In the last few years, I’ve heard all kinds of stories about wild parties in Klaus Park, but I never got the word of them when I was growing up. From what little research I’ve done, it sounds like the land, like North County Park, South County Park and the VA Hospital site were all party of the County Farm at one time.
Considered for multipurpose building
A May 20, 1984, Missourian story by Mark Bliss said the land was being considered a possible site for the Cape Girardeau multipurpose building. County Court Presiding Judge Gene Huckstep said he had been contacted by several individuals about the possibility of the county offering a neutral site for the building which would eliminate a battle for the site between proponents of the Drury Development Corporation site south of Howard Johnson Motor Lodge along I-55 and the Bertling-Sprigg Street site (which is where the Show-Me Center was eventually built).
The park is relatively undeveloped. I’ve seen runners on the unpaved trails, and Missourian photographer Laura Simon shot some beautiful photos of fat bike (that’s the tires not the riders) riders in the park this fall. I missed the bikers, but DID see lots of hickory nuts on the ground.
Old jail site
The story also mentioned something else I’m going to have to research. “The County Court presiding judge ruled out the old jail site, across the interstate from Klaus Park, as a multipurpose building site because it contains only 23 acres. The building committee has indicated that a site of 30 acres is needed.
“In addition, Huckstep said, ‘we feel that the jail site is committed to a veterans home.'”
I never knew there was a jail located in that area.
Took my Judy out to Klaus park to let her watch the highway traffic one winter’s night. As I pulled the car to the edge of the road the driver’s side tires slid into the snowy ditch. Luck me, I had my 125cc Harley on a bumper rack on the back. We rode back into town and got her mother’s car and I somehow parked it in the same ditch in front of my car. A friendly sheriff’s deputy came by and called a tow truck for us. While we were waiting the deputy nosed around in the snow and found a partial six pack a little farther away. Although he didn’t, and shouldn’t have, connected the beer to us, Judy vehemently denied it was ours. Great memories.
There was never a county jail there. Back in 1975 the Cape County Court voted down a controversial proposal to build a new jail on the County Farm property. According to a March 27, 1975 story in the Southeast Missourian, the court voted to accept the City of Jackson’s offer to sell for $1 to the county 48,000 square feet of property the city owned across from the existing jail.
Let’s see Dick…two, one one, cars in the ditch and two people standing by on a motorcycle…I would Tazered you both and called the paddy wagon to pick you up!