Eritage … Welcome to … - Events to Remember
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Remembering Our Heritage … Welcome to … - Events to Remember - Farm Equipment Auctions Lunch with the Rodeo Clowns 1st Mon of each month - 380-3801 471-1060 Quilt Show • 471-3854 www.dewittauction.com SEPTEMBER MARCH Annual Jaycee Horsepower Civil War Re-Enactment Festival Car Show • 472-3950 471-2566 American Legion Cotton Kenny Rogers Center Telethon Carnival & Parade • 471-9956 472-0397 OCTOBER www.kennyrogerscenter.org Judgement House • 471-1331 APRIL Downtown Cotton Festival here southern hospitality begins! Easter Bunny Brunch & Easter 380-3801 Whether you are just passing through, enjoying Egg Hunt • 380-3801 Phobia Farm • 471-3879 w Annual Redneck Barbeque www.phobiafarm.com a weekend getaway or a longer stay, you’ll find Contest • 471-2498 Cotton Ramble Bicycle Ride Sikeston, Missouri to be a treasure to remember! Annual Sikeston in Bloom 475-3725 380-3801 Kenny Rogers Charity Walk 472-0397 Conveniently located on Interstate 55 and Interstate May Jaycee Haunted Hayride 57/US Highway 60, our community offers wonderful Youth Fishing Derby 472-3950 472-3775 opportunities for recreation, family activities, dining, Family Fun Day • 380-3801 Memorial Day Remembrance shopping, first class accommodations, historical and Service • 472-7525 NOVEMBER cultural events, and of course southern hospitality Springfest • Late May or Early Annual Bootheel Invitational June - 471-2498 Youth Soccer Classic and historic charm! 471-2498 JUNE Veteran’s Day Celebration We extend to you our warmest welcome and Sikeston Farmers Market 472-7525 hope that you will come back again and again, 1st Sat in June until 1st frost 481-9967 DECEMBER remembering all that Sikeston has to offer! Downtown Merchants’ Holiday JUly Open House • 380-3801 Annual “Blues on the Green” Sikeston’s Christmas Gift 472-6111 Weekend & Santa at the Depot www.bootheelgolf.com 380-3801 Fishing, Fireworks, Flags, Christmas Home Tours & Family Fun • 475-3725 481-9967 Back to the 50’s Ice Cream SEMO Farm Toy Show Social & Car Show • 380-3801 628-3643 AUGUST Rodeo 5K Run • 471-2498 Annual Sikeston Jaycee Bootheel Rodeo • 800-455-2855 www.sikestonrodeo.com Cowboy Up! Arts Festival 481-9967 Many of these events are free to the public, while others may have a nominal admission charge. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information listed in this guide, all information is subject to change. Please call the phone numbers listed for complete details prior to attending events. All phone numbers are area code 573 unless otherwise noted. For additional information on events and attractions contact: Sikeston Convention & Visitors Bureau (2) • Sikeston, MO … a Treasure to Remember • 573-471-6362 • www.visitsikeston.com RememberRemembering Our Our Heritage Heritage … … he history of the Sikeston area is as rich as its soil. In fact, one of the most fascinating aspects of the heritage Historic Attractions Tof Sikeston is the story of the land upon which the community The Sikeston Depot - 481-9967 stands. As noted on the community monument in the historic 116 W. Malone - Housed in the city’s district of downtown Sikeston. historically renovated train depot on one of the first rail lines constructed “To know the story of this Missouri, look about you. west of the Mississippi River, the depot Here from swamp and wilderness, stumps and clay, features a historic museum recounting our forefathers cut a home land” ---William Henry Hatch the most important aspect of the area’s culture; an art gallery When the first settlers came to the Sikeston region, they were in which local artists display their work; and a cultural center welcomed by a wild and varied landscape. It was here that displaying traveling exhibits from national museums. oceans and rivers once ran free, and cypress swamps, marshes Free admission. and bayous covered the ground. Bottomland forests of oak, www.sikestondepot.org hickory, gum, cottonwood, and sycamore grew wild, and prairies Southeast Missouri Agriculture Museum - 471-3945 stretched as far as the eye could see. The area, then known as Cty. Rd. 532 E. Sikeston - 6,000 plus pieces of antique farm the “Big Prairie”, was described as a “delightful spot inter- equipment. Indoor display areas include main museum and five spersed with beautiful groves resembling small islands in a lake. outer buildings of great historic interest, including two Missouri At the beginning of the 20th century, the Little River Drainage log cabins (circa 1880), one wooden railroad caboose, one relo- District was formed to reclaim the land. An engineering feat, cated railroad depot, and a reconstructed 1920’s service station. it is the largest drainage district in the nation, draining over 1.2 Sikeston Public Library - 471-4140 • 121 E. North St. million acres of land. The drainage was accomplished from Features a collection of