Hard Times In Hannibal

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Hannibal, Missouri, looks rather poor these days. The industry that brought its time in the sun, small-to-medium scale river transport, has been surpassed by other technology. A comment on yesterday's post asked where all the people were on the riverboat. Even though all the schools are out here and it was a clear June Sunday, there were few passengers. The beautiful, modern museum about Samuel Clemens' life had just a trickle of visitors. How does the town hang on?

It's bad enough that the window of the little children's shop downtown is pushing mental health services. A business card dangling a job is left on the lawn of the riverfront park. I certainly hope that no one contemplates hurling him or herself into the enormous current of the Mississippi. It's dangerous, you know.

Downtown St. Louis 365 is waiting for Godot.

Riverboating - With STL DPB's First Ever Video!

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On Sunday afternoon, we took a boat ride from Hannibal on the Mississippi, boarding the MS Mark Twain. Everything in Hannibal is named for Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn or Becky Thatcher except the Walmart.

From top to bottom: - The wheelhouse.

- A view up Broadway in Hannibal from the boat. The river is a little above flood stage but not very much. In the severe flood of 1973, the river reached about a meter above the pavement at the first traffic light.

- A main railroad line running alone the river. Note the sand bags.

- A cadet boarding the boat for training.

- St. Louis Daily Photo's first video, featuring the boat's calliope playing cheerfully as we approached the dock. The captain said that on a still day it could be heard for three miles up and down river.

Downtown St. Louis 365 is back in its normal rhythm with a railroad trestle to nowhere.

Making A Living

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In the early and middle parts of the 19th Century, Hannibal, Missouri, was a prosperous river town. Freight and passenger traffic plied the Mississippi. Hannibal had some of the best quality cement factories in the world, a cigar factory and shipped blocks of ice literally sawed from the frozen river in winter and stored until the warm months.

Today it's still something of a regional center but down at the heels. Some of the beautiful old buildings are lovingly restored but more are derelict. It makes its living any way it can, mostly trading off the name of its most famous son. There are, in fact, lots of interesting things to do here. We'll come back again.

We've got spotty Internet service at the place we're staying. Again, Downtown St. Louis 365 will go up later today. This morning, we'll zoom home, drop off my companion, then zoom down to the office by mid-day.

What's Weird Upriver

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Greetings from Hannibal, Missouri, a town that makes its living from a long-dead American author, Mr. Clemens. It's late, so just a quick note. We had dinner at a place highly rated on the travel web sites, called Labinnah. What could that mean? It's Hannibal spelled backwards! Har! The food was very good, the people were nice and the decor was, um, eclectic. This small statue was on a window sill. Can't be Hercules with that hairdo and briefs. Sort of looks like a cross between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mitt Romney. But then I bet the original Hannibal was pretty strong, too, leading all those elephants across the Alps.

Downtown St. Louis 365 will have to wait until the morning.