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Quoted: my mom was raised in Cairo. My Uncle and Aunt endured the 68'riots there. They lived in a shotgun house. They set for several nights,one at each end of the house with rifles. My cousins in the most protected bedroom. there were a couple of shots fired,but no confirmed hits EtA my dad did some part time work on a farm in Mounds,a few miles north. An elderly black woman who was also there. refused to eat lunch with us because she said it wasn't her place. Closest I ever came to segregation. that was in 1974 View Quote Same scenario with my father. Lots of interesting stories from that time frame. I love the Cairo BBQ sauce. |
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Leave it to ARFCOM. A couple weeks ago I was flying a routine ATL to DEN run and looked out the right window and recognized Cairo 36,000 feet below. I snapped a quick photo: <a href="http://s61.photobucket.com/user/zzyzxx/media/DSCN2709%20-%20Version%202.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h51/zzyzxx/DSCN2709%20-%20Version%202.jpg</a> This will be my official contribution to this thread. Enjoy. View Quote Nice picture. Thanks for sharing. |
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Used to Goose hunt down there-a-bouts ...oh....back about '85. Back when we had winters and the geese would actually fly that far south.
Once bought some watered down gas from some hillbillys straight out of Deliverance from there..abouts. They had two pumps and the filled me up with the pump they used for the dumb Yankee's. Yeah that place only flew Confederate and still took losing personal. Still my kinda town. Lotsa hunters, lotsa gun owners. |
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Interesting read at the link; Excerpt; The decision – which has been fiercely contested in the courts – set a fading town of 2,800 mainly African American residents against relatively well-off farmers. "Making this decision is not easy or hard," Major-General Michael Walsh, commander of the army corps, told reporters. "It's simply grave – because the decision leads to loss of property and livelihood, either in a floodway or in an area that was not designed to flood." By Tuesday morning, the water levels surrounding Cairo had fallen to 18.4 metres, from 18.8 metres and rising before the breach. The national weather service said the river was expected to recede to 17.9 metres by Saturday. But a great swathe of farm country was being slowly flooded in muddy water. A village called Pin Hook was completely flooded. Farmers in Missouri said the blast would destroy an entire year of crops. "It's a sickening feeling," said Bob Byrne, who farms 550 acres below the levee. "They're talking about not getting the water off until late July or early August. That knocks out a whole season." Walsh has also indicated that he may have to blow up other levees downstream to try to contain the worst flooding in the area since 1927. Cairo, which lies on the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, was an important steamboat port in the 1800s, and served for a few months as the headquarters for the union armies of Ulysses Grant early in the civil war. But the town is long past its heyday, and the decision to save Cairo outraged Missouri farmers and state officials who had fought to block the levee demolition in court. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Bet flood insurance is expensive there. In 2011 the US Army Corps of Engineers blew up the main line Mississippi River levy in order to save Cairo, Il. And, in the process, they flooded 130,000 acres of prime Missouri farmland and 90 farm houses. Without an intentional breach, authorities had warned of massive flooding that could wipe out Cairo. Sounds like politics may have played a role in the decision. The story: Link Interesting read at the link; Excerpt; The decision – which has been fiercely contested in the courts – set a fading town of 2,800 mainly African American residents against relatively well-off farmers. "Making this decision is not easy or hard," Major-General Michael Walsh, commander of the army corps, told reporters. "It's simply grave – because the decision leads to loss of property and livelihood, either in a floodway or in an area that was not designed to flood." By Tuesday morning, the water levels surrounding Cairo had fallen to 18.4 metres, from 18.8 metres and rising before the breach. The national weather service said the river was expected to recede to 17.9 metres by Saturday. But a great swathe of farm country was being slowly flooded in muddy water. A village called Pin Hook was completely flooded. Farmers in Missouri said the blast would destroy an entire year of crops. "It's a sickening feeling," said Bob Byrne, who farms 550 acres below the levee. "They're talking about not getting the water off until late July or early August. That knocks out a whole season." Walsh has also indicated that he may have to blow up other levees downstream to try to contain the worst flooding in the area since 1927. Cairo, which lies on the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, was an important steamboat port in the 1800s, and served for a few months as the headquarters for the union armies of Ulysses Grant early in the civil war. But the town is long past its heyday, and the decision to save Cairo outraged Missouri farmers and state officials who had fought to block the levee demolition in court. Wow! I lived a few miles west of Pinhook at a conservation area called Ten Mile Pond. Good folks in Pinhook. Community was all black. Probably why the feds decided to flood it. Google maps shows my old house is gone after they blew the levee... In 1995 I had water within 60 ft of my house. There was talk of blowing the levee then. I was located 10 miles from the main levee and just a few miles from the setback levee. Lucky they didn't, but I was flooded in for a few weeks that summer... |
