Hannibal, Missouri.

One of Mark Twain’s adventures involves a cave, a fugitive from justice, and two youngsters who leave a picnic to explore. That cave is real and was explored by young Samuel Clemens. Though his story of Tom and Becky and their run-in with Injun Joe weaves a suspenseful tale, the real story of the cave is much more macabre.

The Mark Twain Cave in Hannibal, Missouri is a National Natural Landmark that has been open to the public since 1886. It is the oldest show cave in the state. Today, a guide provides the true and fictional descriptions of the cave and even points out a place where Samuel Clemens wrote his last name on the cave wall. Wikipedia notes the signature was authenticated by experts.

I tried to get a photo of the signature, but it was protected by a plexiglass cover and the photo I took was unusable. While I am on the topic of photos in the cave, please excuse the noise level in my photos. Even with my best noise-reduction app, noise removal wasn’t as good as I would have liked.

Wikipedia tells the real story of the cave and you can read about it here. This post basically summarized that article. The cave was originally discovered in the early 1800s by a man named Sims. The opening photo features an image of that discovery entrance. The cave was later renamed McDowell’s Cave after it was purchased by a surgeon named Joseph Nash McDowell in 1848. McDowell used the cave as a laboratory to experiment on dead bodies.

McDowell’s conviction that conventional burials ‘suppressed the spirit of the deceased,’ and that an alternative form of burial could enhance the connection between the living and the departed, resulted in a particularly infamous incident within the cave. This event, which served as an inspiration for Twain, unfolded when McDowell positioned his recently departed child, Amanda, within a preservative casket inside the cave’s laboratory area.

Samuel Clemens, the future Mark Twain, was about 13 years old when McDowell purchased the cave. He and his friends would often explore the cave, and Clemens would later draw inspiration from his experiences there for his writings.

In 1886, McDowell opened the cave to the public. It has been a popular tourist destination ever since. The cave is known for its beautiful formations, including stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstones. It is also home to a variety of wildlife, including bats, spiders, and salamanders.

For over 50 years, tourists visited the Mark Twain Cave much as Mark Twain had in his youth, by candlelight or lantern. That changed in 1939 when electric lights were installed in the tour areas of the cave.

In 1923 Judge E.T. Cameron, who had been a guide at the cave as a young man, purchased the cave. He had served as manager of the cave property through a succession of owners in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Cameron was the first to establish standardized tour routes within the cave, construct a small building near the entrance for ticket sales, and advertise the cave in newspapers as “Mark Twain Cave.”

There are two caves in the area that are operated by the current owners, the Mark Twain Cave and the Cameron Cave. You can find details about hours and ticket pricing here. In addition, they are a tour aggregator that provides several other tour options for visitors to Hannibal.

John Steiner