The herald., 1897-12-12
A STEAMER UNDERGROUND
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
(Written by John P. Eby, Finder and
Joint OWner)

Joint Owner)
HOLT, Mo-, Dec. 8. - Confirmed
| topers who, in their drunken dreams
delight to wander through an elysiun
where whisky flows as freely as water
in the streets of Venice, should come tC
this spot to sleep. We have something
that Jules Verne in his widest flights
of imagination fell short of-a whisky
mine, concealed in the heart of Mis-
souri, river steamboat buried deep, not
in water but in the earth on a Missouri
farm. And such whisky! Older than
most living men, ripening and mellow
ing in the bowels of the earth for over
half century, it is likely to be liquor
such as no one has ever tasted yet, and
to be priceless in it's worth.
The story of the settling of the steamer
in it's present location is aimost as inter-
esting as the whisky that it has carried
concealed beneath the surface of the
earth for so many years. In 1S4S the
steamboat Arabia loaded at st. Louis
with a hundred and eighty-f1ve barrels
of whisky, large quantity of queens
ware and general merchandise, and
started on her usual trip for Omaha and
Sioux City. She got no further toward
her destination than Parksville, Mo-.
where she struck a snag of some kind.
and her thirty or forty passengers had
all they could do to scramble to safety
before the steamer sank. The women
and children were saved by the prompt
lowering of the boats, and the men had
to swim ashore as best they could.
Thereafter the Missouri river began
to play tag with it's course, shifting and
turning and forcing new channels. until
the spot where the whisky-laden boat
went down was left high and dry. The
lost steamer was first discovered in 1879,
when it's smoke stack and pilots cabin
were seen protruding from the sand half
a mile west of the channel on the Kansas
side. They remained visible for several
years and during all that time, strange
to say, no one thought of digging out
the boat for the sake of the cargo of
whisky with which it was known to be
filled from main deck to keel. 1t was
only when it had sunk out of sight and
the location had been forgotten and lost
that we began to realize what we had
missed in neglecting to secure the treas
ure when we had it so close to our hands
When it was found one day that the
steamer had gone from sight the people
around here woke up and began to
search for it. Soothsayers were con-
suited, seventh sons Of seventh sons
were urged to use their guessing powers
10 help the searchers, and divining rods
carried over a vast extent of country,
all to no purpose. It was ascertained,
after a great deal Of inquiry, that a
survivor of the wreck was living in the
person Of Charles A. Garside, but as
he was only six months old, and the
youngest passenger aboard, at the time
of the disaster, he was not able to help
the sanguine searchers with his recol-
lections of the affair, and so they had to
go back to the soothsayers, seventh
sons and divining rods, and at last every
one gave it up in despair
Last January 1 began to think that
there was possibility of discovering
the lost steamer by systematic search
with few practical men to help me,
and a few of US got together and formed
a company, consisting of myself, Gale
Henson, T. ]. Reece and ]. D. Hender-
son. We procured lease Of Ave years
on several hundred acres Of land around