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- St. Vincent's Seminary ends after 136 years (8/1/18)1
This photo of Wedekind Park was taken in June 1961 by G.D. Fronabarger.
Highway 61 runs past it north of Cape Girardeau.
The park was located near the present Missouri Veterans Home. In 1992, the trees were taken down in order to provide a new entrance for the Missouri Veterans Home and for future developments at the location. At the time the park was situated between the northbound and southbound lanes of Highway 61 between Cape Girardeau and Jackson.
Louisa P. Wedekind, who resided on the old Cape Girardeau-Jackson Toll Road, gave the roadside park to the state highway department May 2, 1939, following the death of her husband, Charles. Charles Wedekind had allowed the highway department to begin developing the wooded tract as a roadside park.
The park was part of the beautification plan that resulted in the Ten-Mile Garden between Cape Girardeau and Jackson. According to a May 2, 1939 news story in the Southeast Missourian, the plan "provided ovens, stonework and other equipment for an unusually inviting roadside parklet."
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