STANDING ON ITS OWN: RIVER HERITAGE MUSEUM DOESN'T WANT TO BE PART OF RIVER CAMPUS

The Cape River Heritage Museum is a "common man's museum," says volunteer Dale Smith.

He and fellow volunteer Marge Thompson spend countless hours running the small museum housed in Cape Girardeau's old fire station at 538 Independence. The museum operates on a bare-bones budget.

But Smith and Thompson say they don't want the museum to be absorbed into Southeast Missouri State University's planned River Campus museum. They're not interested in being a small piece of a larger, state-of-the-art museum that is expected to include fine art and regional history exhibits, much of it from the existing University Museum.

"I think we would have no say-so," said Thompson, who is president of the nine-member board of directors of the non-profit Cape River Heritage Museum. Smith also serves on the board.

"I'd rather plug along on my own than be dictated to," Thompson said.

The proposed River Campus museum would be part of a $36 million arts school that the university wants to develop on the grounds of a former Catholic seminary in Cape Girardeau. The project currently is in the planning stage.

The idea that the Cape Girardeau museum could merge with the proposed regional museum was discussed last year at a meeting of the River Campus Board of Managers.

But Thompson said the Cape River Heritage Museum Board has never discussed the idea with university officials. No one from the university has approached the board, she said.

A constant battle

That's fine with Thompson, who loves the homespun museum with its smorgasbord of exhibits ranging from the history of Missouri mules to a a 1950 fire truck.

But keeping it open remains a constant battle.

Smith, a teacher's assistant at Cape Girardeau Central High School, spends his summers at the museum. He's usually there six days a week, often from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Thompson operates the museum the rest of the year, opening it to the public on Friday and Saturday. Hours usually are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum is open other times by appointment. It typically is closed in January and February.

With such a limited staff, the museum hours vary. Even local residents aren't sure when it's open.

Smith said about 1,000 people a year visit the museum, including schoolchildren, Scout troops and passengers from the Mississippi River steamboats that dock downtown.

"Boat passengers are a big part of our customers," said Thompson.

The museum charges admission, but donations make up much of the museum's $5,000-a-year operating budget.

The city provides the brick building for free and maintains the exterior as it has done since the museum opened there in 1982.

Both Smith and Thompson say they've had trouble finding volunteers to staff the museum.

"I am hopeful we can keep this museum open," said Thompson as she stood among the exhibits on Friday.

Keeping track of it all

Thompson said the museum serves a purpose, featuring information on everything from Missouri mules to Cape Girardeau founder Louis Lorimier. Antique medical instruments and equipment, including a wooden examination table made in England, currently are on display in the front room of the building's first floor.

The displays are confined to the first floor. The upstairs is used for storage of everything from paintings to old magazines, antique dresses to old military uniforms.

Thompson said organizing and keeping track of it all is a constant challenge.

Students in Southeast Missouri State University's historic preservation program have helped out, putting together a number of the exhibits including one on Willard Duncan Vandiver, credited with coining the "show me" phrase.

Vandiver was the fifth president of Southeast Missouri State University, serving from 1893 to 1897. He then served in Congress. As a congressman, he once said: "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces me nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You've got to show me."

That quote is painted in large letters on one wall of the front room of the Cape River Heritage Museum.

Room for both

Thompson said the museum preserves local history. The Missouri Department of Transportation recently borrowed the museum's photographs of the construction of the old Mississippi River Bridge at Cape Girardeau for a department publication.

There's a place for a community museum, says Don Dickerson, president of the Board of Regents at Southeast.

Dickerson said he doesn't want the River Campus museum to be a city museum. He said it would have a broader focus as a regional museum.

There's room, he said, for both museums in Cape Girardeau. "I think they can complement each other," he said.

The River Campus museum would replace the existing University Museum, which is housed in Memorial Hall on the main campus.

Dickerson believes the new museum could become a big draw, attracting 150,000 visitors a year.

"If you've got a first-rate museum, word gets around," he said.

A few blocks away from where Dickerson envisions a future River Campus museum, Smith and Thompson continue their often lonely vigil to maintain the "common man's museum."

Want to visit the museum?

With limited staff, the museum's hours vary.

It's best to call ahead: 334-0405.

The museum usually is open Monday through Saturday during the summer and more limited times during the rest of the year. It is open at other times by appointment.

The museum is at 538 Independence.

Admission is $2 for adults and 75 cents for children. Children under 12 years of age are admitted free.