Ken Steinhoff, Author at Cape Girardeau History and Photos

October 29, 2014November 2, 2020

The Lithium Spring

We had to take Wife Lila and her buddy Jane Rudert McMahan to the airport in St. Louis way too early in the morning. Mother and I had lunch at Pappy’s Smokehouse, then paid $2.55 a gallon for gas at Peveley before hopping on Hwy 61 to take the scenic route home.

Just south of St. Mary and just north of Perryville, I saw a sign pointing down M to Lithium. Since our goal is to find a road we had never been on before, we set our sights on Lithium.

Before long, we spotted the city limits sign of a hamlet so small they didn’t even bother to show the population. (The 2010 census reported 89 people, 28 households and 22 families living there, but those figures may have included folks living in rural Perry county outside Lithium proper, an AP account said.) Lithium had a ZIP Code of 63775, but it has since been declared by the United States Postal Service to be “Not Acceptable – Use Perryville.”

This well-kept church didn’t have a name on it, but it is the St. John the Evangelist Catholic Church, organized in 1896.

The Ole Houck

The village has a sizable park which contains this artifact labeled “The Old Houck.” It looks more like a cart you’d find in a mine than a railroad, but I don’t know exactly what it was for.

Fungus? Mushroom? Toadstool?

These brown somethings were dotting the park here and there, particularly where there was a tree stump or other organic matter. I’m assuming it was some kind of fungus.

Lithium Spring

The most interesting thing for me was this white, shake shingled gazebo with a sign “Lithium Spring.” Inside the structure was a pit that contained a pipe with clear water running into a basin from one side and going out a grate on the other. The flow wasn’t as strong as the artesian well outside Marble Hill, but it was steady.

Mother wanted to taste the spring, so I emptied a plastic bottle and handed it over to her. “Tastes like water,” was her verdict.

A contributor to findaspring.com said it is “It is a highly mineralized spring, more like water for healing…Not your everyday drinking water but will definitely start to heal you. I drink it every once in a while, additionally to my regular Spring water from Mountain Valley Spring.”

Lithium had TWO big springs

The State Historical Society of Missouri’s website of Perry County Place Names, 1928 – 1945, has this information about the town and springs:

The town: A small town in the eastern part of Saline Township. It was surveyed and laid out as a town in 1822 by C.F. Laurence. The first settlers were Dr. Henry Clay Tish, R.P. Dobbs, and James G. Christian, who came from Illinois and settled at this place where they found two springs of mineral water known as lithium, because containing one of the lithium salts. The town grew rapidly because of the springs and was incorporated in 1883.
[Note: a reader sayid Henry’s last name was actually “Fish,” not “Tish.”
The springs: Two large springs located in the northern part of the county in the present town of Lithium. One of the springs is owned by the town; the other by Mrs. Richard P. Dobbs, wife of one of the first settlers.

October 28, 2014October 28, 2014

Blunt Nosed Chevrons

Ernie Chiles and I were puttering around in the air someplace between lost and found when we spotted these strange structures in the Mississippi River.

You’d think Ernie, my former Central High School earth science teacher would be all up on this kind of thing, but he dodged my question by either (a) pretending he couldn’t hear me over the engine noise, or, (b) saying “look it up and get back to me by the start of class on Monday.”

Click on it to make it larger.

So, I looked it up

You are looking at blunt nose chevrons. Here’s what the Upper Mississippi River System Environmental Design Handbook has to say about them:

Blunt Nosed Chevrons provide nose protection for islands while providing slower moving waters for fish habitat. Large rock used to provide structural stability and openings for habitat benefits. A navigation structure called a chevron dike was developed to improve river habitat and to create beneficial uses of dredged material. These structures are placed in the shallow side of the river channel pointing upstream. Their effect is to improve the river channel. When dredging is needed to improve the main navigation channel, dredged sediment is deposited behind the chevron dike. These small islands encourage the development of all four primary river ecosystem habitats. In addition, various microorganisms cling to the underwater rock structures, providing a food source for fish.

Fifty-one fish species and a highly diverse group of macro invertebrates have been collected in and around the structures. The 8 years of data also show a high presence of young … and juvenile fishes inside of the structures, which suggests that the structures are being used as nursery habitat. The data also shows that the outside edges of the chevrons are providing excellent habitat for quality-sized catfish. Catch rates inside the chevron have been more than double the catch rates outside of the structures.

