Firefighters call a false alarm a “water haul.” I had a water haul on April 19. 1967. I saw that The Missourian was going to run some stories that the Mississippi was reaching flood stage, so I cruised around shooting “wild art” hoping that jBlue might be looking for something to illustrate them. Unfortunately for my pocketbook, the water never got high enough that it warranted more than brief stories with no pictures.
The river WAS backing up into Sloan Creek, but it had a long way to go before it was going to cause any problems in the Red Star District. That’s the shoe factory in the background. Here is a history of one of Cape’s leading employers, now the site of the casino.
Honker’s Boat Dock
This youngster is tempting fate at Honker’s Boat Dock. You can see the water get higher in these photos taken in June.
The water was high for quite some time in ’67. I won’t go into the long story which would prove how stupid four kids can be but I will say that our boat was so badly broken from jumping barge wake that it sank on the trailer while we were trying to load it at Honker’s during this flooding. We were bailing with a tin can and our shoes.
Frony shot a picture of a 1958 Thunderbird with boats at Honkers Boat Dock.
http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/flynch/entry/38265
In the photo of the Frisco Railway Sloan Creek bridge, the shoe factory is in the distant background; only the water tower and smoke stack are visible. The structure immediately adjacent to the floodwall is the Missouri Utilities power plant.
You are missing a good story at the foot of main street.
A barge sank right in front of the flood wall…
Where are you!!
I find that when things like that happen it is good to have an alibi. I was in Florida when it happened, so you can’t blame it on me.