Parks continue long-standing traditions

The drive down Broadway just wouldn't be the same without the lagoon at Capaha Park.

In Jackson, the city park is the Fourth of July hotspot, the place where everybody goes for the car show and the fireworks. How would the city celebrate without it?

What would Cape Girardeau do in September without the fair at Arena Park?

Years from now, perhaps the Cape Girardeau County parks will be viewed in the same way. This spring, the Missouri Department of Conservation will open a nature center, an outdoor campus of sorts that will highlight the best of nature in Southeast Missouri.

The new 20,000-square-foot facility will cost $4.75 million. The center will show the natural history of the region and will show people how to enjoy it. The center will teach fishing and hunting, how to spot owls, how to clean fish, tie flies and just about anything a person would need to know about the outdoors.

It will include classrooms, an auditorium and several displays.

Conservation officials hope the center will be a source of community pride, a place where those who weren't necessarily inclined to love the outdoors learn to do so.

City and area economic leaders hope the facility will be a tourism draw. A similar operation in Southwest Missouri draws 200,000 a year. It has been projected that the Cape Girardeau facility may draw 100,000.

"This will be one more arrow in our quiver in what we're able to offer as true tourism," said Chuck Martin, director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Trail of Tears notoriety

Perhaps the local park with the most widespread notoriety is Trail of Tears State Park.

According to park superintendent Hershel Price, Trail of Tears draws between 200,000 and 250,000 people per year.

"A lot of people come to the park, drive through, look at this and that," he said.

The park offers a small lake for fishing and swimming, 15 miles of trails, picturesque views of the Mississippi River, camp sites and a visitor center that documents the Trail of Tears, the forced march by the U.S. government of Cherokee Indians from their homes. The 3,415-acre park was donated by county residents in 1957.

The park consists mostly of an Appalachian-type forest, including cucumber magnolias, American beech and tulip poplars. It's a type of forest common in the eastern part of the country but rare in Missouri.

No park in the county has been as controversial as Capaha Park. The battles over the park included a court case, an appeal of a judge's ruling and a heated bond election.

The story starts in 1900 when the land, valued at $8,000, was sold to the fair association for $2,000. The land along Broadway was to replace a defunct fair site along Gordonville Road.

About 14 years later, the fair board ran into financial trouble and voted to discontinue the annual fair while trying to sell the land to the city for $35,000.

Many believed the city shouldn't pay the fair board. But the board made it clear that if the city didn't buy the land, the fair board would sell it to individuals who would divide it into lots. Three or four fair association stockholders brought legal action challenging whether the fairgrounds could be sold for private development. In Common Pleas Court, Judge Robert S. Ranney ruled the land could not be sold as private property because it was public property and could only be used for public purposes.

The city sought a vote for a $40,000 bond issue with $10,000 of that to go toward improvements to the park. The bond issue passed in 1915 by a 485-189 vote.

The bond was paid off on Jan. 3, 1936.

Arena 'too far out'

At one point in Cape Girardeau's history, people said the Arena building was "too far out" to be used. Now, Arena Park is in the heart of the city and the site of the annual SEMO District Fair.

The city bought 47 acres of the land on April 10, 1937, for $17,660. The park was developed under the Work Projects Administration. The WPA spent $210,000 for an arena and parking lot.

To date, Cape Girardeau has 20 parks. The first one was Courthouse Park acquired in 1809. The latest was Osage Park, acquired in 1992.

Parks in Jackson motto

The city of Jackson thinks enough of its parks to include them in the city's motto.

The "city of beautiful homes, parks, schools and churches" has six parks that encompass more than 225 acres of land.

The city park, acquired in the 1950s, is the biggest and oldest and has grown with various additions over the years.

During the 1980s, the city introduced the new Litz Park off Shawnee Boulevard, the Brookside Park on U.S. 61 North and a small soccer park on Highway 72.

Last year, the city officially accepted roughly 27 acres for a new soccer complex.

The city also recently accepted an additional 14 acres of land connected to the Highway 72 soccer park.

bmiller@semissourian.com

243-6635

List of local parks

(date of acquisition, if known, is in parentheses)

CAPE GIRARDEAU CITY

* Arena Park (1945)

* Capaha Park (1937)

* Cape Rock Park (1973)

* Casquin Park (1986)

* Chocteau Park

* Delaware Park (1986)

* Dennis Scivally Park (1973)

* Fort D Park (1937)

* Groves Park (1973)

* Indian Park (1820)

* Kiwanis Park (1976)

* Missouri Park (1950)

* Murtaugh Park

* Osage Park (1992)

* Ranney Park

* Riverfront Park (1809)

* Rockwood Park

* Shawnee Park (1973)

* Twin Trees Park (1940)

* Washington Park (1950)

JACKSON

* City Park

* Litz Park

* Klaus Park

* Brookside Park

* Jackson Soccer Park, Highway 72

* Jackson Soccer Park, Route PP

COUNTY PARKS

* Cape County Parks (North and South)

* Trail of Tears State Park

* Bollinger Mill State Historic Site