Out of the past 7/31/14

1989

Two missing channel buoys are believed responsible for the grounding north of here last night of a 20-barge tow of the American Commercial Barge Lines towboat, Phoenix; the barges were loaded with coal bound for New Roads, Louisiana.

City officials are looking at improving the Capaha Park lagoon with construction of a retaining wall along its banks; such a wall could serve as the foundation for further improvements around the pond, such as construction of a walkway.

1964

Members of Southeast Missouri's 1st Battalion, 140th Infantry, Missouri National Guard, depart by motor convoy for their two-week summer encampment at Camp Ripley, Minnesota; the convoy includes members of the headquarters unit in Cape Girardeau.

A crop-killing combination of dry skies and relentless sun is pressing most Southeast Missouri counties under the thumb of a drought being compared to that of 1954; summer-long stingy rainfall and consistent temperatures over 90 have taken their toll mostly on corn, pasture and hay, and to a lesser extent on cotton and soybeans.

1939

Work begins on the excavation for a two-room store building on the lot just west of Hotel Jackson, owned by A.D. Milde and E.F. Williams; one of the rooms will be occupied by a women's ready-to-wear shop, and the other by the Cape County Loan Co. and the Jackson Finance Co.

Brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers line Themis Street between Sunset Boulevard and Louisiana Avenue in the afternoon to watch Cape Girardeau youths scoot over the concrete on skates to open the annual Boys' Week program sponsored by the Optimist Club.

1914

The Vawter Chautauqua system will hold a Chautauqua in Cape Girardeau in August; this is the same company that put on a Chautauqua here last year that was so well attended.

G.W. Tallent and Paul S. Miller are planning to open a new sanitary barber shop on Main Street, next door to Sturdivant Bank; Miller will have charge of the shop, while Tallent will continue to manage the shop in the H.-H. Building.

-- Sharon K. Sanders