On today’s date, Southeast Missourians protested a 1949 dam project that, if enacted, would flood sweeping portions of Shannon and Ripley counties. In 1974, proceedings for a June murder in Mark Twain National Forest changed course when one suspect was released and the other was committed to a state hospital.
__Sept. 27, 1924__
• Contractor J.M. Allison has embarked on a building program in Poplar Bluff. Basement foundations for four bungalows are being dug between Ninth and Tenth streets, and the homes with be “modern in every way” with plumbing, electricity and heating, said the Interstate American. Allison is collaborating with Metz Lumber Company, also of Poplar Bluff. The homes are expected to be finished by January 1925.
__Sept. 27, 1949__
• Residents of the White River Basin are in an uproar over proposed dams on the Current River, which would flood massive swaths of land.
The Corps of Engineers believes damming the Current River is integral to flood control downstream. Blair Creek and Doniphan were chosen as dam sites; the resulting reservoirs would flood a cumulative 63,500 acres, half of which are occupied or cultivated. The Blair reservoir would affect or displace five towns, including Eminence, and their 800 residents. It would also submerge state park land and the Alley, Pulltite and Round springs. Forty-two miles of roads would be impacted as well. The Doniphan reservoir as proposed would displace 150 families and submerge the town of Chilton.
Early reports indicate many Ripley and Shannon counties residents will attend October’s public hearing.
__Sept. 27, 1974__
• One of two people charged with the murder of a Hastings businessman in June has been released, according to Oregon County Sheriff Ralph Cockman. Valerie Schmidt and her husband Mark Combs, alias Pogey Schmidt, were arrested last month after an international manhunt. They were charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of Riley Hastings, who was killed while camping in Mark Twain National Forest. His body was dumped in a rural area and Combs and Schmidt drove his truck towards the Canadian border for several weeks. They were apprehended by a multi-agency task force in Bellingham, Washington.
Cockman said Schmidt was released on Sept. 16 because “there was no case against her,” while Combs was committed to Fulton State Hospital for psychiatric testing at the behest of his attorney. Further prosecution depends on Combs’ results.
After the couple’s capture, Combs confessed to the murder and told authorities his wife knew nothing about it.