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Phil Hopkins
Group Travel Editor & Theatre Correspondent
@philhopkinsuk
4:21 AM 4th October 2019
travel

The Character Of Kansas City

 
The phone rang: “I’m just cooking dinner. I’ve got a chilli on the stove.”

“Well turn it off Florence and git yourself down here, now!”

Florence Hawley knew there was an urgency in husband Harland’s voice requiring that she turn the stove down immediately and head to the excavation site. Clearly the team of treasure hunter’s had found something and hubby wanted her to be part of it!

When she arrived Florence could barely believe her eyes.

Harley’s madcap idea to go in search of a paddle steamer sunk on the Missouri River, Kansas City more than a century earlier, had already yielded results – a wooden skeleton of the original Arabia boat…..

From the depths of the Missouri
From the depths of the Missouri
…….but what they didn’t expect to find was the largest pre American Civil War collection of artefacts ever discovered in the US…..and there was Harland and his crew lifting it out of the muddy ground piece by piece!



Now, 31 years later, the Arabia Steamboat Museum in Kansas City is not only one of the Mid West’s centrepiece museums, but also a breath-taking treasure trove from that period in history when the Wild West was still being won, and pioneers were fighting Indians as they crossed virgin territory from New York to California.

Hundreds of boots, shoes, clothes, jars of still intact pickles, knives, and thousands of other artefacts, make up this beautifully curated museum close to the River Market area and, after you have watched a 15 minute video re-telling the original excavation story, the man himself walks in: Harland Hawley, more than three decades older and 65 years married, but no less enthusiastic about his amazing find all those years earlier.

The find that left American historians open-mouthed
The find that left American historians open-mouthed
“We began with a $50,000 budget,” he tells his incredulous audience, “but we ended up spending around $1.5m although we got it back within 10 years,” he reassures. “I can talk about the numbers,” he quips, “because my wife isn’t here!”

Florence was upstairs in the gift shop dusting the fridge magnets and talking to her ultra-polite cashier.

Still very much a family affair, the Arabia Steamboat Museum is not only home to a unique kind of treasure but, without doubt, also has to be one of the finest jewels in Kansas City’s tourist crown.



“Kansas City is in Missouri,” explained Blake, a 30 year old historian we had met on our return from two other amazing finds: the American Jazz Museum and The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum at 18th and Vine, once the hub of the city’s jazz scene and the primary area for blacks when segregation was at its height.

The American Jazz Museum
The American Jazz Museum
“So, let me get this right Blake. Kansas City isn’t the capital of Kansas State?”

“No, the state capital is Topeka. We are in Kansas City, Missouri, and the state capital here is Jefferson City. However, Kansas State is just a few miles down the road.”

Clearly this was a ‘border’ town but we decided to take Blake at his word. Way too complicated for an incomer!

Our coffee meeting had taken place after a brief stroll earlier that afternoon to 18th and Vine. There hadn’t been much to see en-route other than a few shops and bars but, once at the historic junction just across from the impressive YMCA building, the area’s segregated history had revealed itself.

18th and Vine- home of the US Jazz Scene
18th and Vine- home of the US Jazz Scene
Jazz, in the 1930’s and 40’s, had very much been the preserve of blacks and Charlie Parker’s distinctive brand of swinging blues, inspired and honed by his mentor, alto saxophonist Henry ‘Buster’ Smith, remained dominant in the locality, so much so that a memorial now stood in his honour.

But there had been deep rooted anger amongst the negro community, which remained segregated to the point that they even had to set up their own baseball leagues because they were barred from playing in the Major ‘white’ leagues, a story told beautifully, but shockingly, in The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Over coffee Blake later proved himself invaluable in filling in the Kansas City blanks.

“Walt Disney spent much of his youth and young adult years in KC founding the Laugh-O-Gram Studio and taking his original inspiration for Mickey Mouse from the area.

"The outlaw Jesse James was born and raised just outside Kansas City and is buried on the family farm in Kearney, and we are also the geographic centre of the US. Just for good measure, Friz Freleng the animator and cartoonist who developed such iconic characters as Bugs Bunny and Tweety for Looney Tunes, was also from Kansas.”

Kansas City was also one of the biggest gangster centres during Prohibition and even 1930’s radio announcer, Edward R. Morrow once made the comment: “If you want to see some real sin go to Kansas City!”

Blake was not only a history graduate but a mine of information about his hometown…..and slim….which was quite an achievement in this part of the world where cars were king, as well as a necessity, and portions large; not entirely a good mix!



The following day it was a collective decision to walk the five miles from our 12th Street Hotel Phillips, built in 1929 and an art deco museum in its own right…..



….to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, a breathtakingly good gallery not far from the equally beautiful shopping area at Country Club Plaza. No Rednecks just Renoir, Monet and Hopper! How in God’s name had a Mid-West gallery acquired such an amazing collection and built such an incredible gallery in which to house it…..and it was all free with its Rozzelle Court restaurant modelled in the dramatic style of a 15th-century Italian courtyard!

