This weekend Sandra and I decided to take some time to go visit her mother and older sister in Cape Girardeau, MO (see official home page here). Cape Girardeau is a city in Cape Girardeau and Scott counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is located approximately 115 miles southeast of St. Louis and 175 miles north of Memphis. It is situated on the Mississippi River.
This is the first time that either one of us has been to this area of Missouri, so I thought I would take a little time and see “what is the Cape”!
According to multiple web sources, the city is named after Jean Baptiste de Giradot who established a local trading post in the area circa 1733. Historians believe that the “Cape” portion of the name referred to a large boulder overlooking the Mississippi River. However, the large boulder was destroyed by railroad construction.
First Lady Laura Bush recognized Cape Girardeau as a “Preserve America Community” for it’s work in surveying and protecting historic buildings in 2008. The city is also known as “The City of Roses” due to the number of rose gardens than were prominent throughout the city, although many are no longer maintained.
A calendar of events and activities in and around the city can be found at http://www.visitcape.com/.
On our travels in, we passed through many small towns that have been hit by the recession and the moving of America into city limits. One of the small towns we went through was Cairo, IL. I was saddened by the fact that there were more empty and dilapidated buildings than there were occupied buildings. Cairo is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, and almost the entire town is listed on the Register of Historic Places. If we head back the same way, I will see if I can get some pictures.
Stay tuned for pictures, and more happenings of the Trumpfheller Clan!!!
