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Nighttime Old Town Cape from the Common Pleas Courthouse

I have a favorite night shot of the Common Pleas Courthouse and Port Cape Girardeau taken from the Themis St. floodgate looking west, so I thought I’d see what it looked like from the other side.

This is shooting down the courthouse hill looking east down Themis St. The floodgate at the end of the street is closed because the Mississippi River is at about 36 feet.

Loose shot or tight shot?

I couldn’t decide whether or not I liked it as a wideangle or a slightly tighter photo. Electrons are cheap, so you get both.

There are some tiny smudges in the tight shot in the middle of the sky. You can calls them puffs of smoke if you like, but I think they are specular highlights from the street lights bouncing around between the lens elements. What the heck, let’s go back to calling them puffs of smoke. That sounds more interesting.

Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge from the Courthouse

While putzing around trying to get this shot composed, (for the record, I don’t care much for it) a young woman materialized from the shadows. We exchanged some pleasantries and she disappeared. There was an elderly gentleman sitting on a park bench nearby and he said, “Do you reckon we scared her off?”

Shana Gemoules, stairclimber supreme

About five minutes later, she showed up again.

“Did you just run up those courthouse stairs? Twice? On purpose?”

“Yes. It was three times.Yes. I’m training for a triathlon in Florida in April.”

When she disappeared down the hill again, the man on the park bench said, “Tell her there are 55 steps, not counting the landings.”

When she got back to the top, she was barely breathing hard and her heart rate was in the low 170s (resting is usually 52 BPM, she said.) A stint of working in a downtown restaurant where she had to hump meals up three floors prepared her for running up and down the courthouse steps, she said.

Getting ready to go car-free

Shana, who grew up in Perryville, graduated from Southeast Missouri State University and has worked at a variety of local resturaunts. She’s at Imo’s Pizza now, a place she rates highly for its employee-friendly management and good food.

Right now, she’s working to get debt-free and to sell her car to cut expenses. Cape is small enough that she feels like she can get around on foot or or her bike. Her boyfriend lives in a house with three other guys. The four of them make do with one car for those times when they go a long distance or need to carry something bulky.

When she finished her fifth climb up the hill, she said she was going to call it a night. All of the talk about food and restaurants had made her hungry.

I waited until she had run out of sight before I headed to my car. I wasn’t going to insult her or embarrass me by offering her a ride.

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Dutchtown’s Beechwood Club

My mother and I stopped for lunch at the three-year-old Gordonville Grill (great catfish for lunch and an excellent steak for dinner, by the way), then we decided to cruise by our property in Dutchtown to see how the river was doing. About half a mile north of Dutchtown on Highway 25, there’s a set of stone gate posts with the name Beechwood on them.

I’ve been by there scores of times – and I may have even been back there once – but I never knew any more about it than it was a private club. It was combination sporting club, retreat and getaway; it’s pretty far out in the sticks even today. My mother didn’t know much more about it.

Google News Archives paint a portrait of Beechwood

The Beechwood Club’s heyday was during the mid-30s to the mid-50s. During that period, there were frequent brief mentions in the local paper of church groups, service clubs, Scout groups and local movers and shakers playing bridge, pinochle, swimming, holding parties and an annual rabbit supper for the men employees of The Southeast Missourian.

The first reference I spotted was July 20, 1933: Members of the 1933 Club of the Eastern Star were entertained Wednesday night by Mrs. Herbert Boeller and Mrs. M.E. Sanders at the latter’s cottage at Beechwood Club.

Plans to expand Beechwood Club fell through in 1935: Dr. C.W. Kinsey, secretary of the Beechwood Club, which owns property near Dutchtown, said today that that the club has abandoned a projected plan to buy about 35 acres of additional land adjoining the present premises…The club has about three acres now, on which are located a clubhouse and six cabins.

Right next to the story was an advertisement from Missouri Utilities encouraging you to buy an Emerson ventilating fan to make your kitchen “ALL ELECTRIC.” For information, you were to call 72. The largest town on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and Memphis had two-digit phone numbers.

Nocturnal swimmers not welcome

For the record, I didn’t go past the locked gate to shoot these pictures. It’s a good thing. The club put out the word July 13, 1934, that trespassers, particularly “nocturnal swimmers” weren’t going to be tolerated.

