Out of the past: Sept. 22

1998

A Canadian company might establish an airplane manufacturing plant at the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport; Zenair of Canada of Toronto wants to move its manufacturing operations to the United States; the company manufacturers single-engine, two-seater and training aircraft; Zenair has narrowed the site selection to three cities, including Cape Girardeau, with a final decision by the end of the week.

The City of Jackson has bought 60 acres of agricultural land north of town for use as an industrial park; the land, most of which is about half a mile northwest of U.S. 61 and Route D, is known as the old Jenkins property; the city paid in excess of $900,000 for the property; people in the industrial recruitment business say the tract is a prime site because of its proximity to Interstate 55; the seven acres on the east side of U.S. 61 might be used for a park.

1973

The area along the east side of old Highway 61, between the Little River Diversion Channel and Cape Girardeau Municipal Airport, is fast filling with new facilities; under construction is a 5,600-square-foot structure to house an area facility for United Parcel Service; recently completed in the same area is a new 8,000-square-foot building for the Carpet Discount Center; virtually completed and ready for equipment installation is the new building for Delta Plastics.

Complete rebuilding and enlargement of the Burger Chef Restaurant, 2115 Williams St., is underway; the long parking canopy facing the street is being removed, and the dining area will be doubled to accommodate about 150 customers at a sitting; the exterior appearance will be changed to present a Western decor.

1948

The Federal Barge Lines steamer Illinois struck a sandbar four miles north of Cape Girardeau yesterday, and the crew, assisted by a small construction unit push boat, spent the entire morning freeing the craft, only to have its tow of nine barges break loose and float downstream; some of the barges, partially loaded, floated as far as two miles before the tow was remade and the trip downstream resumed.

WYATT, Mo. -- This Mississippi County school district, already bonded to the legal limit and committed to construction of a modern school to serve the Black community, has before it a request of Black mothers from the Delmo resettlement project that their children be admitted to the white elementary school; last July, the district voted $8,000 to construct the new school, but the amount is insufficient for the task; Black children are now taught in a one-room concrete block church building.

1923

Cape Girardeau County carried away all the honors in the grand championship awards in the dairy cattle show at the Cape Fair yesterday; although there were a number of cows from adjoining counties, the Cape Girardeau thoroughbreds won first prizes; grand champion of Holstein males was Magnus Dekal Jr., owned by John Busch of near Cape Girardeau; Capaha Jr., owned by W.F. Koerber, was given the purple ribbon in the Guernsey male class; Koerber's cow, Pokadel, was tops among Guernsey cows; and grand champion in Jersey males went to Fairy Glen's Noble, owned by A.O. Keller.

R.A. Lett, one of the 51 survivors of the U.S. Battleship Main disaster, who is doing plumbing work at Teachers College, has received his first check of $45 as a monthly government pension, which he, along with other survivors, will receive the rest of his life as recompense for his experiences on the ill-fated ship; Lett has lived in Cape Girardeau only a short while.

-- Sharon K. Sanders