Hannibal, Missouri

Donna and I were about to eat breakfast this morning when a lovely local lady named Betty dropped by to visit and provide us with some local information.  Betty brought us a dozen ears of sweet corn last Saturday, which we shared with the neighbors, and then ate some of the rest for dinner.  She has lived in Canton long enough to know most of the people in town and their kids, and has been a wealth of information about the area. Today she brought us zucchini squash, a cucumber, and several lovely tomatoes, all from her garden, and she also brought a folder with newspaper articles and pictures from as far back as the early 1900's of the area around Canton.  Just north of Canton a mile or so, is the location of the town of Tully, named for one of Julius Caesar's generals.  With papers filed in 1834, Tully is one of the earliest and most important towns on the Mississippi in Northern Missouri, but was wiped out by the flood of 1851. Tully and Canton competed in river commerce for years, with Tully eventually drowning, and Canton by default winning the battle. Ironically, the USCoE built Lock and Dam 20 in 1932, anchoring the west end at exactly the site of the town of Tully, instead of placing it closer to Canton!

Another interesting photo in the collection is from the winter of 1916-1917, showing a horse-drawn ice cutter slicing up chunks of ice from the frozen Mississippi that were transported into Canton for storage in sawdust packed icehouses for shipment to as far away as St. Louis.  Another photo shows the Canton Ferry in the Mississippi River just in front of a sternwheeler riverboat with two horses aboard.  A horse was placed on a sloped treadmill on each side of the ferry providing power to the paddles.  Steering was done by applying a brake to one side.

Enough with the American History lesson!

After a long and enjoyable visit with Betty, we took off for Hannibal, Missouri.  The birthplace of Samuel Clemens, the entire town has shaped itself to showcase the life and times of S. Clemens, also known as Mark Twain.  The Museum was a bit disappointing, but did have several artifacts that belonged to Mr. Clemens, including his favorite desk.

Mr. Clemen' pipe and tophat.

The majority of the museum was devoted to recreations of scenes from S. Clemens' books about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.  Somewhat interesting, but not entirely worth the price of admission.

There was one picture hanging on the wall that brought a smile:

Across the street from the museum is an original 1820's building with a great coffee/pottery shop inside.  Not a common combination, but lovely pieces and good coffee.  We enjoyed a beverage in the restored, original room.

The metal ceiling and crown moulding is completely original, but, along with the wood floor, has been carefully cleaned and painted.

We decided to take the long way home to Canton through Quincy, IL, stopping at Lock and Dam 21 just as a "tow" (a series of barges tied together, we've just found out), made its way through.

As the tow left the lock, one of the lock-keepers stopped to chat.  He was so nice and informative that we spent a half hour or so talking to him about the details of keeping river shipping moving with all the things that Mother Nature can throw at them.  The lock and tow system is a highly sophisticated system using several federal weather agencies, several layers of GPS devices, and, of course, personal observation.  For example, each ship has a GPS transponder that allows a central control location to know exactly where each tow is on the river as well as its orientation (axis north or south, or turned in some fashion).  Very interesting and almost overwhelming, as the transportation system runs from Minnesota to St. Louis, with potentially hundreds of tows on the river at any given time.

Returning to Nessie, we were getting ready for dinner when we saw this tow going by just outside our window.

Now that's close!