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Sometimes instead of taking I-75 i'll drive up Hwy 41 here in GA, it's neat to see some of the old abandoned gas stations and hotels with 50's or earlier styling View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Neat. Thanks for posting OP. The U.S. Interstate Highway system changed a lot of towns that were booming in the 1950's. If you travel the old old pre-Interstate highways you can see a lot of similar towns. Sometimes instead of taking I-75 i'll drive up Hwy 41 here in GA, it's neat to see some of the old abandoned gas stations and hotels with 50's or earlier styling My bucket list includes traveling across the US using back roads. |
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Hickman is a real shit hole. Literally no jobs. Everyone who lives there works elsewhere. Whenever I would go there I would be reminded of the scene of Bratislava from Euro trip View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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I used to drive through Cairo when I hauled steel wire out of of Hickman, KY. It's an odd, depressing little place, part 'The Rez' and part 'The Walking Dead'. It would make a great backdrop for a film or urban-combat exercise, but only if burning it to the ground was the only option at the conclusion. The plant that makes steel mesh for concrete is still open, but the idiots who load the trucks are in no hurry to do their jobs. I hated going there, and am no longer allowed to load anymore. Once, after gashing my leg to the bone,I then had to drive myself in my truck to the E.R. in Fulton with a shop rag taped to my leg so my boot wouldn't fill up with blood. Fuck that place with a rusty spike.. |
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Yep. Fuck Cairo, Illinois.
http://www.semissourian.com/gallery/7933/ http://www.farmgateblog.com/article/1386/the-losses-are-beginning-to-be-estimated-from-the-destruction-of-the-birds- May 2, 2011 was a black day in the lives of hundreds of people in southeastern Missouri, when the Army Corps of Engineers destroyed the Birds Point levee and intentionally flooded 130,000 acres of farmland and farmsteads in the New Madrid Floodway. Graphic pictures of destroyed farmland are circulating, and costs of the agricultural losses are beginning to be totaled.
The Birds Point Levee was the doorway to allow floodwaters on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to have somewhere else to go, other than to threaten the community of Cairo, Illinois. The New Madrid Floodway had been the product of flood control plans on the Mississippi following the 1937 flood of similar proportion. But the floodway had not been intentionally used previously and the breaching of the levee was disturbing to many and to others spelled the end of their farming livelihood. To begin estimating the loss to Missouri farmers and farm owners, economists Scott Brown, Scott Gerlt, and Lori Wilcox of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri initially calculated the 2011 crop loss. Their report assumes that no land will be replanted after waters recede this year, and warn that anyone who does attempt to plant may be subject to more flooding since the levee has not been restored and the land could re-flood. The economists did not attempt to calculate the loss to hundreds of farmsteads, farm buildings, grain bins, livestock, and farm equipment caught in the floodwaters. Nor did they try to tabulate the removal of sand, rock and debris carried into the floodway and converted into a surrealistic moonscape. Their report also does not assess the long term impact of loss of soil tilth, humus, and nutrients, or impact on future crops that might be planted in future years. They say, “Effects beyond 2011 crop losses could add millions of dollars to the total impact of the floodway operation, but are beyond the scope of this report.” View Quote |
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Are there any really livable places along the missisip from Missouri south?
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Yep. Fuck Cairo, Illinois. http://www.semissourian.com/gallery/7933/ http://www.farmgateblog.com/article/1386/the-losses-are-beginning-to-be-estimated-from-the-destruction-of-the-birds- View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
Yep. Fuck Cairo, Illinois. http://www.semissourian.com/gallery/7933/ http://www.farmgateblog.com/article/1386/the-losses-are-beginning-to-be-estimated-from-the-destruction-of-the-birds- May 2, 2011 was a black day in the lives of hundreds of people in southeastern Missouri, when the Army Corps of Engineers destroyed the Birds Point levee and intentionally flooded 130,000 acres of farmland and farmsteads in the New Madrid Floodway. Graphic pictures of destroyed farmland are circulating, and costs of the agricultural losses are beginning to be totaled.
