The excavation of the Malta near the Missouri River east of Kansas City started this spring. The exploration group has a blog [0], but it hasn't been updated si

The excavation of the Malta near the Missouri River east of Kansas City started this spring. The exploration group has a blog [0], but it hasn't been updated since March. A newspaper article from April has more details [1]. The Arabia museum really is surprisingly interesting, serving not just as a time-capsule of the frontier period, but also revealing a lot about what it was like to embark on a westward journey across the continent before the railroads were completed. (The two most-traveled trails of settlement, the Oregon and California trails, as well as the busiest overland mercantile route, the Santa Fe trail, all began in and around Kansas City, where the Missouri River turns to the north, and is consequently as far west as you could get by steamboat. Passengers and goods disembarked there before provisioning wagon trains for the overland journey, and most of the Arabia's goods were intended for sale to would-be settlers of the American west coast.) If you're ever in KC, check it out. And if you haven't had your fill of history museums, hop on the streetcar line down to the Liberty Memorial and National World War I Museum [3], which is the best in the country on that subject and will host the national centennial commemorations over the next few years. 0. http://www.moexplorer.com http://www.moexplorer.com 1. http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/the-steamboat-malta-begins-to-reveal-its--year-old/article_944f0f22-0a67-11e6-a11a-0f6a83c724b9.html http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/local/the-steamboat-m... 3. https://www.theworldwar.org https://www.theworldwar.org