building.

For me (and I think a lot of people), the primary objective was restoring the building. Tearing down Union Station would have been horrible and the fact that the building had stood vacant for 20 years was a sad embarassing statement about civic pride. I saw the science museum as a vehicle for getting the station restored and somewhere for school kids to go on field trips.

Given the quality of the restoration, and the development occuring around Union Station, with the potential for solid revenue streams from renting ground to the IRS and others, I think the Union Station Bi-state still looks like a good deal.

I don't know what was spent on solely the science city part of the project. I suspect about $40 to $50 million. Jerry and people like him pretend we sunk $250 million in the science museum itself and then act like it was a huge rip off. The problem is their premise is bogus. Science City was a small part of the overall money that was spent.

FangKC · Post by **FangKC** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 5:58 pm

It would be great to dig up an actual riverboat and display it at Union Station along with artifacts. I think there should be an effort to set up an endowment to fund the excavation of the riverboat. Revenue from the Arabia Museum is probably not sufficient enough to do it right now.

Highlander · Post by **Highlander** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:22 pm

FangKC wrote:It would be great to dig up an actual riverboat and display it at Union Station along with artifacts. I think there should be an effort to set up an endowment to fund the excavation of the riverboat. Revenue from the Arabia Museum is probably not sufficient enough to do it right now.

I visited the Arabia Museum this summer for the first time. I thought it was excellent. I was encouraged by the size of the crowd willing to pay the rather steep price. I did not think midwesterners were that into museums.

They mentioned that they had identified and potentially located other steamboats in the Missouri River floodplain but did not have the funds or energy to recover them at this time. As for displaying a restored steamboat in the station, could be a nice exhibit for the North Waiting room. The top tourist attraction in Sweden is an old warship dug out of the mud of Stockholm harbor, restored and now spectucularly displayed in the Vasa Museum....here are pics from a random website I found... http://orbit.bitpla.net/fotos/sweden2003/vasa/
Kind of what the north waiting room might look like with a restored steamboat.

I think it would be great to put the Steamship Arabia museum in Union Station. I doubt if I would ever visit it again if it went to Independence (I just don't have any reason to go out there). I could see a problem developing though if US management tried to run roughshod over the Arabia owners. The latter seem to know what they are doing and should be allowed to plan and execute any museum as they see fit.

FangKC · Post by **FangKC** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 11:11 pm

That's a neat museum Highlander.

I grew up not far from the Missouri River in NW Missouri. There is a buried steamboat a couple of miles south of the town where we lived. It's buried in a field that sits where a former channel of the river ran before it changed course. In the summers, I used to work in that field pulling weeds or detassling corn, and I used to think it would be cool to dig it up. I couldn't understand why someone hadn't. If I had been the farmer who owned the field, I don't think I could have sat by year-afther-year knowing it was there. I would have had bulldozers and heavy shoveling equipment digging around it. But that's just me.

pash · Post by **pash** » Sat Oct 15, 2016 11:04 pm

miz.jordan17 · Post by **miz.jordan17** » Sun Oct 16, 2016 11:24 am

pash wrote:The Star: New treasure awaits Steamboat Arabia crew

The gist of it is that the people behind the Arabia museum are probably finally going to begin a full excavation of another sunken steamboat next year. They've needed more exhibit space for years, and will need still more if they dig up what they think they will, so they're looking for a new home—which they've casually been doing for more than a decade, as this thread and several others attest.

Seems like a site near Berkley Park is the obvious choice. It would be fantastic to have a new museum right behind the levee, with a streetcar stop out front, and maybe a repro historic steamboat floating on the Missouri just yards away. ... And the museum's departure from the River Market could invite a much needed redevelopment of the City Market and environs.

I think there was an earlier article that said the city of Parkville was trying to lure it there and that the owner was considering seriously.

JLowe2018 · Post by **JLowe2018** » Sun Oct 16, 2016 12:59 pm

miz.jordan17 wrote:
pash wrote:The Star: New treasure awaits Steamboat Arabia crew

The gist of it is that the people behind the Arabia museum are probably finally going to begin a full excavation of another sunken steamboat next year. They've needed more exhibit space for years, and will need still more if they dig up what they think they will, so they're looking for a new home—which they've casually been doing for more than a decade, as this thread and several others attest.

Seems like a site near Berkley Park is the obvious choice. It would be fantastic to have a new museum right behind the levee, with a streetcar stop out front, and maybe a repro historic steamboat floating on the Missouri just yards away. ... And the museum's departure from the River Market could invite a much needed redevelopment of the City Market and environs.
I think there was an earlier article that said the city of Parkville was trying to lure it there and that the owner was considering seriously.

Yes, Parkville is working very hard with museum to get it to locate in the city. I've spoken with the mayor and the museum's main site selector and they have a site they are planning on. It's highly likely they will locate in Parkville.

pash · Post by **pash** » Sun Oct 16, 2016 1:29 pm

Post by **smh** » Thu Oct 27, 2016 5:05 pm

I have heard Arrow Rock mentioned a few times (mostly by people living out that direction). I simply don't see that happening if the goal is for people to view the contents of the museum.

flyingember · Post by **flyingember** » Thu Oct 27, 2016 5:39 pm

smh wrote:I have heard Arrow Rock mentioned a few times (mostly by people living out that direction). I simply don't see that happening if the goal is for people to view the contents of the museum.

Fine town, if they want a river site put it in Jeff City.

grovester · Post by **grovester** » Thu Oct 27, 2016 7:14 pm

Arrow Rock has a lot of money. Just sayin'.

Post by **smh** » Fri Oct 28, 2016 9:10 am

grovester wrote:Arrow Rock has a lot of money. Just sayin'.

Tell me more...

bbqboy · Post by **bbqboy** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 9:03 pm

I have ancestors buried at Arrow Rock. I didn't know it was a happening place. Cool!

grovester · Post by **grovester** » Mon Oct 31, 2016 9:20 pm

Rich folk, a lot from kc with second homes. Enough cash to fund a theater that brings national talent. No idea if they would want it, but if there was an historical connection I could see it being a cause.

moderne · Post by **moderne** » Fri May 27, 2022 2:46 pm

Looks almost certain KC will lose this attraction to St. Charles.

Post by **DaveKCMO** » Fri May 27, 2022 3:11 pm

moderne wrote: ↑Fri May 27, 2022 2:46 pm Looks almost certain KC will lose this attraction to St. Charles.

https://cityscenekc.com/steamboat-arabi ... t-charles/

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