When thousands of turkeys ran the streets of Cape Girardeau

While on one of my lunch-hour trips down to Annie Laurie’s antique store a few weeks ago, I came across a unique photograph.

The mounted image appeared to date from around the turn of the last century and was found among a group of known Cape Girardeau items. The unusual photograph captured a large number of turkeys in what I believed to be the old fairgrounds or a similar park. Two men are standing among the birds, and two shelters are seen in the background. What is this group of turkeys and why are they on the fairgrounds, I wondered?

So, I began doing a little research and discovered a peculiar event that would seasonally occur more than 120 years ago — a grand march of hundreds, if not thousands, of turkeys down Broadway!

In October 1899, an advertisement appeared in a Cape Girardeau newspaper, “WANTED — All the turkeys in the country, for which the highest market price will be paid in cash. The game season is now open. Bring us all the game you can get.”

The firm placing the ad was Western Poultry and Game Co. of St. Louis, which had recently opened a branch office in downtown Cape Girardeau.

Turkeys are herded along Broadway for shipment to New Orleans in the late 1800s. In the background on right is the current Katy O'Ferrell's building. The photo was printed in the book "Cape Girardeau Faces and Places, 1850-1950," published by the Southeast Missourian.Photo submitted by Judith Wilcox Cureton

In mid-November, the Cape Girardeau Democrat reported, “That was a grand sight for the people of this city last Thursday. Seven hundred turkeys in one drove marched down Broadway.”

The turkeys had come from the Hinkle & Statler Mercantile Co. at Oak Ridge, where Lucas R. Gillilan, the branch manager of Western Poultry and Game Co., had paid 80 cents per bird. The flock was driven on the march by a group of five men, with one lead man and four following behind to keep the column going. The birds were driven like sheep over the three-day trip to Cape Girardeau.

In fall 1900, the unusual march was repeated as another large drove of turkeys made its way from Jackson and Oak Ridge to Cape Girardeau. The turkeys, numbering about 3,000, were pastured at the old fairgrounds. The old fairgrounds were located near the old Gordonville Road and the road that would later become U.S. 61 near the intersection of what is now Independence Street and Kingshighway.

During that time, the Cape Girardeau County Fair and Park Association were beginning work on the new fairgrounds on the spot that would become Capaha Park.

By the end of November, the Western Poultry and Game Co. was dressing and shipping more than 1,000 turkeys per day from their branch office in Cape Girardeau. The following week, the company reported they were preparing a large order of turkeys for the New York market.

An advertisement seeking turkeys is seen. Western Poultry and Game Co. placed the advertisement in the Cape Girardeau Democrat in 1899.Submitted by Lyle Randolph

“The turkey crop of this county this year is immense,” the Cape Girardeau Democrat reported Nov. 11, 1899, “Cape Girardeau County turkeys will adorn the tables of thousands of families for Thanksgiving dinner.”

Lyle Randolph is the general manager of Century Casino Cape Girardeau.