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 reports that 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.
Hawley says that a sample of earth in February showed black and red wool and window glass. He added that more samples need to be taken to accurately determine what the steamboat holds.
The steamboat sank in the Missouri River in 1841 on its way to Council Bluffs, Iowa.
