BLOOMFIELD MUSEUM BENEFITS FROM RHODES' GIFT

Generosity can spur wonderful opportunities for a community and a region. An agricultural museum that has seen limited public viewing in recent years may be getting a new lease on life.

Gene Rhodes, former Cape Girardeau mayor and local businessman, has donated the large collection of antique farm equipment to the Stars and Stripes Museum in Bloomfield. The museum plans to construct an adjacent building to display the equipment.

Military and agriculture? It could provide an added tourism draw to the Bloomfield museum. After all, agriculture remains one of the largest economic factors in Southeast Missouri, and it makes sense for the region to pay tribute to agriculture's contributions with such a museum.

About 500 pieces of equipment will relocate from the American Heritage Museum near the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport to Bloomfield. Many of the items still work. Most date back from the early to mid-1900s. They tell a story of American ingenuity and hard work. And they will stir plenty of memories for those who grew up with this equipment on farms.

Interestingly, among the equipment collection is a Stars and Stripes newspaper. The paper got its start during the Civil War in Bloomfield, where the first issue was printed. The military publication was printed on and off through the Civil War and both world wars. Since World War II, it has been published continuously.

The first phase of the Stars and Stripes Museum and Library opened in 1998, funded entirely through private donations. The estimated $5 million endeavor, which will include five more buildings, is hoped to be completed by 2010. Continued development will depend on the generosity of people like Rhodes.

The agricultural museum traces its roots to Altenburg, where it was known as the Old Mill Town Museum. There it proved a big tourist draw. The museum moved several times before settling along Interstate 55 near the airport. As the largest farm equipment collection in the state, it never materialized into a big tourist attraction. Perhaps this new location and heightened marketing will help give the farm equipment museum the attention it deserves.