Week of July 31 - Aug. 6

Aug. 3, 1942

WORK TO START ON CAPE AIR FIELD

U.S. Training Center Here

Site on Highway 61 Picked for Location of Army Unit

Work onthe new airport to be built five miles south of Cape Girardeau on Highway 61 will start Tuesday and will be rushed as much as possible, the Chamber of Commerce was notified by telegram late Saturday by Oliver L. Parks, president of the corporation that will operate it.

Because of military restrictions, details concerning the field's equipment, its personnel and the number of cadets to be in training are not disclosed.

The air field is planned to be in operation by Jan. 1...

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Aug. 3, 1999

Visual historian and artist Jacob 'Jake' Wells dies

By Tamara Zellars Buck

Southeast Missourian

He once referred to his work as "thoughts on a wall" and probably never recognized the depths of his talent.

Jacob Kenneth "Jake" Wells, a well-known Cape Girardeau artist who had lived most recently in Marble Hill, died Sunday, Aug. 1, 1999. He was 81.

Wells taught 14 years in Jackson School District before joining the art department at Southeast Missouri State University in 1960. He served as chairman of the department from 1972 to 1976. He retired in 1980.

Colleagues said Wells could be considered a historian for the region because his works often depicted historically relevant scenes from Southeast Missouri.

He was best known for "Missouri Mills," a collection of watercolors on display at the University Museum, and for murals he painted at the corner of Fountain and Broadway streets and in Kent Library at the university.

But Wells' works can be found throughout the region because he was a prolific artist who often donated his works to local charities...

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Aug. 4, 2004

First bridge blast draws large crowd

By Mark Bliss

Southeast Missourian

Explosives sent a section of the old Mississippi River bridge at Cape Girardeau crashing onto the tree-filled Illinois shore Tuesday as hundreds of spectators looked on from the Missouri shore trying to glimpse a piece of history.

The blast brought down three piers and the metal spans -- about 1,250 feet in length -- that sat on those piers in a matter of seconds.

It was the first of eight blasts that will occur over the next five months to remove the 76-year-old span. The next is tentatively scheduled to be set off in a couple of weeks, said Missouri Department of Transportation engineer Stan Johnson...