Photos around Cape Archives

December 18, 2013

Missourian Crime News

I’ve been working my way through the seven weeks of newspapers that stacked up while I was out in the Midwest. Maybe it’s just because I’m getting a concentrated dose of local news, but it seems like every paper has a story about multiple people being shot, stabbed, bludgeoned or poisoned. Cops shoot perps; perps shoot at cops.

The big story for several days was a woman who went missing; her body was found with her head and fingers cut off and abandoned out in the swamps. Cops, who had been staking out her doctor husband, saw some of his relatives removing something large from his house and discovered it was his body, dead from an overdose.

It was refreshing to step back in time to these photos and a crime account in The Missourian September 18, 1967, by comparison:

“A squirrel hunter, Charles H. Meyer of Gordonville, Sunday stumbled onto what was thought to be stolen goods near Gordonville. Loading the goods onto a truck are from left, Deputy Sheriff Bill Sperling, Larry Meyer, son of the hunter, Deputy Vernon Sebastian, Deputy Jon Knehans and Mr. Meyer.” The story ran on P3A, not the front page, but it was still big news.

Burglary goods in briar patch

The Cape County Sheriff’s Department Sunday recovered items estimated to be worth $500 to $600 which were taken in a burglary August 5. The items, found by Charles Myers, in a woods on his farm as he was squirrel hunting, were believed taken from the R.L. Hanning farm near Whitewater.

The Sheriff’s Department said the loot consisted mostly of electrical equipment, appliances and tools and were spotted by Mr. Myers wrapped in a tarpaulin in a briar patch.

Chief Deputy Wm. A. Sperling said the briars were 12 and 14 feet tall and it was difficult to even open a truck door after backing in to pick up the recovered items.

He said the loot was stashed not far from Route Z west of Gordonville, but could not be seen from the roadway because of the thick foliage. Mr. Myers, however, was hunting further back in the woods and spotted the tarpaulin in the briar patch, Mr. Sperling said.

Wrong AND inconsistent

There was some uncharacteristically sloppy editing in this story. The last name of the hunter and his son was spelled “Meyer” in the photo cutline, and “Myers” in the story. Chief Deputy Wm. (Missourian style, for whatever reason, was to abbreviate William) A. Sperling was referred to as “Mr. Sperling” later in the story. I’m pretty sure somebody got a crankygram from jBlue when he read the paper. Being wrong was bad, but being wrong AND inconsistent was unforgivable. The first error was probably the reporter; the second error meant both the reporter and the copy editor weren’t paying attention to detail.

December 15, 2013

Christ Episcopal Church

There are two Cape Girardeau landmarks across the street from each other at Themis and Fountain that I’ve passed hundreds of time while working at The Missourian and going to the library that never caught my eye much.

The first is Christ Episcopal Church, a tiny building with a bright red door. (The original building is relatively tiny, but Google Earth photo shows several larger buildings attached to it.) I’m pretty sure I was never inside the building, even though I had friends who went there.

May Greene Garden

Even more invisible was May Greene Garden, tucked in behind what used to be the Federal Courthouse. It was named after May Greene, who taught in Cape schools for 53 years and had a school in South Cape named for her.

These photographs were taken in the spring of 2011. Click on them to make them larger.

December 12, 2013November 1, 2023

More Disappearing Cairo

Cairo is a town of subtraction. I still take visitors there, but there is less and less to show them. It’s gotten so I hardly pull the camera out because there’s nothing but open ground where a vibrant downtown once flourished.

Here’s a view through a floodgate opening at 8th Street in some time around 1967. You can click on the photos to make them larger.

Looks pretty much the same in 2010

Except for being in color, the two photos are pretty much the same. This one was taken October 26, 2010.

2012 fire erases old buildings

A fire started in an adjacent building and quickly spread to these two old warehouse buildings. This was taken November 13, 2012.

Nothing left but pile of bricks

When the fire was over, nothing much was left except a pile of bricks and some columns.

Not even the bricks remain

By July 10, 2013, you would never know the buildings existed.

A line has been added to show the 2011 record 61.7-foot highwater mark on the floodwall. There is a common misconception that the Bird’s Point Levee was blown just to save Cairo. In fact, it reduced pressure on the levees and floodwalls in Brookport, IL, Paducah, KY, Cairo, IL, Hickman KY and Tiptonville, TN. Some have speculated that Olive Branch might not have flooded if the levee had been breached earlier.

The reason Cairo got so much attention was that the Cairo river gauge was the one used to judge when it was time to activate the floodway that had been in place since 1937.

Older Cairo stories

I’ve photographed Cairo since the 1960s. Here are some older stories and photos.

December 11, 2013

Woodland Inn Hotel & Restaurant

My hunger alarm started going off while we were roaming around Bollinger County shooting Veterans Day photos and the artesian well. Mother said she remembered eating at the Woodland Inn Hotel and Restaurant on the main drag of what used to be called Lutesville, but became Marble hill in 1985.

Flowers (plastic) in the window, salt and pepper shakers at the ready and a rack of sweetener were positive signs. (Click on the photos to make them larger.)

The Woodland is closed and for sale

Unfortunately, the next thing I saw was a For Sale sign in the front door. It was closed, and not just for the day.

I ran across a real estate ad that had some information about the property. It was built in 1942 (and appears from the outside to be in good shape).

It is an 11,000-square foot building. 5000 of it is a steak house with buffet serving breakfast that seats 140. Upstairs is about 6000 sq that has 18 rooms to rent as a motel. It has been just remodelled. Building and business all for one price. Great for family investment or family operations. Equipment for a full service restaurant breakfast, lunch, and dinner including a buffet. Motel was recently built and has brand new furnishings.

Marble is the County Seat in Bollinger County. The business is the only Hotel/Steak House in town and is located in the center of the downtown area.

[If you end up buying the place because you saw it here, tell the real estate agent I want a cut of the commission.]

Good catfish and pie

We ended up at a restaurant on the Marble Hill side of Crooked Creek next to the city park. I can’t think of the name of it, but it had excellent catfish and pie worth saving space for.