Out of the past: Oct. 4

1999

Northbound and southbound U.S. 61 in the heart of Jackson might be separated into one-way streets, and stop signs on the route would be eliminated under a proposal being considered to help ease mounting traffic congestion; the plan is in the “kicking around” stage and might change dramatically, city and Missouri Department of Transportation officials stress.

Cape Girardeau will play host to more than 75 musical groups Friday and Saturday at the third City of Roses Music Festival; artists performing folk, rock ’n’ roll, rhythm and blues, country, Christian rock and bluegrass are among the entertainment; this year’s festival will be held in conjunction with Southeast Missouri State University’s Homecoming, and many activities are planned at the university’s River Campus.

1974

Cape Girardeau County Court met at Jackson yesterday with George F. Rouse, operators of Cape Private Ambulance Service, to begin negotiations for a new contract that would provide continued ambulance service in the county; the current, three-year contract provides that the ambulance service be subsidized $26,100 annually; of that amount, the county pays 53%, the City of Cape Girardeau 37% and the City of Jackson 10%.

The final segment of Interstate 55 — replacing two-lane Highway 61 in Pemiscot County that held the grim distinction of being one of the deadliest in terms of traffic accidents — will open to traffic Monday; the 12.7 miles of I-55 in Pemiscot County wasn’t completed as scheduled during the summer of 1973 mainly because weather conditions hampered work a good part of the summer; flooding of the Mississippi River that year delayed the start of the construction by one-and-a-half months, until early June.

1949

The Cape Girardeau City Council has approved the proposed conversion of Frisco Park into a free parking lot for the Main Street business district; further, the council agreed to a request by the Retail Merchants Association to establish a similar space for the Broadway and Good Hope Street business areas.

In striking a comparison between the frontier facing the founders of Cape Girardeau and the one facing today’s residents of the city and elsewhere in the world, Charles van Ravenswaay, director of the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, said the challenge of the pioneer was the conquest of the wilds of this land, but the world frontier now is more challenging — the creation of a world free from fear itself; van Ravenswaay was the guest speaker at a dedicatory service Monday afternoon for the new memorial entrance to Old Lorimier Cemetery; the event, which also marked Missouri Day, was moved to the auditorium of Washington School, near the cemetery, because of rain.

1924

Linder Deimund, assistant manager of the Cape Sand Co., announces the company has purchased the lot on which the Matteson paint mill was formerly located and will begin work Monday on construction of a new plant for the sand company; the purchase price was approximately $12,000; the tract, sold by G.H. Hillis of Los Angeles, California, has an area of 115 feet on North Street by 145 feet on Main, as well as a direct railway switch to the main line of the Frisco Railroad.

The bridge across the big Whitewater Creek at Millersville, on Highway 9 in the northwest part of Cape Girardeau County, is set to open to traffic early tomorrow morning; opening of the bridge will allow traffic to proceed without interruption over the highway from Cape Girardeau to Fredericktown and other points to the north.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a weekend column called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper.