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Hannibal |
Mark Twain
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Mark Twain |
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Hannibal Hannibal's first inhabitants, as far as we know, were the Mound Builders whose mounds can still be seen in and near the city. Centuries later the Missouri Indians lived here: the Sac and Fox Indians being the last to inhabit the area. The first explorers on record were Father Marquette and Louis Joliet in 1673. The first explorer who landed at the site was the French monk, Louis Hennepin, in 1680. He named the body of water north of Hannibal the Bay de Charles. In the 1790s, salt was discovered in the vicinity. It was of great value to St. Louis and other large settlements. Hannibal was founded in 1819 by Moses Bates who purchased the land for the Hannibal Company that sold the lots in town at low prices. The early industries in Hannibal were pork packing, soap and candle making, coopering, milling of lumber, milling of grain, rope making, and tanning. Hannibal is also known for its rich railroad history. The first railroad to cross the state of Missouri, the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad, was completed in 1859. Lumbering was an important industry in the 1870s and 1880s. After the turn of the century, industries began to change in the town. Shale and limestone bluffs attracted one of the largest cement manufacturing plants in the nation. Atlas Portland Cement Company opened in 1903 and produces cement today. Manufacturing is still the largest industry in Hannibal. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) lived in Hannibal as a boy and later used the town as the setting for incidents in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Tom Sawyer look-alikes compete in the fence-painting contest during National Tom Sawyer Days, held the week of July 4. Hannibal is the southern migration destination for bald eagles that live on the high Mississippi River bluffs, a popular tourist attraction today. The population of Hannibal in 1900 was 12,716. In 2000 the population of Hannibal was 17,757. |
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