Mississippi River Tales mural

February 25, 2005

The River Heritage Mural Association presents the history of Cape Girardeau with 24 painted panels on the Mississippi River floodwall.

Cape Rock before man: Chicago-based artist Thomas Melvin said it shows "a very wide Mississippi and wildlife living comfortably in their habitat." It prominently features several colorful Carolina Parakeets, which are now extinct but were once abundant in the area. The last bird died in captivity in Florida in 1910, Melvin said.

Mississippian Culture circa 900 A.D.: Mississippian is the term anthropologists and archeologists use to describe a native culture that thrived from around 900 A.D. to the 16th century. Tribes in this culture constructed mounds for housing and ceremonial purposes, some of which can still be seen in Southeast Missouri. "It was a huge culture," Melvin said. At right is Hernando de Soto, a 16th century Spanish explorer who led the first European expedition to reach the Mississippi. Melvin said the image is in a different style to provide "relief from realism and the stonework tying everything together."

This mural features educational institutions in Cape's history. For the center image, artist Thomas Melvin chose to depict a scene from St. Vincent’s Ladies Academy, founded in 1839 and located near where the St. Vincent church now stands. On the left is St. Vincent’s Seminary, which was located where Southeast Missouri State University’s new River Campus will be built. On the right is Mark Twain and an image of the Normal School. Twain is featured in the mural because he mentioned passing by Cape Girardeau in his book "Life on the Mississippi."

This mural depicts the height of riverboat commerce in the 1880s and shows men unloading a riverboat docked at Cape Girardeau. The men hauling barrels and sacks are supposed to be roustabouts, the longshoremen of the steamboat era. These roustabouts are carrying grain off the riverboat -- grain that likely was destined for George Thilenius' flour mill on Broadway. In addition to Thilenius' mill, there were three other mills in Cape Girardeau circa 1880.

The man to the right of this panel is Louis Houck, responsible for bringing the first railroad to Cape Girardeau. In addition to being a railroad builder, Houck was a lawyer, historian and author. Houck had a six-month deadline in which to build the first rail line from Delta to Cape Girardeau. The workers ran out of track about 1,000 feet from Cape Girardeau, but Houck was determined to make the Dec. 31, 1880, deadline so he ordered the train to run to the end of the uncompleted track so the workers could tear up the rails behind the train and complete the track into the city. According to stories, the train came into Cape Girardeau three minutes before the deadline approached.

President William Howard Taft visited Cape Girardeau on Oct. 26, 1909. He arrived with a 16-boat flotilla carrying cabinet members, Congressmen, governors, judges, dignitaries and river commissioners that came down the river to publicize the need to stabilize the river channel. Taft spoke to a crowd of 25,000 from the steps of the new Academic Hall on the college campus.

The biggest fire in the history of Cape Girardeau was on March 15, 1916. A steamboat whistle awakened the city that morning to the fire that began south of Broadway and destroyed the Terminal Hotel, the Buckner-Ragsdale store, the Frisco Railroad and the Riverview Hotel.

Because the Mississippi River was wider and slower in the early 1900s than it is today, it could freeze over in periods of cold weather. During the winter of 1918, the river was frozen for several weeks. Some people actually walked across the frozen surface of the river, and others drove a team and wagon or an automobile across it.

This double panel shows, on the left, three steamboats named "Cape Girardeau." Capt. William "Buck" Leyhe was a well-known local favorite. In the right panel, riverboat jazz and ballroom dancing are depicted in the 1920s. Raymond F. "Peg" Meyer led one of the most popular bands.

The great flood of 1927 resulted in the Jadwin Plan, which developed levees and walls on both sides of the Mississippi River from Cape Girardeau to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Mississippi River provides an unlimited supply of sand for Cape Girardeau. The towboat "Miss Evelyn" is owned locally by the Woody Rushing family. Capt. Woody is in silhouette on the bridge.

The Mississippi River floodwall was completed in 1964 after taking eight years to build. It extends more than a mile along the river. The floodwall has protected the downtown area from the huge floods of 1973, 1993 and 1995. The towboat "Elizabeth Ann" is owned locally by the Erlbacher family.

Jacques Marquette, 1673: This mural shows Jacques Marquette taking off for a trip down the Mississippi, despite warnings from members of the Ottawa tribe in Wisconsin that things would become more dangerous farther south. Marquette was a French explorer and Roman Catholic missionary who joined French-Canadian explorer Louis Joliet on a trip down the river. The men got as far as the Arkansas River when they turned back and headed north to Lake Michigan.

Cape Girardeau celebrated its close relationship with the Mississippi River in the 1980s with "Riverfest." Music, food, fireworks and special events brought the community back to the river.

The Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge was dedicated on Dec. 13, 2003 after 15 years of planning and seven years of construction. The bridge was named for the eight-term U.S. Congressman who pushed the legislation to build the modern cable-stayed span. It replaced the first bridge that served the community since 1928.

Girardot trading post: The Girardot trading post was located north of Cape Rock and overlooked the Mississippi. The figure on the right, gesturing, is Jean Baptiste Girardot, a Frenchman who set up a trading post in the city in the 1730s that brought river travellers to the then-remote region. Girardot is the town's namesake.

Settling the land: This mural depicts Louis Lorimier, right, and his secretary, Bartholomew Cousin, in 1793 as they talk about land grants and distribution of land. Lorimier was sent to Cape Girardeau by the Spanish government to establish a military post and was granted rights to develop and settle the land. Cousin was an engineer and surveyor who platted Cape Girardeau. The post grew under Lorimier, and in 1806 he donated four acres to establish a seat of justice. Two years later, Cape Girardeau became a city. In the back of the mural is Lorimier's house, now known as the Red House.

Lorimier greets Lewis: Louis Lorimier again is featured on a mural. This time the year is 1803, and he is greeting Meriwether Lewis. Lewis and William Clark passed through Cape Girardeau in November 1803 and caught Lorimier while he was at a horse race. Lewis described his visit to the city in his journals and described Lorimier in detail, including his dark hair that was long enough to touch the ground.

The Louisiana Purchase treaty, signed in 1803, marked the United States' purchase of more than 800,000 miles of French land for about $15 million. The man in the bath is French military leader and future emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. According to Napoleon’s brother, Lucien, both he and other brother Joseph visited Napoleon to convince him not to sell the Louisiana Territory. Reportedly, Napoleon was in the bath at the time of the visit and, after splashing his brothers with water, said he would sell the territory to the United States.

The mural is about Missouri statehood, which took place in 1821. The whale and lighthouse represent the state of Maine, while the riverboat and Mississippi River represent Missouri. Maine and Missouri came into the Union as part of the Missouri Compromise, which balanced the number of free states and slave states in the Union. Maine entered the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state. The green figure is the legendary keelboatman, Mike Fink.

This mural features Cherokee tribe members traveling through the harsh winter during their forced relocation known as the Trail of Tears. Between 1838 and 1839, the U.S. government forced thousands of Cherokees to move from their homes in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee to present-day Oklahoma. Thousands of tribe members who traveled on foot died on the roughly 1,000-mile journey.

The Civil War left its own mark on Cape Girardeau, which is why it makes sense that the floodwall mural includes three scenes from the conflict. On the left, blue images of Ulysses Grant and Benjamin Prentiss recount a heated argument the two generals had over rank. The next scene is the Civil War-era view from Fort A, one of Cape Girardeau’s four forts. Finally, the mural on the right depicts a moment from the Battle of Cape Girardeau, which took place April 26, 1863.

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The River Heritage Mural Association presents the history of Cape Girardeau with 24 painted panels on the Mississippi River floodwall.

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