The Birds Point Levee was the doorway to allow floodwaters on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to have somewhere else to go, other than to threaten the community of Cairo, Illinois. The New Madrid Floodway had been the product of flood control plans on the Mississippi following the 1937 flood of similar proportion. But the floodway had not been intentionally used previously and the breaching of the levee was disturbing to many and to others spelled the end of their farming livelihood. To begin estimating the loss to Missouri farmers and farm owners, economists Scott Brown, Scott Gerlt, and Lori Wilcox of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri initially calculated the 2011 crop loss. Their report assumes that no land will be replanted after waters recede this year, and warn that anyone who does attempt to plant may be subject to more flooding since the levee has not been restored and the land could re-flood. The economists did not attempt to calculate the loss to hundreds of farmsteads, farm buildings, grain bins, livestock, and farm equipment caught in the floodwaters. Nor did they try to tabulate the removal of sand, rock and debris carried into the floodway and converted into a surrealistic moonscape. Their report also does not assess the long term impact of loss of soil tilth, humus, and nutrients, or impact on future crops that might be planted in future years. They say, “Effects beyond 2011 crop losses could add millions of dollars to the total impact of the floodway operation, but are beyond the scope of this report.” Guberment economists |
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Quoted: Is that the place with the underground coal fire which will burn forever? View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Thats Centralia, PA. For real. Is that the place with the underground coal fire which will burn forever? It'll eventually stop. When the Sun becomes a red giant, at the very least. |
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On the way back to Tx from Indy. Low on gas in the middle of the night my gps says there is gas in Cairo............
That place was straight out of a horror movie. Gps took me to the end of town to a gas station that had vines growing over it. We were on vapor by then. Stopped at the police station & there is a running cruiser out front & nobody will come to the door. Shit was getting creepy. We decided to go back to the highway & pray get as far away as we could before we ran out of gas. We coasted into the next town on hopes & dreams. Been telling stories about the place for years & thought it must've been my imagination. |
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I'm gonna go there now that I saw the pictures..it's not that far from Metropolis. I'll make it a morning. I can see where Superman lived and where the USS Cairo was built. I have seen the boat many times.
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I think the character Shadow spent some time there in the book American Gods.
Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Leave it to ARFCOM. A couple weeks ago I was flying a routine ATL to DEN run and looked out the right window and recognized Cairo 36,000 feet below. I snapped a quick photo: <a href="http://s61.photobucket.com/user/zzyzxx/media/DSCN2709%20-%20Version%202.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h51/zzyzxx/DSCN2709%20-%20Version%202.jpg</a> This will be my official contribution to this thread. Enjoy. View Quote Cool |
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Quoted: Stay in Cairo, do an AAR, . . . . . . . . View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Looks like a cool stop to drive through on a 3 day weekend. Anyone know of towns nearby that have stuff to do if I spent the night in the general vicinity? Stay in Cairo, do an AAR, . . . . . . . . Judging from the rests of the posts, his AAR may be in the form of an obituary. |
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Uh uh, no Class 3 allowed in IL besides SBR's. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Buy town. Become government. Use government status to buy whatever you want and [b]have police powers. Have Class III shit to play with. Uh uh, no Class 3 allowed in IL besides SBR's. Reading is hard in IL. |
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"In the mid-1960s, the alleged police murder of a young black soldier on leave in Cairo prompted protests and riots, and the National Guard was briefly activated. In response to perceived threats from the black community, the white community formed a civilians' militia called the "White Hats." Predictably, the group was more focused on quelling black protesters than on improving the community as a whole."
BLM ruined that city. |
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On the way back to Tx from Indy. Low on gas in the middle of the night my gps says there is gas in Cairo............ That place was straight out of a horror movie. Gps took me to the end of town to a gas station that had vines growing over it. We were on vapor by then. Stopped at the police station & there is a running cruiser out front & nobody will come to the door. Shit was getting creepy. We decided to go back to the highway & pray get as far away as we could before we ran out of gas. We coasted into the next town on hopes & dreams. Been telling stories about the place for years & thought it must've been my imagination. View Quote Glad you made it out alive. |
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It would have potential if it wasn't in Illinois. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Been there. Friends and I talk about buying the whole town and doing various badass things with it. But, Illinois. It would have potential if it wasn't in Illinois. Would it be abandoned if in a Red state...? So far, all towns like this I have heard of are in Blue strongholds..... |
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The feds flooded a BUNCH of farmland in Missouri by blowing up the river levees to keep that shithole from getting flooded.
