The Coming of The Railroad
After earlier attempts to build a railroad to Cape Girardeau failed, local attorney Louis Houck made an arrangement with creditors to bring a railroad into the city by midnight of January 1,1881. If he could do so, he would acquire clear title to the properties of the failed railroad. Running short of rails and time, Houck divided men into two crews - one building from the west, the other from the east. His men borrowed rails and ties form the abandoned rail line to the north and were able to build sufficient tracks to connect with the crew coming from Delta. Slowly the engine move forward. Te last rail was put in place one hour before midnight, and the engine arrived in a sleeping Cape Girardeau at 2 a.m. on New Year's Day. Cape Girardeau had a railroad!| HM Number | HM21AO |
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| Tags | |
| Placed By | Mississippi River Tales, River Heritage Mural Association |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Thursday, August 31st, 2017 at 1:01pm PDT -07:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 16S E 276861 N 4131641 |
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| Decimal Degrees | 37.30465000, -89.51771667 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 37° 18.279', W 89° 31.063' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 37° 18' 16.74" N, 89° 31' 3.7799999999999" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 573 |
| Which side of the road? | Marker is on the right when traveling North |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 2-98 N Water St, Cape Girardeau MO 63701, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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