[I couldn’t tell where the experimental blunt nose chevrons had been constructed.]

Where were we?

Based on photos taken on either side of the structures, I’d have to guess we were south of Commerce. I tried to find the structures on Google Earth, but the river was a little higher than when Ernie and I were up, so they may have been mostly covered with water. The foliage in the foreground might be on Goose Island, west of Horseshoe Lake.

I hope my extra credit homework will result in Ernie raising my grade in Earth Science circa 1963.

Oh, and in case anyone asks, these are called “river training structures.” The rock things we usually see going from the bank and pointing downstream are called “wing dams.” Newer ones are “notched,” which still help maintain the river channel through “scouring,” but do a better job of creating diverse habitats than a solid dike.

October 27, 2014

Hemman Winery in Brazeau

The banquet tables at the Immigration Conference were set with bottles of Hemman Winery cranberry wine.

[My presentation went well, thanks for asking. The audience looked at the videos I had produced of The Last Generation of German speakers, laughed where appropriate and had eyes glistening with moisture where appropriate. It’s always a rush to watch folks enjoying something you produced.]

Mother and Wife Lila accompanied me to the banquet after enjoying some great music in the museum. Lila likes a good wine, unlike me, who has never found a good replacement for the bottles of Ripple we OU Post photographers kept stashed in old photo paper boxes in the fridge. I mean, who is going to open a box marked “Open in darkroom only?”]

She thought the cranberry wine was good enough that she wanted to go to the winery in Brazeau, just up the road from Frohna’s Saxon Lutheran Memorial and not too far from Seventy-Six. Class of ’66 buddy Jane Rudert McMahan was in town, so the four of us headed north, with a stopover at the Altenburg museum.

Bonnie did the pouring

Bonnie Hemman had a full array of wines set up for tasting.She did a great job explaining each wine and how it was made.

Before we got out of the place, Lila had picked up a case of mostly fruit wines that may show up as Christmas gifts for some lucky people.

The place also had a spinach – artichoke dip that was excellent. I suspect Bonnie may see us again when Curator Jessica hits town next week. It seems like every other email I get from her has a wine mention in it, so I gather she is fond of the grape (or the cranberry or blackberry or rhubarb).

Lots of eye candy

While you are waiting for your turn to taste, you can wander around looking at the antique items displayed on shelves around the room. We didn’t discover the outdoor seating area with music until we were out in the parking lot headed home (almost).

I’ve been having some battery problems lately, and needed a jump. A couple of guys pushed my van out to the middle of the parking lot where my jumper cables could reach a jeep one of them pulled up. When it when it finally cranked, I tried to give them some money, but they refused to take it. I offered to buy them a bottle of wine, but they refused it. I told them to take the money inside and buy somebody ELSE a bottle of wine or a couple of beers, but they refused that, too. Perry County has some nice folks in it, for sure.

Barber chair older than mine

The building housing the winery used to have a barber shop attached. The barber chair might be just a few years older than the one we have in our living room, based on the arms and color.

Sweeter than cranberry wine

While Mother was checking out the music action on the north side of the winery, I was scoping out the view to the south. That’s sweeter than the cranberry wine.

For more information, including wine varieties, hours and directions, go to the Hemman Winery website. If you stop by, tell ’em we sent you. Say hi to Bonnie for us. And, you won’t find a better place to have a dead battery.

Click on the photos to make them larger.

October 26, 2014

99 South Park Avenue

Mother said she remembered buying meat at this building at 99 South Park Avenue when it was a grocery store. It’s at the corner of Park Avenue and Merriwether Street.

The only quick story I could find was in the Society News of the March 26, 1942, Missourian:

“The marriage of Mrs. Hattie Huckstep Abbot and J.C. McLain of this city was performed by Rev. C.E. Fleshman at the Nazarene Church at 3 o’clock Wednesday afternoon.

“Until resigning Saturday, Mrs. McLain was employed at the Roth Tobacco Co. Mr. McLain, who operated a grocery at 99 South Park Avenue 12 to 14 years, until a year ago, has bought a residence from his mother, Mrs. Katherine McLain, at 103 South Park Avenue, where Mr. and Mrs. McLain will live and will open a grocery store.”

{That has to be one of the world’s longest run-on sentences.]

“His mother, who lived at 103 South Park Avenue, will move to 101 South Park Avenue.“