The Town Time Forgot: Cairo, Illinois

Cairo, Illinois. | Is a dead town. | We drove through it twice in May 2018.

Our first trip through Cairo we saw one person. One person drinking a Bud Light.  Ironic, we traveled from Cairo to Future City and neither seemed to have a future. Eerily empty.

Cairo, pronounced CARE-o, became a tinderbox of racial unrest and the city never survived it. The Ohio and Mississippi rivers confluence is not very far. Cairo like its Egyptian counterpart is surrounded by water.

Lynching happened in Cairo. The racial unrest probably was around for years but 1900 started the ball down the slippery slope and never recovered. In 1900, Cairo had a population of 13,000 and 5,000 of that 13,000 were African-Americans. A traditional white heritage town had the largest percentage per capita of African-Americans, nearly 40 percent.

Railroads slowly reduced steamboat and ferry traffic that supplied Cairo’s economy. When the local economy sours, it’s easy to find scapegoats. More racial tensions.

Major highway bridges were built to the south of town and contributed even more to economic decline as automobile traffic took off from Illinois into Missouri.

A riot protesting the death of black soldier in the Cairo jail turned Cairo into a Rome is burning town. I remember watching Walter Cronkite on CBS news showing images of the National Guard trying to get order restored. But it was too late – the black residents held a 10-year quarantine of white-owned businesses. The white population created a militia called the White Hats. Eerily KKK. And probably not much different.

A city divided cannot stand. A lack of inclusion and government diversity does not create a foundation. Cairo’s racial divide doomed so many economic opportunities.

When the Interstate bypassed the city in the late 70s, more businesses closed, more people left, the hospital closed, but yet high racial tension remained. Now the business district is virtually boarded up or decrepit.

On our second trip back through town heading to Chattanooga, we saw three people out on the streets. Nobody seems to give a damn about Cairo, Illinois.

An easy way to get rid of racial tension – have no population left to be angrily divided. More like, despair and depression rules the day now in downtown Cairo.

Cairo is, simply, no more.

Point Roberts - land enclave, US exclave, witness protection

I enjoy maps - looking at maps, creating maps, exploring maps. When I was younger and we went on family vacations, I had the Rand McNally Atlas in my hands looking at highway routes. One of my favorite classes in grad school at UTK was GIS map making.

So one day, I was exploring the Canada-US border with Google maps and I noticed something a little weird. I found a part of Washington state surrounded by Canadian land (a land enclave) and US-controlled waters between the land enclave and the main body of land (exclave).

This specific point is called Point Roberts. Point Roberts, Washington.

Point Roberts was created when the 49th was used west of Minnesota until the Vancouver Bay. The five square mile land is at the tip of British Columbia. So when I used street view in Google Maps, I found houses on the Canadian side built up right onto the border. I mean like the US border is part of the lawn border!

Here are some pictures from one of the streets in Canada looking into Point Roberts. Notice the simple yellow painted curb. This is looking from Canada into the United States.

On both sides of this street are houses. Across the road is the start of a recreational area. There is one point of entry for cars and trucks.

So what is Point Roberts economy and education? Children K - 3 attend the elementary school on the point. From fourth grade onward, they must take a 40-minute bus ride through British Columbia to reach Blaine, Washington to go to school.

Economically, Point Roberts has five shipping and receiving companies. Why? Online retail shipping into Canada is costly. Shipping to Point Roberts and trucking it into Canada is much less expensive. Groceries are 30% cheaper and gas a dollar a gallon cheaper than across the border.

During the summer months, Point Roberts doubles in population as Americans come to spend the summer yachting by using the superb harbors and waters.

And with the crossing border and exclave properties of Point Roberts - it has served another useful purpose. A large population of people in the US Marshal's Witness Protection Program live there too.

Google map link to Point Roberts: https://goo.gl/maps/wX8ysebyVtr

Sandy's

In 1970-71, my mom was taking me to see medical professionals for regular monthly visits in Hays. The trip to Hays took an hour. One-way. So, naturally, I got hungry before heading back home.

That’s where I got hooked on Sandy’s. Sandy’s was a fast-food chain with a Scottish-based theme. The workers wore Scottish-plaid berets and the food was really cheap. 

The menu at the Sandy's restaurant included a 15¢ hamburger, a 20¢ milkshake, and a 10¢ bag of French fries. My favorite, the Mariner (fish sandwich), was 15¢.

Once, I was able to splurge for a Big Scott – two single patties with cheese and the special Sandy’s sauce.  As one could guess, Sandy’s was started by three guys who were unhappy franchisees of McDonalds. The Scottish-based theme and the Big Scott were all directed toward their former partners.

Sandy’s was located at 2700 Vine Street in Hays. That’s where the Hays Chamber of Commerce is now across from Walgreens.

Hardees bought out Sandy’s in late 1971 and then they were gone. A few Sandy’s stayed around with different names. One of those few was Bucky’s in Lawrence. I was fortunate to be a student at KU when Bucky’s was still open for business.

I loved the Scottish motif and the food. Back then, news like the Hardees buyout wasn’t in our life cycle. One day, Sandy’s was there, and another day, it was gone, and we didn’t know why.  The beauty of the Web is that now I can find out what happened to businesses like Sandy’s. Boy, I sure do miss it and those prices.

My favorite Sandy’s television commercial – Big Scott.