Heinz History Center exhibit highlights steamboats built in Pittsburgh | KD Sunday Spotlight

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- We may be known as the Steel City, but did you know Pittsburgh was once famous for building historic steamboats that made their way out west?

"In the 1850s, Pittsburgh was the gateway to the west," Heinz History Center CEO Andy Masich said. "Steamboats were built here and then steamed down the Ohio, up the Mississippi, up the Missouri River and opened the west to immigrants."

Pittsburgh was a manufacturing hub that supplied the western movement and an important steamboat at that time was the Arabia.

"It was laid down in Brownsville, and then fitted with engines here in Pittsburgh," Masich said. "It was loaded up with over a million objects and steamed its way into history."

The steamboat Arabia floated up and down the Ohio River before hitting a tree, impaling the boat and causing it to sink in the Missouri River in 1856. Luckily, 150 passengers evacuated safely but 200 tons of cargo was lost in the mud.

"Even prefabricated homes were in the hold of this ship," Masich said. "The only causality was a mule."

The steamboat's remains were found by a Kansas City family in 1988 and all of the objects inside were in near perfect condition, right down to the 160-year-old pickles.

"There were plates and guns and spurs and keys and tools of all kinds," he said.

Most of the clothing still looking wearable.

The archeological find was a big one and many of the objects found had ties right here back to Pittsburgh.  For more information on the Heinz History Center, visit their website here .