USS CAIRO ARTIFACTS ON DISPLAY AT MUSEUM

CAIRO, Ill. -- Visitors to the Cairo Custom House Museum can now view a number of original artifacts from the Civil War gunboat, USS Cairo, which lay on the bottom of the Yazoo River for a century before being raised in 1962.

The USS Cairo was built at the Mound City, Ill., Marine Ways a few miles north of Cairo. Thirteen members of the crew were from Illinois.

Members of the Cairo Custom House Museum Commission and officials at the Vicksburg, Miss., National Military Park have reached a loan agreement on some of the artifacts recovered from the boat near Yazoo, Miss.

Included among the items on display are two combs made by the I.R. Comb Co. Goodyear Patent May 6, 1851; an artillery sword; pocket knives; coffee pot; belt buckles and eating utensils.

The artifacts are displayed in the museum at 1400 Washington next to a 1/32nd-scale replica of the gunboat. The replica was made by Harold Christianson, a retired marine engineer from Fulton, Texas, formerly of Murphysboro, Ill. It is the centerpiece exhibit in the museum. Christensen offered the model to the Vicksburg, Miss., museum, but Vicksburg already had reconstructed the original Cairo.

"The agreement, along with a pictorial presentation by the Interior Department, made a dream become a realty for the Custom House Museum," said Monica Smith, chairperson of the Custom House Museum Commission.

Other members of the Custom House Commission: Fred Ent Lehning, Russell Ogg, Louise Ogg, Loarn Shuemaker and Connie Holland.

The agreement provides that the items will be on loan to the museum for one year, with an option of renewal annually.

The USS Cairo is one of three gunboats constructed at the Mound City Marine Ways during the Civil War. Others were the USS Mound City and the USS Cincinnati.

The USS Cairo was put into service in January 1862, but had a short life, having gone down in the Yazoo River Dec. 12, 1862, during a Civil War battle.

The Cairo, designed by Samuel N. Pook, a U.S. Naval architect, was built on contract by James B. Eads at a cost of $101,808. The gunboat is on display at the Vicksburg National Military Park.

The Custom House Commission; U.S. Department of Interior; and Elizabeth Joyner, museum curator at the Vicksburg Park; have worked together the past three years to put together the loan agreement, said Smith.

The Custom House Museum has served as a custom house, post office, police station, and federal court. The building was closed in 1975, and was reopened as a museum in 1992.

Currently, only the first floor is open, but work is continuing on the top two floors where additional displays will be opened. The third floor is the courtroom that contains the original courtroom seats and jury box.

The Custom House is open Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is staffed by volunteers. Group tours area available.

The Custom House, which is listed on the National Historic Register, was designed by a noted architect of its era, Alfred Bult Mullet. Mullet is best known as the architect of the U.S. Treasury Building in Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Mint.