Antique Toy Museum

This is another one of those Stanton, MO attractions I've been meaning to get into for years. I finally do and it turns out they are closing! There's no fixed closing date yet, but time is short!

Mark Twain Cave

It's going to take me awhile to go through all the pictures from our cross-state adventure yesterday. In the meantime, let's finish up that Hannibal trip! I gave up on taking pictures inside the cave within about 20 feet of the entrance and left the rest up to Keith's digital SLR.



The Mark Twain Cave compound has a lot of the same stuff Meramec Caverns has: gift shop, fudge, campground, rock shop. They also have a candle-making store, and a theater where Jim Waddell does his one man show "The Life and Times of Mark Twain."



Mark Twain Cave, originally McDowell's Cave, is the FIRST show cave in Missouri, thanks to Mark Twain himself. According to Missouri Caves in History and Legend, people demanded to see the cave when The Adventures of Tom Sawyerwas published, and it only made sense that enterprising locals would start charging for tours.



The cave itself was discovered around 1820 by Jack Sims when he was out hunting. Right about the center of this picture you can see the "Discovery Entrance."



The tour itself is just over a mile long if I remember right, but as you can see from this sign many miles of cave passages have been surveyed. You can see how easy it would be to get lost in this cave!



This cave is made up of limestone, carved out by running water over thousands of years. It looks completely different from any other cave I've been in (which is a small number, mind you.)



But like Meramec Caverns, they have named many of their formations, passages, and "rooms." Here is the hanging boot:



The Devil's Slide (think "Goonies"):



And like many, MANY caves in Missouri, Jesse James may have used this cave as a hideout.



You can't go back in that room on the tour, but there are pictures at the end of the tour of the place where Jesse James signed his name on the wall. Which leads me to my favorite thing about Mark Twain Cave: graffiti.



People are of two minds on this aspect of the cave. There are hundreds of signatures covering the walls of the cave, smoked out by candles or signed with paint or berry juice, and you'll see them through the entire tour. Some people think it makes the cave look kind of junky.



Personally, I think it's pretty cool to imagine all the people who explored and partied in this cave way before movie theaters and television and air conditioning. It is now HIGHLY ILLEGAL to deface a cave (and I am all for that federal protection) so all of these signatures are from another era.

It's easy to imagine the "Toms" and "Beckys" of the day using this cave as their playground.


Photo of Normal Rockwell sketch taken by Keith at the Mark Twain Museum

I can't leave off without telling you about the FUDGE COVERED RICE KRISPIE TREATS. You may or may not find them at the gift shop. It sounded like they were a brand new concoction the day we visited.



Mark Twain Cave is located at 300 Cave Hollow Road in Hannibal, MO. Tours are $15 and seasonal operating hours can be found on the website. There is also another cave on this property called Cameron Cave, which does lantern tours. I hope to get back up to Hannibal in the fall to check that out.

City Museum Roof

I know, I've been slacking. It has been a busy summer! This weekend we are traveling across Missouri for a return to Caveman BBQ and a few stops along the way, so look for those adventures starting next week. In the meantime, here are a couple pictures from the new Roof of the City Museum!







Yes, that is a Ferris Wheel, on the roof! There is an additional $5 charge to go up to the roof, which can be accessed from the caves (you'll have to climb about 7 stories worth of spiral stair case) or the elevator to the right of the admissions booth. It's worth the $5 if you like climbing and sliding.

Time Machine: Cardinals Baseball Hall of Fame

Since it's All-Star Game Weekend in St Louis, and I'm still waiting on the Mark Twain Cave pictures, I thought I'd dig into the archives this week.



I'd been sitting on this pile of photos because I generally only post places that you can visit, and THIS Cardinals Hall of Fame no longer exists. It was in the same building as the International Bowling Hall of Fame, and when they moved to Texas, the Cardinals Hall of Fame went into storage.



Quite honestly, I forgot to post it last year. According to the Cardinals website, all this memorabilia is waiting for a new Hall of Fame to be built as part of Ballpark Village.



The St Louisans out there are snickering right now, because most people hardly believe this mythical "Ballpark Village" will ever happen. The future site was a giant hole in the ground until the powers that be decided it make it look nice for All Star Weekend by turning it into a softball field and parking lot.





I heard that some of this stuff is down at All-Star FanFest, but I don't know what or how much, so I decided I would be providing a public service by creating a virtual Cardinals Hall of Fame for All Star Weekend.



Unfortunately it's hardly a fitting tribute to the lost museum, as I'd only had my camera for about a month and clearly had not yet figured out how to take pictures in a museum.



On the other hand, this may be the only way you'll ever see this stuff, so I guess beggars can't be choosers, eh?












Kirk and Kate approve.

America's Best Restroom

Missouri's own Shoji Tabuchi has been nominated for the Cintas America's Best Restroom competition! You can vote (and see pictures) here.

