1997

A new commuter parking area has been established near Interstate 55 off of Route K at Cape Girardeau; work on the new area, which can accommodate 20 vehicles, was completed recently by the Missouri Department of Transportation; the parking area, open to the public, is located .25 mile west of I-55 and Route K intersection at the intersection of County Road 317 with Route K; it was constructed at a minimal cost.

ST. LOUIS -- The Southeast Missourian won 14 awards, including general excellence among daily newspapers, in the 1997 Better Newspaper Contest sponsored by the Missouri Press Association; the honors were handed out yesterday at a luncheon in St. Louis; in all, the newspaper received one first-place award, three second-place awards, one third-place award and seven honorable mentions; the Missourian beat out nine other major dailies in the state, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Kansas City Star, in winning the general excellence award.

1972

Cape Girardeau's United Way campaign stands just $5,227 short of its $120,950 goal; campaign organizers call for a concerted effort by workers during the next week to review and call again on those who have not returned pledge cards.

Paul L. Nenninger, 421 S. Ellis St., began duties yesterday as a deputy under Cape Girardeau County Sheriff Ivan E. McLain; Nenninger, 23, replaces Deputy Michael Hurst, a three-year member of the department, who intends to leave Nov. 15 for employment with a Cape Girardeau commercial cleaning firm.

1947

HORSESHOE LAKE, Ill. -- Already Canada geese are coming into Horseshoe Lake by the thousands, and hundreds more are arriving day and night; but hunters won't get to try their luck during the 30-day Illinois goose hunting season; once again this season, the area is closed to hunting by order of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Interior, and the Illinois Department on Conservation.

Two fertile Mississippi River islands, containing between them 2,400 acres, have been sold in one of the largest land transactions in recent years by Dr. Clyde E. Duncan of Herrin, Illinois, to Clarence Hoppe of Friedheim for a consideration reported to be around $65,000; largest of the two islands sold, and familiar to hundreds of hunters in this area, was Devil's Island, officially Island No. 24 to the U.S. Engineers, which contains 2,000 acres; the other is Picayune Island, Island No. 23, which contains about 400 acres; both are highly productive, their crops consisting mainly of corn and beans.

1922

Acting chief of police H.F. Wickham and his force spent last night patrolling Cape Girardeau in search of would be vandals; they managed to catch several pranksters red handed; the best joke on Halloween revelers was perpetrated by the chief; upon discovering a number of youngsters with a purloined ice wagon belonging to C. Meinz on Henderson Avenue near Independence Street, Wickham forced the youths to drag the heavy wagon back to Meinz's home on Jefferson Avenue near Pacific Street.

Lee Pedigo, taxi driver, is seriously injured when an automobile he is driving is struck by a southbound Frisco train, as he attempts to cross the railroad tracks in front of the approaching train at the end of Themis Street shortly after noon; the locomotive strikes the auto squarely, one part of the pilot smashing in the driver's seat and another tearing off the left rear wheel; Pedigo, who says he didn't see the train until it was a few feet from his car, attempts to jump, but is caught and thrown out on the pilot of the engine, remaining there until the train comes to stop 250 feet down the tracks.

-- Sharon K. Sanders