Cape Girardeau’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 3 old photos of Cape Girardeau. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The city is named after Jean Baptiste de Girardot, who established a temporary trading post in the area around 1733. He was a French soldier stationed at Kaskaskia between 1704 and 1720 in the French colony of La Louisiane. The "Cape" in the city name referred to a rock promontory overlooking the Mississippi River; it was later destroyed by railroad construction. As early as 1765, a bend in the Mississippi River, about 60 miles (97 km) south of the French village of Ste. Genevieve, had been referred to as Cape Girardot or Girardeau (both pronounced the same in French).
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Cape Girardeau’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cape Girardeau’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewCapital View of, c. 1858: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Cape Girardeau
See all 43 →
Cape Girardeau, decade by decade
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Capital View of (c. 1858) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (3) and the National Register (3). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.