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Book About Canalou To Be Shipped To Missouri, Arkansas School Libraries

semo.edu

The Center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University will distribute its recently published book, “Canalou: People, Culture, Bootheel Town” to public high school libraries in Missouri and northeast Arkansas.

Richard Montgomery from Sikeston, Mo., will present a $7,500 gift for the distribution of books on Oct. 22 at the Southeast campus in Sikeston. The Center will ship more than 500 copies in November.

“I really enjoyed reading the book,” Montgomery said. “I just thought it was important that kids in schools were more in touch with their history and this was a good way to do that.”

Written by Dan Whittle, the book is a collection of short stories about the history of the Missouri Bootheel from 1902 and his experience growing up in Canalou in the 1970s.

“It’s got a lot of history in it, but it’s not history that will put you to sleep with a bunch of dates and stuff,” Whittle said. “It’s first person accounts that live the life of people that went into the swamp.”

A semi-retired journalist, Whittle said the people he met throughout his life inspired him to write a book. More specifically, Whittle said a woman who lived to be 112 and granted him three different interviews is who he considers to be the foundation chapter of his book.

“Her family moved into the swamp after crossing the Mississippi River when it was frozen in 1898 in a covered wagon,” Whittle said.

Whittle will speak about his book at 6:30 p.m. October 27 at the Stars and Stripes Museum in Bloomfield, Mo.

“Canalou: People, Culture, Bootheel Town” can be purchased at Amazon.com or at the Center for $20.

Jen Gradl was a student reporter at KRCU in 2014.