Sunken steamboat found after 175 years

MALTA BEND, Mo. -- A group of excavators has found the 175-year-old sunken steamboat Malta, the namesake of the rural city of Malta Bend.

The Columbia Missourian reported a white outline, 140 feet long and 22 feet wide, marks the area where the steamboat Malta is buried.

David Hawley, the leader of the steamboat recovery process, has been searching for steamboat wrecks up and down the Missouri River for more than 30 years.

He has found 11 and dug up two.

The steamboat Malta sank in the Missouri River in 1841 on its way to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Hawley said a sample of earth in February showed black-and-red wool and window glass. He added more samples need to be taken to determine what the steamboat holds.

"If we find beads or pipes, we're off to the races," he said.

He said he'd like to combine whatever artifacts the team finds with those at the Arabia Steamboat Museum, a collection that resulted from his discovery of the steamboat Arabia near Kansas City in 1987.

He said he compared maps of the Malta Bend area over time before he started looking himself.

With a present-day map, he drew a grid to track miles of walking with a metal detector.

Hawley said if the Malta is excavated, it will be in the winter, because cold air preserves artifacts better than warm air.