The murals of Cape Girardeau

When the Mississippi River floodwall was started in the 1950s, Cape Girardeau began to move away from the river and toward the interstate. The construction of the floodwall and the interstate highway system came into existence at the same time. For Cape Girardeau, the irony of that is significant.

In the middle of the 1950s, the lure of the interstate was great. Merchants, banks and restaurants moved west, to the "new river" with its ports, harbors and communities.

In 1980, author Jonathan Raban traveled the full length of the Mississippi in a john boat, exploring the river, the valley and the river towns. In 1981 he published his observations in "Old Glory: An American Voyage."

Raban stayed in Cape Girardeau for just a few days -- seeking an understanding of the community. He came away not liking us much. He concluded: "If the woody top of town was ancient Greek, its bottom was English medieval. Cape Girardeau was a walled and gated city. A gray concrete battlement, twenty feet high, had been raised around it to protect it from the river. A patchwork of shingled roofs and glass towers showed over the floodwall, but as far as I could see the place was impregnable. Its wall announced that it considered the Mississippi a dangerous enemy. The brute ugliness of the thing had fear and dislike written all over it. Here was a town that was having as little to do with its river as it could possibly manage."

He lunched downtown but found "half the stores empty and up for sale or rent. The saddest place was the waterfront. One could reach the river through a steel gate in the wall. What had once been the town's commercial heart, the steamboat landing, was a ruinous site of heaps of stones, broken cobbles and lumps of cement."

He concluded that "Cape Girardeau itself was forgetful, a place littered with things absentmindedly discarded. It had left its river behind. It was vacating its old town." It was, he said, "an amnesiac city."

Raban interviewed the senior Rush Limbaugh, who interpreted the construction of the floodwall as successful in protecting the city from floods, but in two decades had turned into an eyesore, a barricade "and a great tragedy that happened to the town. It turned us into a segregated city." Mr. Limbaugh concluded with the penetrating comment that "I don't know how many divorces I've handled in my time, but I reckon that the divorce between the river and the city is just about the biggest and saddest divorce I've ever seen."

For almost 50 years the wall has stood as a divide between the town and its river. For 20 years, as Tim Blattner, "Cape Girardeau's Mr. Mural Man," said, people in the community have been discussing ways to enhance the Cape floodwall. Six and a half years ago the River Heritage Mural Association, buoyed by the success of six earlier murals, took on the task. They faced a number of major challenges:

How to pay for it, how to design it, what to include in it and who to paint it.

Blattner asked me to be on an association committee to assist with the design, the historical content and the selection of the artist. I looked back at the stack of materials, and the first dated item is from January 1999. The first working committee meeting was in May 1999, and we came from that meeting with the understanding that the mural should be historical, cultural, educational and scenic; reflect an event, structure, illustration or lifestyle relevant to the community; relate directly to the Mississippi River; promote the Cape Girardeau area and city tourism efforts; and be conducive to artistic presentation. I do not believe we ever moved away from those objectives.

For six-plus years the committee met, discussed, argued and wrestled with that assignment. We agreed that for our second meeting we would each bring a list of 40 topics from the community's past which met those five points and be placed on the wall. When I made my first list, I had 67 items on it. I still have the list -- some of which I am glad did not make the wall, and some of which I wish were there.

But in about three years -- minus an interruption of a few months when it sort of looked like we would never have a mural -- the committee met, sorted out images and topics and came up with a rationale, a chronological order and a priority for the images.

It was quickly apparent that we had to establish some limits. We had lots of topics -- and lots of ideas. We determined that the focus of the mural must be the river. We wanted the river in all of the images, and it is -- in all but one: the Louisiana Purchase story told from in front of the Cabildo in New Orleans.

The specific focus on the river essentially eliminated many significant stories from the past that we wanted to tell: The story of KFVS radio and television, the tornado of 1949, the construction of Academic Hall, the role of the Lincoln-Cobb school, the Billy Sunday revival, the story of Cape's hospitals, the unique history of Haarig, the history of the Purple Crackle (how can you explain the history of Cape without inclusion of the Purple Crackle?), the development of the Little River Drainage District, our unusual city streetcar system, the visits of many celebrities (Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Bobby Kennedy, George McGovern, Bob Hope) and the stories of our libraries, fire department, service clubs, parades, the Royal N'Orleans, the Marquette and the H & H Building.

