Lagoon has been drained before, 1962

Last week's blog detailed improvements made to the Capaha Park -- then Fairground Park -- lagoon in 1932.

This blog continues with articles dealing with the 1962 draining, dredging and further drama. Unlike the project 30 years prior, the 1962 work wasn't plagued by recurrences of water lilies. Rather, some of the improvements made to the banks and drainage proved faulty and had to be repaired.

Here is the Southeast Missourian's coverage of the project from start to finish.

Published Feb. 3, 1962, in the Southeast Missourian:

To start Monday on lagoon work

Members of the Cape Girardeau Parks Department prepare to install rip-rap around the Capaha Park lagoon on this unused photograph. (G.D. Fronabarger ~ Southeast Missourian archive)

The Exchange Club announced today work of dredging the Capaha Park lagoon to deepen it and improve it for fishing for Cape Girardeau youngsters will start on Monday, weather permitting.

The city park department has started lowering the water level of the lake and a dredge contributed by the Mary Construction Co. has been placed on the east side of the lagoon ready to begin the work.

It is planned to dig a deep channel at one side of the lagoon. Fish will be driven into (it) and remain there during the period of dredging and repairing the lagoon banks. Later, rough fish will be culled.

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Published Tuesday, Feb. 6, 1962, in the Southeast Missourian:

Some big fish in park lagoon

The fish grew big in the Capaha Park lagoon. At least some of them did.

Commissioner J.W. McBride related at City Council meeting Monday that lowering water has revealed a 35-pound buffalo and another weighing between 16 and 17 pounds.

The big fish was caught and taken to public works department headquarters where it was dressed.

Other fish have followed receding water in the lagoon, which is being drained preparatory to dredging and restocking.

The commissioner said a large number of park benches had been removed from the bottom of the lake, evidently left on ice which melted in past several years, or else thrown there by vandals.

The benches, he reported, were taken to the Arena Building and are being repaired.

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Published Wednesday, Feb. 7, 1962, in the Southeast Missourian:

Big rough fish blamed for loss of lagoon stock

The mystery of the disappearing fish in the Capaha Park lagoon was largely solved when workers Tuesday hauled out the monster, 60-pound alligator gar shown in the (above) photograph and a second half it size.

Pictured with the 4-foot, 10-inch gar are Park Commissioner J.W. McBride, left, and John Eldridge, public works superintendent. Posed beside the huge fish to illustrate its size is Terry Taylor, 10, son of Mr. and Mrs. Bill E. Taylor, 1416 Rose.

In the other photograph, William Bollinger uses a pitchfork to spear a 20-pound buffalo, one of a number taken from the lagoon.

On Tuesday, as waters receded in the dredging operation, a small truck load of carp and buffalo weighing 15 to 35 pounds were removed from the lagoon.

Those familiar with the feeding habits of the gar said a pair such as those taken from the lagoon can exhaust the game fish population of a body of water.

They attributed the decline of catchable fish in the lagoon to the pair of big rough fish and added that the two must have been deliberately placed in the pond several years ago.

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Published July 26, 1962, in the Southeast Missourian:

Will resume rip-rapping along banks of city lagoon

Some rip-rapping around the outer bank of Capaha Lagoon, an operation which is now suspended, is expected to resume in a few days and go into full tilt in about three weeks.

The bank protection is part of the overall renovation of the lagoon which began Feb. 5 and has included draining,dredging, removing debris and rough fish, reshaping the islands and devising a drain for the body of water.

When current operations are completed, the plug will be put in and fall rains are expected to return the Capaha Park lagoon to normal. Arrangements with the State Conservation Commission have been made for restocking the lake with fish.

October deadline

Park Commissioner J.W. McBride said today he feels there is ample time to complete the repair work before the fall rains and puts Oct. 15 as the approximate deadline.

The city park department and the Exchange Club are jointly conducting the project.

The rip-rapping on the shoreline of 700 to 1,000 feet around the outer edge is a Park Department phase of the job and is about one-third completed.

Commissioner McBride said the two men he has had on that operation are able to place about 30 to 35 feet of stone per day.

He said he plans to use five or six employees later to complete the rip-rapping in a relatively short time. The added manpower will come, he went on, when a construction operation at Arena Park is completed.

The two men who have been working on the bank have been taken off the job, Commissioner McBride said, to permit the completion of some of the Exchange Club's operations.

"There was no point in us rip-rapping until we saw how deep the Exchange Club was going to cut to the bottom," he remarked.

The club has been scraping the bottom and has come out with about 1,000 yards of new dirt.

The city Department of Public Works has been hauling dirt away.

Joe Krueger, chairman of the project for the club, said if the bottom became a little dryer, more dirt would be taken out to make the lagoon deeper and cleaner.

His group is rip-rapping the two islands and is about half finished.

Mr. Krueger said some delays in this operation have been encountered because the rock donor, the Federal Materials Co., has not always had its loader available.

"But we are in no particular hurry," Mr. Krueger said, indicating there is enough time to finish the work before fill-up time arrives.

He said the Exchange Club will also place lights on the island.

Children, dog kill off ducks

Capaha Lagoon will have to be almost completely restocked with ducks next year, Park Commissioner J.W. McBride said today, because children have stoned most of them to death this summer.

He added that there also has been a dog in the neighborhood which has killed many ducks.

Commissioner McBride said when he lagoon goes back into normal operation, the ducks will have the islands for protection.

To read the rest of this blog, go to semissourian.com/blogs/fromthemorgue/