Cape Girardeau History and Photos

November 9, 2011

Bloomfield’s MO Veterans Cemetery

World War II veterans are dying at the rate of 1,000 to 1,500 a day; Vietnam vets are leaving us at about 600 a day. Many of them are being buried in veterans cemeteries, which are running out of room. To help take care of that need, new cemeteries are being created, including one in Bloomfield.

The Missouri Veterans Cemetery at Bloomfield conducted its first interment on Sept. 29, 2003. The cemetery’s website says that the cemetery has an approximate capacity of 27,000 gravesites. The cemetery is located on 65 acres of the historically significant and scenic Crowley’s Ridge in the Bootheel of Missouri. The cemetery shares a common entry with the Stars and Stripes military newspaper museum and library.

How to get to the cemetery

The cemetery is located on Highway 25 on the southern edge of Bloomfield.

From Highway 60 take Highway 25 north exit toward Bloomfield. Travel approximately 4 miles north and the cemetery will be located on the west side of Highway 25.
If arriving from the north on Highway 25, travel through Bloomfield and the cemetery will be located at the southern edge of Bloomfield on the west side of the road.

We’ll do a story on the Stars and Stripes Museum soon (maybe even tomorrow).

Less than five minutes away is the Stoddard County Confederate Memorial. It has grave markers for 121 Stoddard County Confederate soldiers, nine civilian “political prisoners” and 22 non-Stoddard Countians who died in the Civil War. What’s unique is that each stone has inscribed on its back the cause of death of the person.

Here’s a piece I did about a mysterious gravestone at the Santa Fe National Cemetery.

November 7, 2011September 14, 2023

Tower Rock Quarry Exposed

When this aerial photo of Tower Rock was taken April 17, 2011, the river gauge in Cape was at about 43 feet and heading higher. The half-moon bay downstream and to the right of The Rock was a big circular corn field until the Flood of 1993, Gerard Fiehler of the Altenburg Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum said. The flood created a huge scour basin that’s a good 25 or 30 feet deep and several football fields across. Trees that grew along the basin are probably in the Gulf of Mexico today.

Click on any photo to make it larger.

We climbed Tower Rock in 2003

Brother Mark and I climbed to the top of Tower Rock in 2003. When the river stage in Cape is about six or seven feet, it’s possible to walk across to the rocky island. (It’s about 14 feet and falling on Nov. 7, 2011)

BE CAREFUL. If the water’s more than a few inches deep, it can sweep your feet right our from under you. Missionary Father Marquette, who explored the area by canoe in 1673, said the “savages” believed Tower Rock to be “the demon that devours travelers.”

This view to the south shows the remnants of a quarry that was worked off and on for 135 years until almost all of the rock was exhausted in 1972. At normal river levels, only a little rock, if any sticks out of the water.

Low water uncovers artifacts

Despite the tremendous volume of water that sweeps over the area even in normal times, traces of track and tipple car wheels survive. These wheels could date to the late 1800s, Tower Rock, a book distributed by the Perry County Historical Society, says. The author thinks they may have been buried until the 500-year floor of 1993 uncovered them.

Acme Stone Crusher survives

Tower Rock identifies this rusting metal object as a steam-powered Acme rock crusher. A similar or the same crusher was used across the river in Grand Tower in the mid 1870s.

Steamboat tieup

Not far from the crusher is this dual-ring steamboat tieup. There are several different styles on the jetty, the oldest dating to the 1830s to 1850s. The quarry was most active from the Civil War through the Great Depression.

Now’s the time to see Tower Rock Quarry

If you’re going to go, go while the weather is nice and the river is low. This opportunity doesn’t come often.

Tower Rock isn’t some place you stop on the way to somewhere else. You have to REALLY want to go there. You start by passing through Altenburg on Missouri Hwy A. (It’s worth stopping at the excellent Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum. In fact, I printed a couple dozen scenic photo books for their gift shop to sell to gauge if there’s a demand for them. They’re going for $14, a steal.)

Might be longest suspension pipeline in world

After going up and down some steep hills, just before you get to what’s left of the German pioneer village Wittenberg (Population: two buildings and three people), you’ll see a small sign off to the right pointing to Perry County 460, a steep and washboarded gravel road. As you drive along that road, you’ll spot what may still be the longest suspension pipeline in the world, that carries gas from Texas to Chicago. Not far from there, the road narrows and you pass through an area of fallen trees. I’ve spotted a momma deer and her two fawns twice on this stretch.

Stop, Look and Listen

Now things get interesting if this is your first trip. You’ll make a sharp 90-degree bend to the left and cross over the BNSF railroad tracks and make an immediate right-hand 90-degree turn paralleling the river. After not seeing any trains at the crossing for years, two have passed on my last two visits: Stop, Look and Listen.

The stretch along the river is narrow and there’s a steep drop-off to the water, but you seldom meet a car. Eventually, you’ll come upon a parking area at the Tower Rock Natural Area, donated by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bussen to the Missouri Conservation Department.

If there are any persimmons left, give them a try. You won’t find any anywhere else that are sweeter.

Shameless Plug: Buy My Book

{Shameless Plug: don’t forget to stop in at the Altenburg Museum to pick up a copy of my Tower Rock book. The museum folks are nice and they’re going to be setting up their Christmas Tree exhibit in the next week or so. It’s worth seeing.]

UPDATE: The Tower Rock book is now out of print.

November 7, 2011April 11, 2021

Billy Graham Turns 93

Most newspapers have canned obits of famous people ready to go. When I saw the Rev. Billy Graham was in the hospital several months ago, I remembered that I had shot Billy Graham Day in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 15, 1971. I’d better pull out those files “just in case,” I thought.

