Missouri Lights - Mark Twain Lighthouse

Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse.
10/15/2021 dwm photo

In my collection of lighthouses there are a couple memorial lights, the William Livingstone Lighthouse on Belle Island in Detroit and the Robert H. Manning in Empire, Michigan.

Both serve as navigational aids.

The Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse does not help boats coming up the Mississippi River, but for someone so connected to the water it is a fitting tribute.

It was built in memory of what would have been his 100th birthday in 1935. A windstorm destroyed it in 1960.  The current light was built atop Cardiff Hill in 1963.

The final stairs to the top of Cardiff Hill.
10/15/2021 dwm photo

 If you've been to Hannibal, Missouri, you know it is all about it's famous favorite son, writer and humorist, Samuel Longhorne Clemons, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain.  One of his stories said his name came from working on the river, recalling a boatman might cry "mark twain," when the depth of the water is two fathoms.

 Cardiff Hill is the setting for many of the hijinks of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and the gang in Twain's stories from his days growing up in the river city.

The lighthouse towers above Main Street which has three blocks of shops near the Historic District that was home to Twain, the whitewashed fence, and other landmarks.

Looking up from
Main St to the
Twain Lighthouse.
10/15/2021 (dwm)

If you haven't visited Hannibal for a long time, the lighthouse might surprise you.  While it has stayed planted on top of the hill, at one time the Mark Twain bridge passed close to it.  A new version, carrying Interstate 72 and U.S. Highway 36 was constructed a few miles north in 2000.

The bottom of Cardiff Hill is across from the National Historic Site of Twain's boyhood home.  In a garden near the first flight of stairs is a statue depicting Tom and Huck looking into the distance, planning their next adventure.

On some of those adventures, I bet they would have liked a lighthouse to guide them home.