genealogy records focusing on southern 1914 to 1928 through construction of over 950 miles of ditches Scott County, MO. Offers special programs throughout the year. and some 300 miles of levees. When the project was completed, www.sikeston.lib.mo.us more than one million cubic yards of earth had been displaced, a greater amount than was moved during the construction of the Panama Canal, and some of the nation’s richest farmland had Historic Points of Interest been uncovered. Cotton Planting Mural - 102 N. Kingshighway, Downtown Cotton Country Mural - Front & New Madrid St., Downtown Today, seemingly endless fields of cotton, corn, wheat, soybeans and vegetables proclaim the richness of the legacy left by the rivers and swampland. These bountiful lands welcome visitors to the Sikeston area, where, amidst the nation’s most diverse agricultural re- gion, a modern-day community offers all the amenities travelers need and enjoy – restaurants, hotels, shopping, and service businesses. Residents proudly preserve and share the region’s heritage with visitors, Sikeston Timeline Mural - 127 W. Center St., behind and we encourage you to explore Craftmasters KidSMART. Sikeston is historically the northern- that heritage with a visit to one of most city in America in which cotton is grown. The unique mu- more of our historic sites. rals in Sikeston’s Historic Downtown Business District portray the importance of agriculture and “King Cotton”. (4) • Remember Sikeston for … History & Culture • For more details visit www.visitsikeston.com Remember the Sights … American Legion Park - Front St. & New Madrid St. Sikeston’s Main Street and Local historians say this park was the site of the original John bisects the city, running Sikes’ (the city’s founder) home and store. During the Civil War, parallel with the origi- a band of outlaws, called guerillas, roamed the countryside nal route, Kingshighway. making life miserable for area settlers. In 1864, the outlaws Kingshighway remains a hanged him to an oak tree in front of the store. Mrs. Sikes, major artery in the city of witnessing the incident and seeing that her husband was turning Sikeston. Here, you’ll find antique shops, cafés, and a number blue in the face, took $100 of Sikeston’s beautiful and historic homes, as well as the El hidden in a cotton sack on the Camino Real Historic maker, which identifies the city’s link to porch and sent it to the gueril- Spain. In 1939, the highway was the site of the Missouri Share- las by a servant girl. Upon cropper Protest. Here and on U.S. Highway 60, nearly 1,000 receiving the money, the gue- sharecroppers – black and white – and their families gathered to rillas cut Mr. Sikes down from protest the new farm policy, the Agricultural Adjustment Act. the tree just in the nick of time. The Columns - Today, American Legion Park N. New Madrid St., Downtown is home of the city’s American These six majestic pillars stand as a Legion Monument. monument to the city’s religious heri- The Civil War & The Conscription Tree tage and the beautiful First Methodist N. Kingshighway & Tanner St., Downtown Sikeston Church, which was erected in 1879 Only a small village during the Civil War, Sikeston’s position on and tragically destroyed by fire in the railroad and the King’s Highway gave it importance. Late in 1968. This Church’s congregation February 1862, Union Brigadier General John Pope marched represented the first Methodist church into Sikeston, where the head of his column fell into a skirmish west of the Mississippi River. with 20 or more rebels headed by General Jeff Thompson – the Sikeston Community Monument - Corner of Scott & North legendary “Swamp Fox”. At one point, Thompson robbed a Streets, Downtown Sikeston. This historic monument proclaims bank in Charleston, MO to pay his men and buy arms and sup- the importance of earth and land in the area’s history. plies. Legend has it he hid part of his money under one of the giant oak trees that once stood on the corner of N. Kingshigh- Historic Homes & Architecture - Located throughout city. way and Tanner St. During the war both Union and Confeder- Fine examples can be seen in the N. Kingshighway area of ate forces recruited soldiers for their cause under this same tree. Downtown Sikeston. To obtain a brochure, or for more information, call the CVB at 471-6362. The El Camino Real - U.S. Hwy. 61 – Kingshighway (Historic marker located at Kingshighway & Woodlawn Ave., Harvey Parks Air Base & Veterans Park Downtown Sikeston) Through history, Missouri and the Off Malone Ave. on Linn St. - intersection of Sikeston area has belonged to three nations: France, Spain, and Selma St. Anticipating WWII, General Hap the United States. In 1789, when the land was under Spanish Arnold planned Harvey Parks Air Base of rule, the King of Spain ordered the designation of an overland Sikeston. Activated in 1940, the base served as a route to connect the cities of St.