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Pavement Ends
James Baughn

Why does Cape County have two courthouses?

Posted Friday, January 14, 2011, at 3:46 PM

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  • Let's locate the new courthouse on the County Park property near I-55. This courthouse could handle judicial proceedings (criminal/civil court) for Cape and Jackson. Administration (Recorder of Deeds, etc.)could be done in Jackson's Annex Building. Both old courthouses could be converted to museums.

    This would eliminate the need to acquire real estate. The location would be convenient without causing traffic problems. Open ground would be easy to build on and put everything on one level. A basic building without extensive ornamentation would be affordable.

    -- Posted by nolimitsonthought on Sat, Jan 15, 2011, at 4:57 PM
  • Larry- you should travel back in time and change the statute so that the language would never have been written like that. I know that was you solution to going back to 2006 and stopping EPA, their endangerment finding and the greenhouse gas regs. I'd watch out though, you challenge the wrong person to a duel and you could alter the course of history.

    -- Posted by Mr Goodtime on Sun, Jan 16, 2011, at 8:39 AM
  • Part of the reason Cape wasn't chosen to house the permanent county seat was due to the fact that Lorimier's spanish land grant wasn't approved until the late 1820s. Technically he didn't own the land until his grant was approved, so the commissioners choose a place on undisputed land to house the county seat.

    In 1833 there was a petition to move the county seat back to Cape. It went through a change of venue to the Scott County Court where it was ordered to be moved to Cape. In the court minutes it states that the next meeting would be held at the county seat in Cape. For some reason it wasn't moved. The next session was held in Jackson and no mention of moving the county seat appears in the court records again.

    The Cape Girardeau County Archive Center in Jackson houses the Court minutes if you are interested in further research.

    -- Posted by boxedcookies on Tue, Jan 18, 2011, at 9:16 AM