CHANGING LANES: CAPE GIRARDEAU, JACKSON MEET ALONG HIGHWAY 61

Two lanes lined with roses and trees winding through the countryside from Cape Girardeau to Jackson the old Highway 61 was beautiful, but dangerous.

The new Highway 61, with four and five lanes of traffic lined with businesses, provides a link between the two cities.

Today, Cape Girardeau and Jackson city limits meet on Highway 61 near Interstate 55. An average 20,000 cars travel the route every day.

The road was once part of the El Camino Real, an old Spanish highway first used by hunters and traders following Indian trails.

Following that path, U.S. Highway 61 stretches from Canada to New Orleans, including 10 miles through Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

For a time, the local stretch was a toll road. During the Great Depression WPA labor worked on the road.

In 1931 the Cape Special Road District with the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department started development of the Ten Mile Garden, working with rights-of-way of 125 to 270 feet.

At its peak, 10,000 red and white rose bushes bloomed along the route. In addition to roses, 1,317 evergreens and 14,000 other varieties of plants lined the road. Service clubs, garden clubs and individuals from both cities participated.

The garden brought visitors and attention nationwide.

Over the years, the garden disappeared as the road was widened and new enterprises lined its path.

Highway 61 was widened to four lanes from Cape Girardeau's north city limits to the south city limits beginning in 1963.

In 1977, the road was widened between Wedekind Park and Cape LaCroix Creek. Heavily timbered hillsides along the route were bulldozed.

A three-phase, $10.5 million upgrade of Highway 61 in Jackson began in 1986, with improvements at the intersection of Highways 61 34, 25 and 72 in Jackson.

The project was completed in 1990, when Highway 61 was widened to five lanes from the intersection to near Interstate 55.

County Collector Harold Kuehle has driven from Cape Girardeau to Jackson and back for 27 years. He has offices in both cities.

"I've got good and bad memories of that road," he said. "It was beautiful, but it was a dangerous stretch of road."

His father was killed in a head-on car crash on Highway 61 near a spot called KFVS hill, where radio and television towers once stood.

"But I remember the arch," Kuehle said. "On the hill coming from Jackson to Cape Girardeau, when it was a two-lane road, there was a stretch where the trees had grown together like an arch over the roadway. It was such a beautiful site."

But the drive was destined to end.

"As traffic started increasing and as we became modern, Highway 61 became more of a traffic hazard," he said. "It was a dangerous stretch of road. People didn't want to sit back and smell the roses; they were in a hurry."

Kuehle believes it's a better stretch today. "I think it's a safe road now," he said.

"The past is great to remember, but as Paul said in scripture: `Forgetting the past I go forward to the gold.'"

Jackson City Manager Carl Tally agrees that the changes have been good.

A longtime Jacksonian, Talley remembers the drive through the countryside from Jackson to Cape Girardeau.

"It was once noted as a scenic drive with roses, shrubbery and trees. My kids years ago always commented on their way to Cape about the tree tunnels trees that had completely engulfed the roadway."

But Talley doesn't miss that country drive from Jackson to Cape Girardeau.

"It was a nice thing but everything has a cycle," he said. "We live in a different type of economy, and you have got to expect change in today's world."

As the volume of traffic has grown, the need for a better, safer highway was evident.

"The road was difficult to negotiate. There was no passing. Getting on or off the road was dangerous," Talley said. "I think driving was very uncomfortable."

Talley said improvements to the Jackson stretch of Highway 61, completed in 1990, were 20 years late in coming. But he's happy to see the progress.

"The traffic from north and west in the county coming into the major commercial area made that road necessary," he said. "It has lent credibility. Jackson always had it, but we didn't have a road to it.

"I think the road will launch us into the 21st century."

Already, new businesses have located along the expanded stretch of highway.

Talley said city officials are now looking for improvements at the I-55 exchange.

Freeman McCullah, District 10 engineer for the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department, said the hill in the median just west of I-55 will be removed because it obstructs vision of drivers in the eastbound lane.

Specifics of the plan are not finalized, but McCullah said the improvements are needed because of increased traffic. The department eventually plans traffic signals at the intersection.

"Traffic has picked up with the new five lanes," McCullah said. "And the traffic is getting greater all the time.

"We do have more and more people driving every day," McCullah said. "As we build other roads we increase traffic. People can live farther from work and farther in the country and still make it to work in a relatively short amount of time.

"The other thing I've noticed is the increasing commercial activity," McCullah said. "It won't be too many years that when you drive from Cape to Jackson you won't be able to tell when you have left one and entered the other. That whole area has become a commercial zone, regardless of the city it is in."

It's A big change from when McCullah visited Southeast Missouri during his college days on the University of Missouri-Rolla football team and later with the highway department. He was assigned to District 10 about two years ago.

"I had been through the area on the initial stages of I-55," McCullah recalled. "The changes from then to now are really noticeable. It may not appear as drastic to people who have lived here all that time, but there have been big changes."

J. Ronald Fischer, Cape Girardeau city manager, a lifelong resident of Cape Girardeau, remembers Highway 61 from his childhood. "I remember the 10 miles of roses, and I remember thinking some day Cape and Jackson will grow together. That day is here."

Fischer said the road used to be dangerous.

"There were a number of accidents, serious accidents that occurred because of the congestion on the two lanes. Back when I was in high school and first driving we always thought of it as a dangerous situation.

"Now we have a very fine road both for people who live in Cape Girardeau and for those who live in Jackson," Fischer said.

However, improvements have had a negative impact on Cape Girardeau city's population, said Fischer.

"I think it tends to hold Cape Girardeau's population at a slow growth," Fischer said. "But when you look at the overall county, population growth has been strong."

With good roads, people can live farther from jobs, shopping and services.

Fischer said that overall the improved road is good for the city. "The end result is that the hospitals grow, the university grows, businesses grow. All of this is very positive."