In the summer of 1916, the USS Memphis -- an armored cruiser that had been launched by the U.S. Navy in 1904 -- was destroyed, when errant waves tossed the ship about in the harbor of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Internet sources such as Wikipedia note that the Memphis, which had been anchored in the harbor, could not get away quickly enough to avoid being battered by the waves. ...

Artists' concept drawings have always fascinated me. I love to compare what architects conceived for a project to what was actually built. Or, in the case of St. Mary's Cathedral, NOT built. In the spring of 1937, a scheme was hatched to re-make St. ...

September in Cape Girardeau can mean only one thing: The SEMO District Fair. In 1941, Girardeans enjoyed what they called the second year of the "renewed" district fair. An institution since 1855, the fair had its financial ups and downs. But in 1929 the exposition came to a screeching halt. ...

Thankfully, train derailments are few and far between in Cape Girardeau. That was one of my first thoughts when I stumbled across the story of a 1951 train derailment in the Red Star district of the city. The second was, "Man, I wish we had the negatives for these photographs."...

This photograph of a river overlook in Trail of Tears Park was taken by G.D. Fronabarger in 1961. (Southeast Missourian archive)...

The son of a good friend of mine is an enthusiastic participant in the swing dance craze. I wonder what he would think about the two dancers -- Bette and Bob -- who jitterbugged high over Broadway in November 1939, much to the delight of large, thrill-seeking crowds...

This site at the entrance to Arena Park from U.S. 61 was the Navy's first choice for its new Naval Reserve Training Center in 1964. (Southeast Missourian archive)...

Bergmann-Bartels store, 521-523 Broadway. Aside from the news out of Europe about the growing conflicts there and the excitement locally of a circus coming to town, the big news the third week of August 1916 was the dissolution of the big Bergmann-Bartels grocery and dry goods store on Broadway...

For nearly a decade, a fiberglass giant towered over Houck Stadium, welcoming Southeast Missouri State University Indian football fans on cold winter days. A 27-foot statue of an American Indian made its way from Sikeston, Missouri, to Cape Girardeau's proud football emporium on the Southeast campus early in August 1981 and remained there until the summer of 1991...

Roy E. Schneider is a man of mystery. In fact, that's not even his real name. The native of Cape Girardean County was born Roy Ehrenschneider on Feb. 21, 1894, to George and Mary Krehbiel Ehrenschneider. At the time he entered military service in 1917, Roy shortened his surname -- for obvious reasons -- to the more conventional Roy Ernest Schneider...

Most of the time, when I start a new blog, I'll check the offerings of my fellow Missourian bloggers to make sure I'm not repeating information that has already been presented. I recently came across a front-page Missourian story about a huge hangar fire at the Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport. ...

Published Sept. 11, 1925, this photo shows the entire Cape Girardeau Fire Department fleet of trucks. The two Robinson engines purchased in 1916 -- the Jumbo pumper and the hook and ladder trucks -- are center and far right, respectively. The vehicle at left was a smaller pumper/chemical truck the city acquired in 1925. Driving the engines are, left to right, Chief George French, and firemen P.L. Niswonger and Robert Tille. (Southeast Missourian archive)...

The Cape Girardeau City Council authorized the purchase of two fire trucks in 1916. At left is the pumper truck nicknamed "Jumbo." At right is the hook and ladder truck. (Southeast Missourian archive)...

Cape Girardeau has commemorated the lives of several law enforcement officers who died in the performance of their duties, erecting monuments to the fallen at Common Pleas Courthouse Park...

As I compile the Out of the Past column for the Southeast Missourian or research topics for this blog, I keep an eye out for interesting stand-alone photos, tucking them away in a folder for future use. I find I have more than enough to assemble a blog of the photos. Hope you enjoy...

Three years after the steamboat Golden Eagle won Mississippi River glory by outracing two California boats -- the Delta King on the San Joaquin River and the Delta Queen on the Sacramento River -- Eagle Packet Co.'s queen of the inland waterways sank in the muddy waters off Chester, Illinois, on June 14, 1941...

Back in 2012, I wrote a blog about "Cape's own movie," filmed here in 1940. But that wasn't Cape Girardeau's only brush with silver screen stardom. Two years before that, in 1938, Hollywood came knocking as a crew shot footage here for "St. ...

Scott Shivelbine emailed me recently to suggest I do a blog about members of the Schuchert Band -- now the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band -- answering Uncle Sam's call during World War I. He thought it would make an excellent topic for Memorial Day. ...

Attending Notre Dame High School in the late 1970s, it was impossible not to know the name "Tony Rubich." But I really didn't know much about the standout ND coach until years later. I recently ran across a story about Rubich's departure from the school in 1966. That sent me on a hunt for other items related to the first Notre Dame High School Hall of Fame inductee...

The drawing that accompanies this blog looks a little off. It shows the western facade of the historic Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau, but not as we know and love it...