VANDALS RETURN TO DAMAGE CAPE ROCK PARK PROPERTY

Wearing an American flag baseball cap with the words "Don't Ruffle My Feathers," Herb Nance wearily surveyed a too-familiar scene Saturday at Cape Rock Park.

The handrails he built along the stairs leading up both sides of the hill to the promontory over the Mississippi River had been torn from their posts again. Some of the railings were missing and others were thrown over the bluff toward the river.

Nance said this is the fifth or sixth time the park has been vandalized in the past few years. "I've replaced these handrails so damn much I believe I could do it without looking at them," he said.

The Cape Girardeau American Legion, which adopted the city park as a project, installed a long bench at the edge of the roadway so that visitors can sit and look at the magnificent view. One of the planks that form the seat of the bench disappeared in this latest vandalism and another was torn loose. To take those boards up must have required tools, Nance said.

He said the vandalism must have occurred Thursday night, because the park was in good shape when he checked it around 5 that evening and in disarray when he returned Friday afternoon. In past years, the picnic table has been thrown down the hill.

It's ironic that the park is a target for vandals because during most hours of the day it is a serene place to be.

"You wouldn't believe the people who come here from all over the country," Nance says.

The site is believed to be where Ensign Jean Baptiste Girardot established his trading post on a cape in the river in 1733, lending the place a name that stuck.

Fellow Legionnaire Ron Wilson raises flags at the site on weekends. A plaque dedicated to the late riverboat pilot C.W. "Woody" Rushing sits among new dogwood trees planted in his memory. "He loved this river," it reads. Boats from the riverboat company now owned by Rushing's son sound their horns each time they pass, Nance said.

He recalled a woman from Fruitland who one day appeared with a big "I love you" sign meant for her husband who would be passing on a riverboat. They saw the sign through binoculars and sounded the riverboat horn in response.

Nance thinks college students may be committing the vandalism because it seems to occur every year at the start of school. "Maybe it's the same group of people," he said. "I hope they graduate this year."

Nance's latest project is to install footrails below the bench so people will be more comfortable. But he is discouraged that the vandalism keeps on happening.

"I've just about thrown up my hands," he said.