The Best of Missouri

[HostDave]

By Timothy Rubacky, Senior Vice President

A the moment, the grand American Queen is southbound on the Mississippi River as she comes back to New Orleans, LA after completing her fall foliage season on the Upper Mississippi between St. Paul, MN and St. Louis, MO. In fact, today she is in Cape Girardeau, MO and tomorrow visits New Madrid, MO.

Other than St. Louis, it’s the historic town of Hannibal that usually gets all the fanfare when we come to the Show Me State. But if you look closely at our itineraries, you see we visit not just the towns along the river you know by name but a few you don’t. Often, it is the lesser-known destinations that are the biggest hits with our guests. Since this is the last time we will be on this part of the river until next year, I wanted to pay tribute to two all-stars in Missouri.

While Cape Girardeau has long since lost its nickname as “The City of Roses” when the rose bushes along a stretch of highway were removed and the rose gardens in the community were replaced by less-demanding flowers in recent years, the city has plenty of history. In fact, an annual Storytelling Festival spins tales of Cape Girardeau’s past and its ties to the mighty Mississippi. Those stories also have been immortalized in an enormous mural painted on the floodwall that stretches the length of the downtown area. The 24 panels cover 18,000 square feet and tell of more than 275 years of local progress, wars, disasters and achievements.

A small trading post grew on the site of present-day Cape Girardeau back in 1733, giving the city a history longer than many of its peers. The post was established by Jean Baptiste de Girardot and an anglicized version of his name became the name of the town itself many years later. Girardot was a French soldier and the influence of the French was strong in the city’s development. From as long ago as 1765, the settlement was known as Cape Girardot. Unfortunately, the rocky outcropping that provided the city with the “Cape” portion of its moniker was blasted away to accommodate the railroads, but the name stayed.

By 1808, the town was incorporated even though Missouri wasn’t yet a state. By 1843, Cape Girardeau was a full-fledged city and its key location on the river made it not only prosperous, but the single largest steamboat port between Memphis and St. Louis, according to many sources of the day.

Like most cities in the area, Cape Girardeau played its part in the Civil War and was the site of a bloody battle on April 26, 1863. An artillery battle lasting four hours badly damaged the town and killed 30 Confederate and 23 Union soldiers.

The Civil War is also tied to New Madrid, too. Although known as the location for the site for the Battle of Island Number Ten on the Mississippi River during the Civil War, New Madrid’s name is forever tied to tragedy. New Madrid was at the epicenter of a seismic shift 200 years ago so violent that the Mississippi appeared to run upstream. Founded by fur trappers in 1788, the town was just an outpost when more than 1,000 earthquakes struck the region during the winter of 1811-1812. The strongest quake measured 8.0 on the Richter Scale and reportedly rang church bells as far away as Boston and Toronto. At the time, New Madrid was part of the Louisiana Territory and the earthquakes are still the most powerful ever to strike the United States outside of the West Coast.

The first Mississippi River steamboat, the New Orleans, just happened to be in the area during her maiden voyage from Pittsburgh to her namesake city and passengers onboard reported a strange roar, boiling white waters, geysers of mud shooting out of fields, collapsing riverbanks and entire trees floating down the river. The ground shifted so violently that portions of the Mississippi River itself near New Madrid actually flowed north briefly as the slabs of earth gyrated and settled.

The earthquake that struck on February 7, 1812 not only completed destroyed New Madrid, but also badly damages houses and collapsed chimneys in St. Louis. At an area known as Kentucky Bend, a phenomenon known as uplift created temporary waterfalls. Blocked streams backed up and eventually created Reelfoot Lake in Lake County, Tennessee.

Some good did come of the earthquakes, however. Lilburn and Isham Lewis murdered a man named George Lewis on December 15, 1811 and hid the body in a chimney. Without a body, there could be no charges. Six weeks later, the tremors caused the chimney to crumble, revealing the gruesome evidence.

Both Cape Girardeau and New Madrid are intriguing towns. More importantly, like all communities along the river, they have welcomed our guests and crew with open arms. I want to thank everyone in these historic destinations for their kindness and hospitality each time we visit. The spirit of the river is alive and well in Missouri.