STEAMBOAT RACE DOCKS HERE TODAY

The Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen will make their annual pre-July 4 stop at Cape Girardeau today during the "Great Steamboat Race."

The steamboats are scheduled to dock at Riverfront Park in downtown Cape Girardeau about 7 a.m.

From 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., the public may watch the Captain Foghorn Floating Follies to be presented at the Courthouse Park Gazebo.

The song and dance routines are a competition between crew and passengers of the two boats, said Lin Jones, group sales director for the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Serving as judges for the skits and entertainment will be Cape Girardeau Mayor Albert M. Spradling III, Police Chief Rick Hetzel and acting CVB director Walter Denton.

The boats will leave Cape Girardeau at 1 p.m. en route to St. Louis, where the race ends.

The Great Steamboat Race is a re-enactment of the 1870 race between the Natchez and Robert E. Lee. It isn't actually a race until during the final six miles to St. Louis.

The first race pitted Capt. John W. Cannon, a Hancock County, Ky., native, and his Robert E. Lee against Capt. Tom P. Leathers' Natchez. Leathers challenged Cannon after tiring of hearing about Cannon's exploits on the Mississippi River.

The Robert E. Lee's time of three days, 18 hours and 14 minutes over the 1,135 river miles is still a record.

Since 1991 the Great Steamboat Race has stopped in Cape Girardeau as a kickoff to the July 4 celebration.

The Delta Queen will dock here again July 9.