Shoji Tabuchi's theater in Branson, MO has long been famous for its ornate restrooms, particularly for the billiards table in the mens lounge. I also learned from the website that ladies room is filled with fresh flowers weekly, and fresh orchids are placed on the sinks EVERY DAY. I have not yet been there myself, but I will try to stop by there when I go to Branson later this summer.

Mark Twain Was Here

Hannibal, Missouri pretty much bases their entire being around Mark Twain. Samuel Clemens, the man behind the pen name, was not even born here, although he spent most of his childhood here and it influenced a great deal of his writing.



Everywhere you turn in Hannibal, at least in the historic downtown area, there is Mark Twain's mug or some reference to Tom Sawyer. Even on the vending machines. Pepsi: Official Sponsor of Hannibal MO.



Now don't get me wrong, Hannibal is a fantastic town. I go there at least once a year and do something different every time. It's just that it seems like it would be odd to live in a town that seems, well, obsessed.



A sizable chunk of the downtown area is taken up by the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum. This is one of the things that makes Hannibal a little weird, because the line between reality and fiction gets a little blurry.



You start at the interpretive center, which is chock full of information on Samuel Clemens and his life in Hannibal. I mean, CHOCK FULL. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I love museums and historic homes and am a bit of a nerd. Trust me when I say there is way too much going on in this interpretive center. We kind of gave up and moved on, although we agreed after reading quote after quote that we would like to read The Autobiography of Mark Twain, because it sounds hilarious. You pay one price to get into all this stuff, so if you are pressed for time, save it for Mark Twain Museum down the street.



Next we have the Huckleberry Finn house. Huck Finn, of course, was not a real person, so this is not really his house. The character was based on a kid Samuel Clemens grew up with, Tom Blankenship but this is not that kid's house either. This is an interpretation of the house Huck/Tom PROBABLY lived in.



Here we have the actual "Mark Twain Boyhood Home," with the Tom Sawyer Fence next to it, since Tom Sawyer's character was based on Clemens himself.



You cannot actually go inside the house. There is a catwalk built along side that lets you view each room from the outside. Truly the most unusual historic house set up I've ever seen. All the rooms are walled in with Plexiglas, so it's hard to get good pictures.



Across the street is Samuel Clemens's father's law office, and next to that Grant's Drugstore.



Through this whole tour I kept thinking that when I was a kid, there was a recording that played in each of these dioramas. I thought maybe I was confusing two separate tourist attractions from when I was young, but finally we noticed a busted speaker on the ceiling in the Boyhood Home, and a button on the wall that did not work in the Law Office. The drugstore seems to have the only recording that still works.





The drug store is full of all kinds of bits and bobs, quackery, and just plain scary stuff. It would be cool if you could see more of it up close, but like everything else in the Mark Twain Boyhood Home compound, it is behind glass.



Down the street a bit, Becky Thatcher's house is under renovation. This is another one of those blurry bits, since there wasn't a Becky Thatcher either. The character was inspired by a girl named Laura Hawkins. Since we couldn't get near the house, I can't say if this was actually Laura Hawkins's house or not.



The biggest disappointment of the day: Hannibal lost their wax museum, too! It wasn't huge, in fact, it was just one giant room with about two dozen figures arranged in rows, but the lady that ran it was really nice and would give her whole speech even if there were just two people. Plus, there was a fun little "haunted house" after you saw the wax figures.



I hope it's not closed for good. You can still see Injun Joe in the front window.



Down the street is the Mark Twain Museum and Gallery. The first floor of the museum is all exhibits and interactive displays for Mark Twain's various books. You really have to be in the middle of it to get the full experience, but I'll throw in a couple pictures.







The second floor is a gallery of the artwork Norman Rockwell did for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. REALLY cool. The museum is lucky to have such an impressive collection. If you're a fan of Normal Rockwell, the admission to the Mark Twain Boyhood Home is probably worth it just to see these. I only have a couple mediocre pictures because I won't use the flash in this setting.





Now we're going to backtrack to the other end of town to visit the Cardiff Hill Lighthouse.



See all those steps? That's the halfway point. There are 244 steps to get up to the lighthouse.



Built in 1933, the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse is the furthest inland lighthouse in the world, and has been lit 3 times, by Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, John F Kennedy, and Bill Clinton. Only Democrats may light the lighthouse (just kidding, I made that up.)



Stop in at the ABC Gift Shop when you come back down and get your Survivor's Award and buy a shot glass or a collector spoon from the nice lady.



OK, I've probably overwhelmed you with enough information for one post. We'll save Mark Twain Cave (my new favorite cave) for next time. The usual information: Hannibal, MO is about 115 miles north of St Louis, an easy distance for a day trip. The downtown area is full of shopping and restaurants (I recommend Mark Twain Ice and Coal,) plus all the Mark Twain stuff you can handle. Admission to the Boyhood Home and Museum is $9 for adults, $4 for ages 6-12, and under 6 is free.