Out of the past: March 23

1998

Spring planting has been delayed again; Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois farmers are usually in the fields by late February, but wet weather conditions have prevented field work this year; following rains totaling 3 1/2 inches during the past week, leading to the first day of spring Friday, farmers are looking at another week to 10 days of waiting.

Southeast Missouri State University will celebrate its 125th anniversary during the 1998-1999 academic year; the celebration will kick off Aug. 23 with the annual Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce "Welcome Back" picnic at Capaha Park; although the enabling legislation establishing the school was dated March 22, 1873, the site for the Third District Normal School wasn't selected until fall 1873; the university felt the start of the fall semester would be an appropriate time to kick off the anniversary celebration.

1973

The Army Corps of Engineers begins mobilizing equipment to raise the upper fuse plug levee of the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway in Southeast Missouri as a precautionary measure against flooding at Cairo, Illinois; the levee is being raised to a height that will hold a stage of 60 feet on the Cairo gauge; current crest predictions of 54.5 feet for tomorrow are holding at Cairo for now.

It is doubtful the Missouri Park Board can purchase an additional 1,900 acres of land adjoining Hahn State Park in Ste. Genevieve County, Joseph Jaeger Jr., state parks director, says; Jaeger, who with board members were here Thursday night and toured Trail of Tears State Park this morning, says the board couldn't possibly pay more than the appraisal value of $325,000 that it has offered the owner of the property, Kaiser-Moulton Inc. of Ste. Genevieve and St. Louis.

1948

Continuing its upward surge, the Mississippi River rose 3.1 feet in the past 24-hour period, bringing the second flood threat to Cape Girardeau in two months; the stage at 8 a.m. is 30.5 feet, and the predicted crest is 36 or 37 feet; Red Cross personnel are preparing plans to evacuate the low-lying Smelterville area, into which the river begins to penetrate at the 32-foot stage.

A shortage of coal, brought about by strikes in eastern coal mines, results in a coal saving program being initiated at the State College; President W.W. Parker says electricity in college buildings, most of which is generated at the college power plant, is turned off a portion of each day; the program will continue as long as the mining industry remains unsettled.

1923

Cape Girardeau is planning the largest improvement program in the city's history; it is announced that the City Council has approved the expenditure of nearly $400,000 for various projects in all parts of the city; topping the list is the completion of the West End sewer; improvements also include street paving, sidewalk construction, extension of water service to the West End residence section south of Broadway and in the south end of the city, and replacing the wooden blocks on Broadway with paving.

Having purchased the large transfer truck which was operated by the late Otto Goehring, Edgar Kain and W.F. Martens are engaged in the transfer business here on a large scale.

-- Sharon K. Sanders