As it turned out, the Preacher to the Presidents got better and was released from the hospital. I’m happy to use the occasion of his 93rd birthday today as an excuse to run the photos.

Billy Graham Day and Richard Nixon

Billy Graham Day had several political subplots.

President Richard Nixon had appeared with Graham in Knoxville, TN., in May 1970, the first time a president had spoken on the stage with an evangelist, according to reports I’ve read. The mostly sympathetic audience’s reaction to protestors who showed up gave the President’s re-election team an idea. The Watergate hearings uncovered a plot to plant agents provocateur in the crowd to cause trouble, then have pickup trucks of “cowboys” show up to “let things happen.”

Event figured in Watergate Hearings

Apparently those shenanigans never got beyond the frat boy talking stage, but the “fake ticket” ruse WAS employed. An advance man would demand to see a protestor’s ticket, pronounce it “fake” and have him escorted away.

Nixon beams at crowd

I don’t remember anything about the President’s speech. The paper’s religion writer was along with me to cover the event, so I could concentrate on shooting and not have to worry about taking notes.

Published accounts say that he praised the minister’s family, “Let me just say this, we all think of Billy Graham as a strong man. But as I look at the Graham family, if I am asked who are stronger, Billy Graham or the women in his family, I’ll say the women every time…God made man out of the soft earth but he made woman out of a hard rib – the woman is the stronger of the two.”

Ruth Graham ambivalent

Patricia Daniels Cornwell wrote in Ruth, A Portrait: The story of Ruth Bell Graham that Mrs. Graham had her own private ambivalence about Nixon’s appearance on her husband’s platform. “I think to have [presidents] come and sit in the audience is one thing. To have them speak from the platform is another.”

“What is your affiliation, Young Man”

Bill Williams, editor of The Gastonia Gazette, thought it would be a neat story idea to send the religion writer and me over to Charlotte to the rally on a church bus to get some local flavor.

I had no sooner boarded the bus when a blue-haired, primly attired little old lady accosted me. “What is your affiliation, Young Man? she demanded.

Somewhat taken aback by her tone, but raised to be polite to my elders, I replied, “I’m with The Gastonia Gazette, Mam. Would you like to see my identification?”

“I mean your RELIGIOUS affiliation.”

Looking at me like she would look at her shoe if she sensed that she had just stepped in something unpleasant, and speaking slowly and enunciating clearly because it had just become obvious that everything she had been told about Yankees was true, she gave an audible “sniff” and asked again, “Young man, I mean what is your RELIGIOUS affiliation?”

“Well, Mam, to be honest, despite eight years of parochial schooling, I mostly serve as a bad example.”

She didn’t invite me to sit next to her.

I don’t recall the ride BACK on the bus, either. I think I might have called one of the other photographers to drive the 19 miles over to Charlotte to pick us up. I would have had no problem approving his mileage for THAT trip.

Photo Gallery of Billy Graham Day

Here’s a collection of photos from the Nixon / Graham rally. Click on any photo to maker it larger, then click on the left or right side to move through the gallery. Happy Birthday Mr. Graham.

November 6, 2011November 6, 2011

Knaup and Other Florists

While waiting for my order to come up in the takeout window of Hamburger Express, I looked at the corner of Pacific and William and thought something had changed. Indeed, the old greenhouses of Knaup Floral were gone. Now that I think of it, they’ve been gone a long time, but this is the first time I flashed on them. Click on any photo to make it larger.

Here’s a real greenhouse

No, this wasn’t shot in Cape. I couldn’t put my hands on a local greenhouse, so I reached into my stash of photos from Shawnee, Ohio, a dying little coal town, for this one.

Cape Florists in 1969

The 1969 City Directory lists the following Florists

Carver Floral Co., 100 S. Sprigg St.
Drive-In Florist, Perryville Rd. and Cape Rock Dr.
Hazel’s Flowers and Gifts, 1030 Broadway St.
Knaup’s Floral and Greenhouses, S. Pacific and William Sts.
Ochs Floral Co., 1110 W. Cape Rock Dr.

Wife Lila noted that “The florist who did our wedding flowers was Carver’s. It’s called Flowers by Joyce now. Anytime I need flowers for Cape, they are who I call. We had an account there from the time we got married, but now I pay with a credit card. Don’t know if that tidbit will help, but I’ll pass it along.” [Editor’s note: that is an unpaid endorsement. If Flowers by Joyce would like to make it a PAID one, I wouldn’t object.]

Did Kanups live in house?

Mother seemed to remember that some of the Knaup family lived in the three-story brick house just north of the greenhouses. A quick peek at the City Directory shows the following listed in that block of S. Pacific:

136 S. Pacific St. – Knaup Floral & Greenhouses (John Knaup)
134A S. Pacific St. – Richard J. Knaup

I didn’t check the house number when I shot it, unfortunately.

Interesting rock accents

The inlaid rocks in the wall and the front step caught my eye.

In business since 1910

A Nov. 13, 1931, Missourian obituary gives an indication of what a Cape landmark business Knaup’s has been. “Mrs. Mary M. Knaup, 65 years old, wife of Wm. Knaup and a lifelong resident of Cape Girardeau, died Thursday at the family home, 118 S. Pacific St. Born in Cape Girardeau Dec. 15, 1865, Mrs. Knaup was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Frelinghaus, pioneer immigrants from Germany. Here early schooling was received in St. Mary’s parochial school.

“On Nov. 22, 1895, she was married to Wm. Knaup, who, since 1910, has been engaged in the floral business and is now assisted by a son, John. Previous to entering into the floral business, Knaup was engaged in cooperage manufacturing.