Nocturnal swimmers who find the pool at secluded Beechwood Club near Dutchtown a choice site for midnight parties may find their entertainment rudely interrupted.

Aroused by reports that the privacy of the club pool has been invaded during the night hours, members of the club have adopted a policy that will result in the prosecution of any trespassers caught, and the catching should be easy.

The club, located just off Highway 25 one-half mile north of Dutchtown, is owned by 25 members, who supplied the money to build the swimming pool, a club house and a number of cottages on the property. It was formerly known as the JJJ Fishing Club.

The club was still cranky in May 28, 1954, when it ran a Notice of Reward: A reward of $25.00 will be paid to any person furnishing information which leads to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons who shall willfully or wrongfully damage, injure, deface or in any way disfigure any property or who shall trespass on property of the Beechwood Club located near Dutchtown, Mo.

Big doin’s at the Beechwood

The Missourian reported on Dec. 10, 1935 that the men employees of The Missourian held their annual rabbit supper at the Beechwood Club near Dutchtown, with 25 being present. There were plenty of “eats” to go around. The affair was directed by Alvin Macke.

Some Central High School names you’ll recognize: Sept. 26, 1942 – The first in a series of four parties for the year by a standing committee of Miss Frieda Rieck, Mrs. Oscar Findley and Miss Mary Reed for the Central High School faculty was held Friday night in the form of a supper at Beechwood Club….The group assisting included Misses Naomi Pott, Alene Sadler, Flora Burton, Mrs. Nita Stout, E.G. Rudert and Wm.A. Shivelbine.

Aug. 22, 1950: It was family night for the Rotary Club…when the organization…held a picnic at Beechwood Club…Rotary wives had an opportunity to show their skill with a rolling pin on Herman, a satin-faced dummy. The winner of the throwing contest was kept a club secret.

There were a few negative stories:

  • Dec. 20, 1939: A field fire invaded the Beechwood Club…and badly damaged a brick cabin owned by Al Brinkopf. The building, including two rooms and a porch, was razed except for the walls…The Brinkopf cottage was built about five years ago and was adequately furnished.
  • Oct. 31, 1938: Five youngsters who had been attending a Halloween party at Beechwood Club were injured, none seriously, when two cars collided near the club.

By the 60s, the stories slowed

  • June 23, 1962:  Brownie Troop 141 recently held an overnight campout at Beechwood to complete their fly-up requirements. The fun started with an afternoon swim supervised by Mrs. G.L. Kaiser, Mrs. E.L. Dye and Michael Rogers.
  • June 28, 1967, a member ran a classified ad to sell his membership and cabin.
  • Jan. 8, 1971, Dr. C.W. Kinsey, a founding member of Beechwood Club, died.

Arson suspected in Beechwood fire

The biggest story in the past three decades was a fire March 18, 1979: Arson has been blamed for Sunday afternoon fires which destroyed or heavily damaged five cabins and a mobile home at the Beechwood Club…

Destroyed were cabins owned by Van Sander, Jack Burris and Harold C. Kasten, and the mobile home owned by John Bernard. Cabins owned by Gilbert Winchell and John and Fred Bernard were damaged.

Assistant Fire chief Roy Brown said there was also a fire beneath a club house which was extinguished before it caused any damage.

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Cape’s Oldest Woman Dies at 112

When I saw a headline in The Southeast Missourian that Florence Poe, Cape Giradeau’s oldest woman had died at 112, it didn’t register very high on my interest meter because I didn’t have any connection with her, John Donne and “never send to know for whom the bell tolls,” not withstanding.

That’s when Wife Lila pointed out that her sister, Marty Perry Riley, had painted the woman’s portrait when Mrs. Poe was 107. Marty said that one of the most striking things that she wanted to capture was the beauty of Mrs. Poe braiding her long, white hair every morning.

Mrs. Poe at her 110th birthday celebration

Marty took these two photos at Mrs. Poe’s 110th birthday celebration. The woman was blind – “her eyes just gave out” – and her body was old, but she was “sharp as a tack. She would tell stories of coming to the area in a covered wagon.”

