The Gold of Cape Girardeau is an exciting historical novel that begins and ends with a modern-day courtroom drama over buried treasure. Young lawyer Allison Culbertson faces a fierce courtroom battle with one of her former law instructors to uncover the truth of the mysterious gold's ownership. The secrets of the treasure emerge in a journey back to the steamboating days along the Mississippi River. Two young lovers face myriad trials and adventures together until--in the ultimate test of their love--the Civil War places them, their community, and an entire nation in devastating turmoil. A wonderful blend of historical fact and well-written fiction, this compelling story is full of courageous characters and vivid historical settings.

Lawyer and journalist, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Louis Houck is often called the “Father of Southeast Missouri” because he brought the railroad to the region and opened this backwater area to industrialization and modernization. Although Houck’s name is little known today outside Missouri, Joel Rhodes shows how his story has relevance for both the state and the nation. Rhodes presents a more complete picture of Houck than has ever been available: reviewing his life from his German immigrant roots, considering his career from both social and political perspectives, and grounding the story in both state and national history. He especially tells how, from 1880 to the 1920s, this self-taught railroader constructed a network of five hundred miles of track through the wilderness of wetlands known as “Swampeast Missouri”—and how these “Houck Roads” provided a boost for population, agriculture, lumbering, and commerce that transformed Cape Girardeau and the surrounding area. Rhodes discusses how Houck fits into the era of economic individualism—a time when men with little formal training shaped modern industry—and also gives voice to Houck’s critics and shows that he was not always an easy man to work with. In telling the story of his railroading enterprise, Rhodes chronicles Houck’s battle with the Jay Gould railroad empire and offers key insight into the development of America’s railway system, from the cutthroat practices of ruthless entrepreneurs to the often-comic ineptness of start-up rail lines. More than simply a biography of a business entrepreneur, the book tells how Houck not only developed the region economically but also followed the lead of Andrew Carnegie by making art, culture, and formal education available to all social classes. Houck also served for thirty-six years as president of the Board of Regents of Southeast Missouri State Teacher’s College, and as a self-taught historian he wrote the first comprehensive accounts of Missouri’s territorial period. A Missouri Railroad Pioneer chronicles a multifaceted career that transformed a region. Solidly researched, this lively narrative also offers an entertaining read for anyone interested in Missouri history.

Given by Eugene Edge III.

When Rhetta McCarter's '79 Camaro is destroyed in a fire, her best friend and mechanic Victoria (Ricky) Lane, finds a replacement, a "barnfind" vintage Camaro in perfect condition, except for one major flaw: a body buried beneath it. Later, Ricky is arrested when a second victim is found murdered in the same barn. Rhetta is convinced not only that Ricky is innocent, but that the two murders are connected. The police don't agree, so Rhetta is forced to fight her way through a labyrinth of danger and misdirection to find the real murderer before the killer finds her first.

For nearly 250 years, the mighty Mississippi has granted Cape Girardeau a legacy of prosperity and dealt it some fearsome scars. Walk through buildings cut by the shrapnel of exploding steamboats, swamped in the debris of sudden floods and haunted by the restless spirits of those who washed ashore. And beyond the riverfront, tragedy's indelible mark can be found in places like the back row of the Rose Theater or the ashen mists of Spook Hollow. Joel Rhodes keeps company with the most forlorn figures and entrenched phantoms in this history of Cape Girardeau, where the river turns a thousand chilling tales.