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I've been through Cairo dozens of times. Those pictures. Don't really even do it justice.
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On the way back to Tx from Indy. Low on gas in the middle of the night my gps says there is gas in Cairo............ That place was straight out of a horror movie. Gps took me to the end of town to a gas station that had vines growing over it. We were on vapor by then. Stopped at the police station & there is a running cruiser out front & nobody will come to the door. Shit was getting creepy. We decided to go back to the highway & pray get as far away as we could before we ran out of gas. We coasted into the next town on hopes & dreams. Been telling stories about the place for years & thought it must've been my imagination. View Quote Dude-you wouldn't have wanted assistance to deal with the local police from what I understand. |
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The feds flooded a BUNCH of farmland in Missouri by blowing up the river levees to keep that shithole from getting flooded. View Quote They dynamited the levee in darkness so no one could record the event or witness the devastation of entire farms, homes and cattle being swallowed up and washed away in a mud tsunami. I believe it was well over the 130,000 acres reported. Tens of millions of dollars damage to Missouri. Over 200 sq miles of farmlands. Over 52,000 hectares. ...for a fucking shit hole city built at the confluence of two great rivers reliant on government subsidies to exist and perpetuate itself. The city could have and should have been evacuated. The flood waters would have receded. The remaining island should have been turned into a nature preserve. It was an evil decision that unfairly punished Missouri farmers. Another aggression. |
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This. To a large extent the Interstate system destroyed small town America. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Neat. Thanks for posting OP. The U.S. Interstate Highway system changed a lot of towns that were booming in the 1950's. If you travel the old old pre-Interstate highways you can see a lot of similar towns. This. To a large extent the Interstate system destroyed small town America. It sure has in SE Missouri. |
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In 2011 the US Army Corps of Engineers blew up the main line Mississippi River levy in order to save Cairo, Il. And, in the process, they flooded 130,000 acres of prime Missouri farmland and 90 farm houses. Without an intentional breach, authorities had warned of massive flooding that could wipe out Cairo. Sounds like politics may have played a role in the decision. The story: Link View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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Bet flood insurance is expensive there. In 2011 the US Army Corps of Engineers blew up the main line Mississippi River levy in order to save Cairo, Il. And, in the process, they flooded 130,000 acres of prime Missouri farmland and 90 farm houses. Without an intentional breach, authorities had warned of massive flooding that could wipe out Cairo. Sounds like politics may have played a role in the decision. The story: Link A Missouri politician caught a lot of flak for opposing this stating "Have you ever seen Cairo Il!" |
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They dynamited the levee in darkness so no one could record the event or witness the devastation of entire farms, homes and cattle being swallowed up and washed away in a mud tsunami. I believe it was well over the 130,000 acres reported. Tens of millions of dollars damage to Missouri. Over 200 sq miles of farmlands. Over 52,000 hectares. ...for a fucking shit hole city built at the confluence of two great rivers reliant on government subsidies to exist and perpetuate itself. The city could have and should have been evacuated. The flood waters would have receded. The remaining island should have been turned into a nature preserve. It was an evil decision that unfairly punished Missouri farmers. Another aggression. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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The feds flooded a BUNCH of farmland in Missouri by blowing up the river levees to keep that shithole from getting flooded. They dynamited the levee in darkness so no one could record the event or witness the devastation of entire farms, homes and cattle being swallowed up and washed away in a mud tsunami. I believe it was well over the 130,000 acres reported. Tens of millions of dollars damage to Missouri. Over 200 sq miles of farmlands. Over 52,000 hectares. ...for a fucking shit hole city built at the confluence of two great rivers reliant on government subsidies to exist and perpetuate itself. The city could have and should have been evacuated. The flood waters would have receded. The remaining island should have been turned into a nature preserve. It was an evil decision that unfairly punished Missouri farmers. Another aggression. This is a crock of shit flooding the farmland to save this shithole. They should have told the town residents, you are dumb enough to live there, when the flood comes do not be surprised. The eventual flooding would take care of the town. |
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I'd check it out if I was in the area, just for shits and giggles.
After a decade of EMS "bad neighborhoods" don't bother me too much. |
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Driven the route from KY to MO with a brief transition across IL in order to see the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Had no desire to see Cairo at all. I did tour the main drag via Google Street View or some such. |
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