The Missourian’s obit by Alaina Busch said that Mrs. Poe was born Aug. 24, 1897, and was the seventh oldest documented person in this country and 16th oldest in the world. That’s the info that the Gerontology Research Group had current as of March 15, 2010.

Mrs. Poe is survived by three daughters and – as the old obit phrase used to go – “a host of other friends and relatives.” Her mother was almost 104 when she died; her oldest daughter is 91.

She wanted to prove she could walk

Mrs. Poe was fiercely independent, Marty said. When she turned 110, she wanted to let people know that she could still walk. She was delivered to party in a purple and white lace-decorated wheel chair, but she walked to the table on her own.

Mrs. Poe died March 21 after suffering a stroke.

Thanks to Marty for providing the images and memories. I love the regal and dignified look she captured. Mrs. Poe is no longer a stranger to me. I’ve heard John Donne’s bell.

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Mississippi River on the Rise

When you grow up in a Mississippi River town like Cape Girardeau, you learn to rattle off flood stages and historical floods like other kids can name cars as they drive by.

This is Old Highway 61 just south of Cape. Before Interstate 55 was built, this was the main road to Memphis and New Orleans to the south and St. Louis and Chicago to the north.

July 5, 1947, the river hit 41.88 feet, its third highest stage in history up to that point. Highway 61 and Highway 25 went under water, halting car, bus and truck traffic north and south except by taking a circuitous route.

This flooded stretch of Old Highway 61 reaches a dead end at the Diversion Channel. The waters are an inconvenience only to fishermen who would normally launch their boats at a ramp at the end of the road. The Diversion Channel is a drainage ditch that was greatly responsible for changing Swampeast Missouri into valuable farm land. When the Mississippi is high, the river backs up the channel, flooding homes and acres and acres of crops.

1947 was a piker

Time goes by so quickly. It seems like we’ve just had one 500-year flood when another one comes right along. These days, the 1947 flood barely beats a 2008 flood to hang on to ninth place.

Here are the top five crests

  1. 48.49 ft on 08/08/1993
  2. 47.00 ft on 05/24/1995
  3. 46.90 ft on 08/03/1993
  4. 45.70 ft on 05/18/2002
  5. 45.50 ft on 05/01/1973

Those numbers have special significance for the Steinhoff family. We have property in Dutchtown that goes under water when the Cape river gauge reads 39 feet. Want to see what 48.49 feet, give or take, looks like when you get wet at 39?

Inside the mechanic shed in 1993

Before my Dad got out of the construction business, this was a large shed used for carpentry and heavy equipment repair. We never dreamed that the water would come up so high and so fast, so we lost some shop equipment and a heavy-duty air compressor. Flooding has become so common that everything of value has been placed high enough that we hope it’ll stay dry for the next 500-year flood.

My brother Mark looks a little uncomfortable because I pointed out to him that flooding brings out snakes, who are looking for higher ground. “We sure look like higher ground to me,” I said.

Why are there more floods?

Man has tried to control the river. It’s been dammed, channelized and confined to a narrower and narrower path than in the days when it could spread out over miles of flood plain. When water can’t spread out, it has no choice but to go up.

Water’s already lapping at the base of the floodwall at the Themis St. flood gates. When the river gets a couple feet higher, the Broadway gates will close an the city will be sealed off.

Storytelling on the riverfront

A steady stream of visitors come down to watch the muddy waters swirl by every day, but their numbers swell when the river’s on the rise.

I overheard a couple of women wonder what a hole in the wharf was for. (It’s a pipe that would normally have a handrail attached to it, but it had been removed, probably to keep from catching debris.)

I couldn’t help but tell them “that’s where you put in a quarter to keep the river flowing. It’s coin operated. There are locks up the river that open up when the meter is fed. You were lucky to come along after someone else dropped a coin in the slot. It’ll turn off any minute.”

“Really?” one of them asked.

By the way, if that kind of fibbing appeals to you, you should show up for the Storytelling Festival April 9-11. It ain’t lying if you call it storytelling. And can keep a straight face.

Map showing Old U.S. 61 & Dutchtown


View Old U.S. 61 and Dutchtown in a larger map

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