Out of the past 12/4/11

25 years ago: Dec. 4, 1986

A more-than-seven-square-mile area of Cape Girardeau has been designated as an enterprise zone by the state; the zone is bounded by the city limits on the south and east, and by Kingshighway, William Street, West End Boulevard, Henderson Avenue, Sprigg Street, Bertling Street and Cape Rock Drive on the west and north.

Removal of track along an abandoned 3.3-mile railroad branch line, a portion of which runs down the middle of Independence Street, is about 60 percent complete.

50 years ago: Dec. 4, 1961

A means of improving traffic flow on Bertling Street between Sprigg Street and Big Bend Road is advanced to the city council by city engineer John Walther; he says the Cape Special Road District is interested in widening and reducing the grade on Bertling Street.

For the second time, the Jackson Board of Aldermen agrees to table an application for a building permit for a packing house, after a delegation of residents and the applicant for the permit both appear with legal council; the proposed packing house would be a block from the new city hall.

75 years ago: Dec. 4, 1936

Fire chief Harry C. Rabe resigns as head of the department; the city council accepts his resignation and appoints firefighter Robert J. Kammer acting chief.

The fleet is in; the port of Cape Girardeau, headquarters for the First Field Area of U.S. Engineers, presents along its northern Mississippi River front a maze of masts, derricks, barges and other floating equipment; there are 50 boats anchored for the winter in a newly-chosen harbor just south of the protecting point and shelf of Cape Rock.

100 years ago: Dec. 4, 1911

From every city and town in the region, prominent men are in Cape Girardeau attending the Southeast Missouri booster meeting, delegations having been arriving on every train since last night; all day long, informal meetings are held at the Commercial Club rooms, as district men talk over matters pertaining to the general good.

The fourth annual Normal School short winter term for Southeast Missouri farmers begins; today's lecture deals with corn, the speaker being professor S.A. Hoover of the Warrensburg, Mo., Normal.

-- Sharon K. Sanders