Filmed on Friday, March 17, 2023, I drive around the small town Hannibal, Missouri to see what's going on. At the end of the video, I take a stroll around Mark Twain's childhood home.
Hannibal is a city along the Mississippi River in Marion and Ralls counties in the U.S. state of Missouri. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 17,312.
The site of Hannibal was originally inhabited by various cultures of indigenous Native American tribes.
The river community is best known as the mid-19th-century boyhood home of author Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain). Twain drew from his childhood settings for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Numerous historical sites are associated with Mark Twain and the places depicted in his fiction.
Heritage tourism contributes to the Hannibal economy, as the city attracts both American and international tourists. The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum marked its 100th anniversary in 2012; it has had visitors from all 50 states and some 60 countries. Most Hannibal residents enjoy the visitors, and the town at large benefits from tourism revenue.
After the United States acquired the Louisiana Territory west of the Mississippi in 1803, European-American settlers began to enter the area. Its early European settlements were established by ethnic French colonists, some from Illinois, who largely spoke French and were Roman Catholic in religion.
Hannibal was laid out in 1819 by Moses Bates and named after Hannibal Creek (now known as Bear Creek). The name is derived from Hannibal, a hero of ancient Carthage.
The city grew slowly, with a population of 30 by 1830. But by 1846, Hannibal was Missouri's third-largest city when the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was organized by John M. Clemens (Mark Twain's father) and associates.
Construction of railroads to the area and increased steamboats on the Mississippi River had stimulated growth. By 1850 it had 2,020 residents.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the city has served as a regional marketing center for livestock and grain, as well as other products produced locally, such as cement and shoes. Cement for the Empire State Building and Panama Canal was manufactured at the Atlas Portland Cement Company in the nearby unincorporated company town of Ilasco.
The Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse was constructed in 1933 as a public works project under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. It has been lit on ceremonial occasions at three separate times by Presidents Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton.
A thriving artist community has developed here because of its central location between the East and West coasts, and affordable and stable real estate prices.
The Underwood Company built a General Mills plant here because its founder appreciated Mark Twain's writing and wanted to help his hometown.
Major employers include the Hannibal Regional Hospital and Hannibal Clinic. Major manufacturers include BASF Chemical Corporation (formally American Cyanamid), General Mills, and Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company.
Tourism is a major part of Hannibal's economy, in large part because Samuel Clemens lived there as a boy and immortalized the town under his pen name, Mark Twain. The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum and Mark Twain Cave are two of the city's major attractions.
Nearby is Lover's Leap, a cliffside overlooking the Mississippi River and downtown Hannibal. The name comes from the local legend of two Native American lovers who were forbidden by their respective tribes to marry each other. Warriors were sent to kill the lovers, but the lovers, finding themselves cornered at the top of the cliff, embraced each other and threw themselves off the cliff to their deaths.
At the 2010 census, there were 17,916 people, 7,117 households, and 4,400 families living in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 88.8% White, 7.1% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.5% from other races, and 2.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.8%.
The median household income was $29,892 and the median family income was $37,264. The per capita income for the city was $16,902. About 11.3% of families and 14.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.2% of those under age 18 and 10.8% of those age 65 or over. #driving #travel #drivingtour
1 окт 2024
