Prior to digital photography, photographers had the problem of taking dozens of portrait photographs for school yearbooks quickly. Cameras used before the 1920s required frequent changes of film, slowing the process, and increasing costs. A Ste. Genevieve photographer, Vincent J. Dunker, solved the problem by inventing a specialty, long-roll camera for school portrait photography.

Rev. Timothy Flint and his family descended the Ohio in 1816. At its lower end, Flint noted that his “…children contemplated with unsated curiosity the flocks of parroquets fluttering among the trees, when we came near the shore.” The parakeets that so fascinated Rev. Flint’s children were the now-extinct Carolina Parakeet.

The aviation pioneer Tony Jannus provided many residents of Mississippi River towns their first view of an airplane in November 1912. Jannus was a pioneer who piloted early models of aircraft and pointed out the potential of aviation. Among other things, he piloted the plane from which the first parachute jump occurred on March 1, 1912, near St. Louis.

Local officials maintain public records which are essential for proving land titles, marriages, and legal decisions. The loss of these records is devastating and require much effort to re-construct. Thus, when a disaster such as fire, flooding, or storm damage destroys a county courthouse, it is a blow to the residents of that county.

The aftermath of the Civil War was devastating in much of Missouri, but one fortunate result involved the founding of the town of Wappapello.