Missourian Photographer Fred Lynch had to cover a ball game at Capaha Park Saturday afternoon. He was kind enough to shoot these updated photos of the heavy equipment continuing to demolish the Capaha Park Pool.
This was taken at the northwest corner of the pool, in the deep water end. The equipment has already broken through the chemical room under the diving area described by Jacqie / Bill Jackson in the first story.
Close-up of demolished diving area
Here is a close-up of the diving area. The door from the outside leading into the chemical treatment room is visible.
Oval is original pool
It looks like our generation won’t even have a trace of the our pool left to remember it by, unlike the oval left of the original pool.
Close-up showing old pool
The arc is the edge of the pool that was used until the “new” pool was built in 1957.
Fred climbed train for this shot
Photographers love climbing on things; crawling under them or swinging from them. There aren’t many jobs where people pay you to act like a kid. Most of us who swam in that pool also climbed all over this switch engine from the cement plant.
Links to previous stories
- Photos of Capaha Pool in its prime
- Photos taken in April 2011 – Check the comments for several links Fred posted to Frony photos from even earlier. You may have to press Ctrl-F5 to get the new material to load when you get there.
Seems wrong somehow that the Cape pool is going away. So many of us had fun times there. As a side note, my Grandfather drove the very switch engine you shown in the last picture. He worked at the cement plant until he retired.
I was at Capaha Park all of Saturday afternoon. The park was a very busy place with SEMO playing baseball, and numerous large gathering type picnics. Amid all the happy sounds of people enjoying the gorgeous day, was the whirring of demolition machines. My family had a picnic shelter right beside the pool. I found my eyes continually being drawn to the destruction – a bit of history – a lot of memories – all disappearing. I had taken my camera to our picnic as it was a very special family event. We had a memorial tree planted for my nephew who died in a water accident in California 6 months ago. My family gathered to celebrate Tom and to have a ceremony around the newly planted tree(the Cape Parks’ Dept. offers a wonderful memorial tree program). I had taken my camera to document our family event, but my camera lens was also drawn to the demolition – a need to grab some final images. This topic has stirred emotion in lots of people. Thanks Ken……….
Sorry I am not in Cape now I have memories of the pool and all of them were going off the high dive asm a nine and ten year old but mostly ignoring liveguards about the highdive rules. Also, i never photographed the pool when I was living in Cape.
Wow! The end of an era! Lots of memories for the Nunnelly family. Both sister Carol and brother Bruce swam on teams. I taught our younger brother Paul to swim there. I got my junior life saving certification there. And in the funniest episode of all, I lost the top of my two-piece suit attempting a dive from the high board. Fortunately, that was NOT captured on film!!! RIP Cape Municipal pool – 157 – 2011!
Oops! Make that 1957- 2011!
Oops! Make that 1957-2011