EarthCaching, And the World's Only Inland Cape

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Chatham, IL  76    Low 70     Rain showers....

Cape Girardeau, Missouri, lots of history, great historic section of town, nice murals on the flood walls built to control flooding, and the world's only inland cape! Oh, and Andy's Custard, which we liked better than Culver's! (our humble opinion only...) There is much more--the above stands out from our recent brief visit.

We were attracted to the historic part of town, the flood wall, and the murals painted on the flood wall. While there, Lindy discovered an EarthCache, Cape Girardeau Floods. (Create a log-in, it is 
Sunday 6-14-15
free!). This type of cache is a challenge, as you have to find answers to a series of questions about a unique geological feature or aspect of the Earth from the area of the cache. This one was fun, if not a bit scary regarding the history of flooding of the Mississippi into the city. The day we were there, the river was at the "bottom" of flood stage, 32 feet. You can see in the pictures where the river was. If  you click on the picture to the right to make it larger, you can see the marks of the river for the various years. The river is not yet at the "door" of the flood wall, but take a look at the chart for the current level as of today, and the projected level. They close the flood gates at 36 feet. We're guessing they are closed now!
NOAA Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service 6-17-15

River-side of the flood wall--when the river was at 32 feet...

Then we explored the murals painted on the flood walls. The time frame of the murals:
  •  900-1200, Native Americans
  • 1673, Marquette & Joliet, French Expedition down the Mississippi
  • 1735, Girardot Post
  • 1793, Planning a City
  • 1803, Lewis & Clark
  • 1804, The Louisiana Purchase
  • 1821, Missouri Statehood
  • 1838, The trail of Trails
  • 1861-1863, The Civil War
  • 1870, St. Vincent's Young Ladies' Academy
  • 1875, River Commerce
  • 1880, The Coming of the Railroad
  • 1909, President Taft's Visit
  • 1916, The Great Fire
  • 1918-1919, The Big Freeze
  • 1924-1925,The Three "Cape Girardeaus" and Riverboat Jazz
  • 1927, The Big Flood
  • 1958, River Industry
  • 1964, The Great Wall
  • 1980, Riverfest
  • 2003, The Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge
  • Mississippi River Tales -- The Artists (under the paint brush) 

Slide show of the Murals above

The monument was up on a hill....
 Monday we drove up to Cape Rock, to enjoy the view and to explore our second EarthCache, The World's Only Inland Cape, (Again, create a log in, geocaching is FUN!!) Lindy expected to be on a rock high above the Mississippi--we were not.

Part of the rock was removed to make room for the train tracks, 1880's

Lindy and Rupert, at Cape Rock
We also visited the only remaining structure charged with defending the Mississippi, Fort D. We understand activity was "light", such that the soldiers used logs, painted black, to resemble canons.They called them "Quaker canons".
Fort D
Fort D
Fort D

Anticipation of rain (with more from Tropical Storm Bill coming) on top of what we had while at Cape Girardeau, we cut our time short by one day and headed on up to Chatham, Illinoia, just south of Springfield. 

Geochaching is a great way to learn about an area, and a great way to have fun! 

Roving Riders, SWIRVIN around Springfield, looking for Lincoln!

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