Cape La Croix Creek Marker, (sculpture).

Cape La Croix Creek Marker, (sculpture).

Snider, Felix, sculptor.

Cape La Croix Creek Marker, (sculpture).

Cape La Croix Cross, (sculpture).

Dedicated Oct. 12, 1947.

Digital Reference:

Sculpture: concrete; Base: concrete.

Sculpture: approx. 54 x 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.; Base: approx. 54 x 45 x 45 in.

(Bronze plaque on front of base:) In 1699, Fathers Montigny, Davion/And St. Cosme, French Missionaries/Erected A Cross where this stream/entered the Mississippi and Prayed/that this might be the beginning of/Christianity among the Indians,/the stream has ever since/been known as/CAPE LA CROIX CREEK unsigned

A concrete cross mounted on a tiered rectangular base with a bronze marker.

Emblem -- Cross

Outdoor Sculpture -- Missouri -- Cape Girardeau

Administered by State of Missouri, Missouri Highways and Transportation Department, Missouri

Located Beside 1634 North Kingshighway, between Cape Girardeau and Jackson, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

The monument was installed by the Associated Committee of Historic Cape Girardeau. The monument commemorates the placing of a cross at the mouth of Cape LaCroix Creek in 1699 by three French missionaries, Francois Joliet de Montigny, Jean Francois de St. Cosme, and Ambrose Davion. When originally installed, the area was a park; but subsequent construction of Interstate 55 and improvements on Highway 61, now have the statue sitting next to a parking lot. IAS files contain related excerpt from Felix Eugene Snider's "Cape Girardeau, Biography of a City," pg. 85-89; and Southwest Missourian, May 5, 1988.

In 1995, the monument came under attack from the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. The Foundation claimed that a cross on state-owned property violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of separation between church and state. IAS files contain clippings from Southeast Missourian, from 1995, discussing controversy. For additional reading, see: Southeast Missourian, Oct. 13, 1947. The sculpture is decorated with silk flowers and a plastic flag on its base.

Save Outdoor Sculpture, Missouri survey, 1995.

Snider, Felix Eugene, "Cape Girardeau, Biography of a City," pg. 87.

The information provided about this artwork was compiled as part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture database, designed to provide descriptive and location information on artworks by American artists in public and private collections worldwide.

Inventories of American Painting and Sculpture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 970, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

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