On a breezy, sunny day, you’ll find all sorts of people at Capaha Park – fishermen, joggers, kids swinging at the playground. It’s a connection point for the community – and has been for nearly 100 years.

The park’s history starts with the SEMO District Fair. The event has a slightly rocky history, being shut down a few times over the years due to things like the Civil War and poor attendance. In 1900, after three years of closure, the Cape Girardeau Fair and Park Association purchased 40 acres to hold the event. They called it Fairground Park, but you know it as Capaha.

The site hosted the local fair for 29 years. During the 1911 event, attendees got to see an airplane fly overhead. For most of them, it was their first glimpse of the machine, since this was the first time an airplane visited the region.

After the SEMO District Fair moved to a new site, Capaha Park remained relevant in the community as the host of Cape’s premier baseball team. The Cape Capahas hold the title of longest running baseball team in the U.S. This semipro amateur team has spent every season on the field since 1894, winning 20 state and regional titles since 1980 alone. They also have bragging rights due to their induction into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. Learn more about it here. This summer marks 125 years of Cape Capaha baseball, so be sure not to miss the action!

If longest running baseball team isn’t enough of a title, Capaha Park helps Cape maintain another prestigious moniker: City of Roses. But most locals don’t have a clue how it got that name. It goes back to Highway 61 in the 1940s, which was lined with flowers and shrubs. Its most eye-catching plants were roses.

There aren’t any roses on Highway 61 now, but Capaha Park helps Cape keep its title. Since the mid-1950s, volunteers have maintained an impressive rose garden in the park. It’s a big deal – one of 10 Rose Test Gardens certified by the All-American Rose Selections. And it’s gorgeous in full bloom.

Rivaling the rose garden as Capaha Park’s crowning glory is one of Cape’s most patriotic sites: Freedom Corner. Lady Liberty came here as part of the Boy Scouts’ 40^th anniversary in 1950. The theme of the celebration was Strengthen the Arm of Liberty, and the Scouts carried out their mission by placing Statue of Liberty replicas in 200 or so U.S. cities. Today, only about 100 of the replicas survive – including the one still standing at her full 8.5-foot height in Cape Girardeau.

In spite of being Cape’s oldest park – or maybe because of it – Capaha is one of this community’s most beloved locations. Learn more about it and other local parks.