HIBERNATING UNDER A BLANKET OF ICE; RIVER HAS FROZEN OVER ON OCCASION

Quick now: What is the coldest recorded temperature in Cape Girardeau County?

How about 27 degrees below zero at Jackson in 1899?

That same year a 25-below reading was recorded in Cape Girardeau.

These readings were well before the event of wind chill factors, which could have made it feel like 50 below zero with a 12 to 15 mph wind.

A number of other low temperatures and Mississippi River freezes were recorded here during the winter of 1917-18. That winter provided a number of weather records throughout the area and the nation.

A total of 50 inches of snow fell in the Southeast Missouri area during December 1917 and January 1918, 35 of it in January.

Below-zero temperatures were recorded during more than half of the month. The Mississippi and Ohio rivers were frozen from bank-to-bank for days on end.

It was nothing new for the Mississippi: During 1872 through 1918, the river between Cairo, Ill., and Cape Girardeau -- and sometimes as far north as St. Louis -- was closed from a day to a week in at least a dozen years.

Since 1918, the Mississippi here has been closed because of ice and freezing conditions at least once during another dozen years.

Mississippi River traffic has been slow or limited on many other occasions, including now. River traffic is moving slowly today due to ice in the river.

Currently river traffic on the upper Mississippi, which is north of Cairo, is limited. The Coast Guard at Paducah, Ky., and St. Louis has cautioned vessels to use extreme caution.

Southbound tows have been restricted to a 20-barge maximum and daylight operation. Northbound tows are restricted to four-barge widths. Some buoys may be missing or not properly marking the channel due to ice.

Over the past 125 years, traffic on the river has been closed from one day to more than a week in at least 23 years.

There may have been more closings, and there have been numerous other years when ice floes made for rough going.

Whenever Mississippi waters hibernate under a blanket of ice, memories of other winters emerge.

Like 1917-18.

January came in with snow on the ground and went out the same way in 1918. The previous month, December 1917, had been declared the coldest December in more than 40 years. The cold continued in January.

Workers attempting to install a new intake pipe were hampered by the frozen river, and the Cape Girardeau water supply was cut off. The city's water supply was then taken from Sloan's Creek. Health officials cited the need to boil all water.

Two big remembrances from 1918 were the losses of a number of boats when the ice started breaking up. On Jan. 17, the ice in the Ohio River started to move at Mound City, 10 miles upstream from Cairo.

As the huge ice mass passed through Cairo, a number of boats in the Cairo harbor were swept downstream to their destruction.

In early February, the ice gorge at Cape Rock broke, sinking an iced-in riverboat at Cape Girardeau.

Memories of other years when the water hibernated beneath river ice also emerge:

Like the winter of 1872. A steamer, the "St. Joseph," was trapped in Mississippi ice above St. Marys. The boat was loaded with 57 barrels of whiskey bound for Cape Girardeau.

A Cape Girardeau merchant hooked up a mule team to retrieve the bounty and bring it to Cape Girardeau. Along the way he spent nights with people who lived near the river.

In 1895, people in Cape Girardeau, facing snow and cold, needed coal from Southern Illinois. As many as 40 teams of horses and wagons made the trek across the frozen Mississippi to haul coal from the Illinois coal fields.

Four years later, in 1899, the river was a solid sheet of 18-to-24-inch ice from Cape Girardeau to Cairo. Wagons again crossed the river at Cape Girardeau to haul coal to Cape Girardeau.

The frozen river became an event in 1903, when it froze so solid that skaters went as far north as Neelys Landing and as far south as Cairo.

During the late 1800s, when ice was on the river, enterprising Cape Girardeans cut chunks of river ice and stored them in ice houses for distribution during the summer months.

Cape Girardeau and area residents often walked across the frozen Mississippi. In 1924, Southeast Missourian archives report that the first automobile drove across the ice-packed river.

An ice jam from St. Louis to Cairo was reported in February 1936. Pedestrian trips across the river became almost commonplace.

One story from the 1936 freeze concerned a cow being purchased in Cape Girardeau and taken to Illinois. The cow, apparently dissatisfied with its new home, set out to return to greener pastures on the Missouri side, slipping and sliding its way back to Cape Girardeau.

Ice jams in later years -- the 1950s and 1960s -- were less dramatic but still a winter spectacle.

River freezes were reported in 1966-67-68, again with a vehicle crossing the river, along with many pedestrians.

TOUGH NAVIGATION

Over the past 125 years, traffic on the Mississippi River has been closed from one day to more than a week in at least 22 years. In numerous other years ice floes made for rough navigation. Files from the Southeast Missourian show years that the river was completely iced over.

Years the river froze

1872

1885

1887

1889

1898

1902

1909

1912

1916

1918

1920

1922

1924

1936

1942

1951

1962

1963

1977

1978

1979

1996