PRESIDENTIAL VISIT PARK'S BIGGEST EVENT

Capaha Park has quite a role in Cape Girardeau's history, but today's scheduled presidential visit will be its biggest.

The acres of grass, trees and water see hundreds of pairs of feet each day in the summer. Capaha Park has a baseball diamond, playground equipment, swimming pool, band shell, shelters and plenty of room to run and play.

Long before joggers and their dogs ever discovered Capaha, it was a 40-acre stretch of ground with only a grandstand, pavilion and pond.

The Southeast Missouri District Fair Association, along with the City Park Association, bought the ground for $2,000 in 1897. At that time, the land was west of the city limits. The area was named Fairground Park, and it held the yearly fair.

Celebrities visited even in those days. In 1904, Nebraska Bill's Wild West and Trained Bronco Show performed for the visiting throngs. The show featured marksman Nebraska Bill and a quadruple amputee named William LaRue.

Another celebrity, parachute jumper Sky High Irving, performed in 1913. He thrilled the crowd by landing in the pond.

In 1915, the city purchased the park from the fair association, paying for the land with a $40,000 bond issue. The park's popularity grew when the city's electric streetcar line was extended along Broadway.

The annual district fair continued at the park until 1929. The Great Depression, like it did many other events, ended the annual festivities. The fair was revived later, but it moved to Arena Park in 1939.

That didn't keep people out of the park. On July 1, 1949, the Capahas baseball team conducted its first night game, playing a team from Jonesboro, Ark. The local team still plays night games in the park.

On Nov. 5, 1950, the park's miniature Statue of Liberty, a gift of the Boy Scouts of America to the city, was dedicated before a crowd of 1,000. The late Cape Girardeau attorney Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. suggested the area where the statue stands be named Freedom Corner.

The Parks and Recreation Department put 400 catfish in the park lagoon in 1969.

In 1973, bronze tablets listing the Cape Girardeau County veterans who died in World Wars I and II were installed in the park. Korean and Vietnam War memorials followed in 1975.

Capaha has had its share of bad times, too. Old newspapers list incidents of the pond ducks dying of botulism -- a few were struck by lighting one night. Vandals tried to destroy the Statute of Liberty in 1976. Southeast Missouri State University students have tried to turn the park into the parking lot several times over the years.

But all that will be forgotten today, a day when city leaders hope Capaha Park will have one of its proudest moments.

President Bill Clinton is due to arrive at the park around 2 p.m., and anywhere from 20,000 to 40,000 people are expected to be waiting.

Parks and Recreation Director Dan Muser said his crews mowed the park as usual earlier this week. They changed their tree-mulching schedule so Capaha Park could be done in time for today's event.

Muser's department will be back in gear after the crowd leaves, cleaning up litter. The department will get to keep the extra orange fencing purchased by the Clinton-Gore campaign to secure the area.

"This event possibly could not affect the park any more than the fair does Arena Park," Muser said. "All vehicles will be on the pavement. Sure, we'll have trash, but this place had plenty of litter before."