Wanda Free

The wanderings of two women and their dog

Welcome to our journeys! To follow along, type your email in the box below and click the “Subscribe” button.

Days 27 & 28 – Mark Twain

No Mississippi River trip would be complete without a chapter on Mark Twain. Although quite a lot was written about Mississippi River life and culture during the 1800’s, Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn made their time come to life around the world. And so our tour spent a couple of days in Hannibal exploring Twain’s birthplace and the area that shaped his childhood.

On October 12 we traveled to the Mark Twain Cave Campground in Hannibal, Missouri. As its name indicates, this campground is on the site of the cave featured in “Tom Sawyer”’ where Tom and Becky Thatcher explore and become lost during a summer outing. Once all of our fellow travelers had arrived we took a guided tour of the cave.

Cave entrance. The footpath is clear, well lit relatively easy to walk, making visits much less risky than in Twain’s youth.
Many side caverns branch off from the main passage. It would be so easy to get lost in here!
This room is called The Parlor. Long stone slabs line the walls on both sides. The room is large enough to accommodate 20 – 30 people and has been used for events like weddings.
Thousands of cave visitors have signed their names on the walls over the years.

T

Mark Twain’s boyhood signature can be seen here. Clemens was his name before he adopted the pen name of Mark Twain.

The next day we explored Hannibal. The historic downtown area is largely dedicated to visitors interested in Mark Twain history. Modern Hannibal lives elsewhere. We did explore it briefly to give the Jeep a bath, however.

The Clemens family lived in the white house when Samuel was born. The fence inspired the famous whitewashing scam in “Tam Sawyer.”
This is thought to have been Tom Blankenship’s home. Tom was a close childhood friend of Sam Clemens and the inspiration for Huckleberry Finn’s character.
Laura Hawkins childhood home. Laura wax Sam Clemens first sweetheart (he wax seven, she was five). Laura became the inspiration for Becky Thatcher’s character. She and Twain remained in touch throughout their lives.
Sam Clemens at around 12 years old, after he began working as a printer’s apprentice.
Downtown Hannibal has a lot of brick buildings with fanciful paint.

There is an extensive museum that includes an interpretive center and other buildings that figured in the life of the Clemens family while they lived in Hannibal. Although most of Mark Twain’s life was spent outside the town, it is interesting to to see the area that gave him his foundation and inspired his two best-known books.

wfftc58tkn

One response to “Days 27 & 28 – Mark Twain”

  1. Mia Avatar
    Mia

    I enjoyed Huckleberry Finn and am impressed with your photos of such a daunting cave: it’s real! Looks like the town of Hannibal is a museum.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Mia Cancel reply