We thought that the images should be in the form of windows to the past -- a way to look back at the historical river -- from a modern sidewalk setting. We determined that the floodwall should be chronological -- from north to south -- and should tell the evolution of Cape Girardeau from earliest days to modern times.

We finally came to the idea that the images should tell the story of the river from Cape Rock to the new bridge. And all of the images are in that area with the exception of the Trail of Tears and the Louisiana Purchase. We agreed that those were two unique events that could be justified as exceptions to the rule.

We then sought to limit and select. We began with a list of 40 items. We discussed and argued (always in a friendly manner -- almost always). I loved it, because we were talking history. We were interpreting the history of Cape Girardeau.

We went through books, newspaper accounts, archival materials, everything that we could find, and argued our points. All of us had favorites. I was especially interested in having George Thilenius, "Captain Buck" Leyhe and "Peg" Meyer's orchestra on the wall. And, in fact, my favorite of the completed images is that of "Captain Buck," the three Cape Girardeau steamboats and the "Melody Kings."

Other committee members had other favorites. Sharon Sanders, the Southeast Missourian librarian, was interested in telling the story of the fire of 1916. Cape Girardeau County archivist Jane Jackson was interested in the Lewis and Clark story. Ray Owen of the Southeast Missourian pushed for river industry. Don Greenwood felt strongly about including an account of the Riverfest.

It took us about a year, most of 2001 and 2002, to come up with a working group of images. And I believe the committee did a good job of selecting the history to place on the wall.

Once we came to a general agreement on the stories we wanted to tell, we had to select an artist. We had an interesting cross-section of artists.

One interview was with a small and gentle man from Chicago who wore a funny looking red hat. When he came to meet the committee, he knew each of us by name. He never removed his hat throughout the meeting, and I remember thinking that here is a man of conviction, of character, and he will be able to capture our town. He did. He knows us. He knows our history. I think the red hat had something to do with his success. I am pleased to see that the red hat worn by mural artist Tom Melvin is in the mural. It is now a part of our history.

The "Mississippi River Tales" floodwall mural is 1,100 feet long and provides an historical interpretation of Cape Girardeau in 30 images. These images take us back to the river.

Throughout much of our history Cape Girardeau was on the river and of the river. All houses and commercial establishments faced the river. There were windows in all of the prominent houses from which one could see the river. When we moved west to the interstate we were no longer on the river or of the river. The mural is a great historical resource for the community, and the region. It is a teaching tool. I love to drive by the mural and see people standing in front of a particular image, looking, pointing and talking. Someone in the group is teaching history.

At the Southeast Missouri State University homecoming last October I conducted a tour for alumni, taking them past "everything new" in Cape Girardeau. Naturally we went by the murals. I told those on the bus about the murals and what a great resource they were for teaching history. We came around the corner, and, sure enough, there were two ladies, one perhaps in her 50s, the other, approximately 20 years older, standing and studying. As they talked the older lady was pointing, teaching the younger. And that is what the wall can do: bring history to life and help us interpret, discuss and understand.

There is a gap in the historical understanding of today's youths. Before the murals, visiting families came to the waterfront, youngsters walking as close to the water's edge as they dared or as their parents permitted, inevitably tossing a rock into the river, soon followed by "Can we go now?" The river is so much more than that. These windows to the past permit visitors and local residents to stand on the riverbank and see through the wall. Here we can "see" our past. These images enhance our understanding of who we are as a community, as a region and as a nation. The murals make that possible. Thank you, Tom Melvin, for doing this for our community.

I wish Jonathan Raban would return to Cape Girardeau. I wish that the senior Rush Limbaugh could see the new Cape Girardeau: the bridge, the Marquette, the River Campus, the federal courthouse, the river trail, the Red House and the murals. I believe that both of them would see, as we now see, so much more clearly, that Cape Girardeau is on the river and of the river.

Frank Nickell is a history professor at Southeast Missouri State University and director of the Center for Regional History and Cultural Heritage. This essay is excerpted from remarks he made at a banquet July 7 for sponsors of the "Mississippi River Tales" floodwall mural in downtown Cape Girardeau.