Hannibal, Missouri on the Mississippi

Staying at Mark Twain Cave Campground

We just spent the last 2 days being “very touristy” for us…the most since our day in Tombstone in early 2023. We took/visited the Historic Hannibal Trolley Tour, the Mark Twain Riverboat Tour, the Mark Twain Cave Tour, the Mark Twain Boyhood Home Museum (7 buildings), the Mark Twain Live Show, the Cameron Cave Tour, and Lover’s Leap. We learned that Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Becky Thatcher, Aunt Polly and others in Mark Twain books were modeled (some rather closely) on real people in Hannibal. Mark Twain modeled Tom Sawyer on himself. Never knew that. Also from Hannibal, the Unsinkable Molly Brown.

Mark Twain Cave…carved from Louisiana Sandstone, which only exists between Hannibal and Louisiana, Missouri. A dry cave, it looked much different than most other caves we’ve toured.
Getting on the Riverboat for our tour
Mark whitewashing the Tom Sawyer fence
Norman Rockwell sketch & painting of the fence whitewashing for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
At Lovers Leap
View of the Mississippi from Lovers Leap

In addition, we just happened to be here for the 48th Annual Hannibal Folklife Festival! That explains why the campground was so full this time of year! We walked the full length multiple times over 2 days, looked at the various wares, listened to music, and on Sunday (in between Hannibal/Mark Twain Tours), grazed our way through several food booths for lunch and dinner.

First entering the Hannibal Folklife Festival on Main Street
Selling Moonshine in Missouri!
One Musical Group, performing in front of Becky Thatcher’s Ice Cream Parlor
A Musical Group with a Doppelgänger (the flutist) of a very good friend. FREAKY!

On Saturday, before our 2 “Touristy Days”, after doing our 1st walk-through of the Folklife Festival, we crossed the Mississippi back east into Illinois for a long scenic drive to…

Visit 1 new National Park Site:

New Philadelphia National Historic Site (#264), where we spent an hour or so, visiting the site and learning the history. New Philadelphia was a typical Illinois pioneer town, except that it was the first US town platted and registered by an African American. A formerly enslaved man, Free Frank McWorter, founded New Philadelphia in 1836 and purchased freedom for himself and 15 family members. It became a unique and racially diverse community. It is one of the newest National Park Sites (#424/431), established December 29, 2022. So far, it consists of a kiosk housing several informational panels and a path to a number of sites where buildings stood or stories exist, best experienced using its Augmented Reality App, NewPhilAR.