Dining Spanish Style
Dining Spanish Style
The answer was in the building’s name.

Kansas City’s amazing gallery arose from the instincts and ambitions of two private individuals who shared the dream of providing a public art museum for the city and its surrounding region.

William Rockhill Nelson, founder of The Kansas City Star, was convinced that for a city to be truly civilized, art and culture were necessities so, when he died in 1915, the bulk of his estate was used to establish the William Rockhill Nelson Trust for the purchase of works of art.

Kansas City school teacher Mary McAfee Atkins had similar aspirations. She provided the city with approximately one-third of her million-dollar estate to purchase the land for a public art museum.

The Nelson estate was combined with Mary Atkins’ legacy to build an art museum for the people of Kansas City. The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and the Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts opened to the public Dec. 11, 1933.



“They’re lifting an old air conditioning unit out of the hotel and hoisting a new one into place,” said he chap with long grey hair as we ogled the huge plant machinery parked adjacent to our breakfast coffee bar.

He was an architect from Austin, Texas, in town to visit his parents. The entire street had been shut off so that huge lifting machines could be moved into place.

“They’ll have to cut a hole in the building’s roof and lift the old machine out before the new one can go in,” he added wistfully.

The building being surgically operated on was high, very high, so tall that only lots of construction workers with lots of machines, a big budget and road closures could ever successfully complete the task in hand. Leeds this was not!

Minutes earlier, as I had been waiting in the queue for coffee and croissants, ‘Sly’ had walked into the coffee bar. I knew he was called Sly because we had introduced ourselves as we salivated over the morning food options.

“Love the dickie bow,” I opened.

“Why thank you,” he replied. We exchanged more pleasantries before he asked a question. “How do you like our city?”

“Love it,” I said.

“That’s great,” replied my new friend, before sidling away to join his business colleague. “I’m the city’s outgoing mayor. Glad you’re having fun. Have a great day!”

As my mum would have said, I was ‘tickled pink!’ Thank the Lord I had given the correct answer!



Breakfast barely over and building gazing all but done, it was time for another meal! The Power & Light District adjacent to the Sprint Center arena music venue – a myriad of bars and fast food eateries – provided us with enough nourishment and energy to take the free Main Street tram to the National WW1 Museum & Memorial but not before our server, Mary, had given us her take on the local economy.

Sprint Center close to Power & Light
Sprint Center close to Power & Light
“I am a trained nurse assistant which pays about $25,000 a year, however, as a bar worker I earn around $50,000 a year so I have a good life, even if it does involve 75 hour working weeks in Summer and quiet periods in the Winter.”

I mused to myself that the girl we had met earlier at Harry’s Country Club was also a big earner. She was covered from ankle to neck in tattoos. “I’m only 25,” she had told me, “and still work in progress. I have spent $18,000 on tats so far.” She made me looked distinctly pale with her peacock colours!


The WW1 Museum with its Liberty Memorial Tower at 217ft, was magnificent and largely staffed by volunteers, whilst it’s tower provided visitors with magnificent views of not only Kansas City but its magnificent Union Station building where two adverts for Stonehenge and Genghis Khan exhibitions greeted September visitors.

An army of ‘docents’ – knowledgeable, well-trained guides – had been showing us around so, after a couple of hours, we were ready for lunch at Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue, housed in a former train warehouse at 101 W 22nd Street just behind Union, and voted among the best of its type in the country.

With meat, meat and meat on the menu, it came as no surprise that the Greek Salad vegetarian option arrived with feta cheese and meat: lashings of turkey slices!

Jack Stack Barbecue
Jack Stack Barbecue
Twenty four hours later, and after recovering from the shock of our turkey onslaught, we found ourselves standing in the middle of the concourse at Union, gobsmacked by its stunning architecture and sheer scale.

Early for our train, we were able to take the lift to the first floor which affords visitors the chance to view the concourse from above, whilst enjoying an amazing exhibition re-telling the story of the station’s history: its trains, its gangster connections and author, Ernest Hemingway’s relationship with both Union and Kansas City.

This was a fascinating part of our 18 day coast to coast trip by train and so totally different to both New York and Chicago.

It was time to head for Flagstaff in Arizona and, with a 22 hour train journey ahead, we began our short walk to the platform and the awaiting ‘Southwest Chief’, a huge loco that would be ferrying us through the night to our next destination. The adventure continued.

Fact Box
Arabia Steam Museum – www.1856.com
American Jazz Museum – www.americanjazzmuseum.org
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum - www.nlbm.com
Kansas City Power & Light District – www.powerandlightdistrict.com
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art – www.nelson-atkins.org
Country Club Plaza – www.countryclubplaza.com
The National WW1 Museum & Memorial – www.theworldwar.org
Fiorella’s Jack Stack Barbecue - www.jackstackbbq.com
Phillips Hotel, Kansas City - www.curiocollection3.hilton.com

For more information on the breadth of experiences found across the USA, please visit www.visittheusa.co.uk