NewsJanuary 28, 2001
RAILROAD BROUGHT BOOST TO JACKSON
Putting down track: After the roadbeds were forged, the equally demanding job of laying track began. This work crew posed on a hand-propelled rail car during the work. The man in the coat and tie was probably superintendent of the project. The man next to him may have been the crew foreman...
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BERN SCHAPER AND JACKSON HERITAGE ASSOCIATION
Putting down track: After the roadbeds were forged, the equally demanding job of laying track began. This work crew posed on a hand-propelled rail car during the work. The man in the coat and tie was probably superintendent of the project. The man next to him may have been the crew foreman.
The big moment: The first Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad train to reach Jackson rolled into town Nov. 2, 1904. A welcome was extended by the citizens, a band played and speeches were made by Mayor Edward D. Hays, T.D. Hines and Louis Houck, builder of the railroad.
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New mode: Once the railroad lines were open, some innovative forms of transportation emerged. Here a rail vehicle -- apparently powered by an automobile engine -- took to the rails in 1908. Louis Houck put the car in service as a passenger carrier between Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Oak Ridge. According to a 1908 Jackson Herald article, it made four round trips daily between Jackson and Cape and one to Oak Ridge.
When Louis Houck's Cape Girardeau Northern Railroad made its way to Jackson shortly after 1900, it opened a new era for the community.
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