Hannibal, MO

[Thundertubs]

Hannibal is a city of 17,500 in Marion County, Missouri. It lies on the Mississippi River, about 100 miles NW of St. Louis.


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No info as to what this neat building is. I did seem to have a bar in the basement.


















































Hannibal and the Mississippi


Illinois, across the river










Heading south along the river




Ralls County, Missouri








The Salt River, deep in rural Pike County






The tiny burgh of New London, MO, population 1,000.






The town of Louisiana, MO. Population 3,500, and a heck of a downtown for it's size. This is in the greater "Little Dixie" region of Missouri. Folks around here indeed had strong southern accents, despite us being north of St. Louis.


































Interesting setup

[dktshb]

Amazing set there. I really like Louisiana, MO... what a neat little town.

[Centropolis]

Life on the Mississippi! Welcome to my fathers homeland, we settled in the area south of Clarksville, the next town down from Louisiana, sometime in the 1840s or earlier, coming from Virginia and still have the farm so I feel deeply connected to the land around there. I hope you had a chance to drive through the hills south of Louisiana that trace the river, they are quite beautiful. Clarksville is a sort of smaller, relatively speaking gentrified version of Louisana, with a broken skylift. Louisiana definitely has a touch of the rural decay, although the entire city is in much much better shape than a few years ago. The last time I saw the following building in the middle, the top part had partially collapsed..and apparently took park of the neighboring building with it which they have thankfully repaired. I'm pretty sure I have a picture of it on my parents computer up there.



You are right, the area north of St. Louis along the Mississippi contains many people with southern accents, as a good proportion are originally also from Virginia or Kentucky. The onslaught of Germans, Irish, and so forth did not deeply penetrate the Mississippi Valley out of St. Louis perhaps to the extent that they did west along the great Missouri Valley and the other areas of the rural midwest away from the river - probably because these areas were already settled. You will begin to find rural black folks starting at least as far north as Louisiana co-existing, more or less, with the rural white folks...it really is in some ways a lot like an island of the south than a strictly midwestern geography...so ironically north of a northern style metropolitan region.

You also entered the Lincoln Hills, which is essentially a long skinny island of the Ozark uplift that partially escaped the glaciation of the immediate plains to the east and west.

http://www.greatriverroad.com/lincoln.htm

I hope you enjoyed your travels in this area, I'm thrilled you photographed it!

You ever heard the California gold rush/migration song Sweet Bessie (Betsey) From Pike? That's the Pike County.

http://www.contemplator.com/america/betsey.html

[kcexpress69]

You did it!! Great work, Thundertubs!! Hannibal looks about the same as it did back when I visited there in 2003. That was a great shot up from "Lover's Leap!! Louisiana, looked quite impressive for a town its size!! Cant wait to see the next photoset!!

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by kcexpress69

Cant wait to see the next photoset!!

Yeah, now we are all spoiled!

South of Clarksville, you really have to take the ferry at Winfield or the Golden Eagle ferry (or bridge at Louisiana) over to Illinois and down into mysterious Calhoun County Illinois wedged between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to keep up with the rivertowns on the Mississippi before St. Louis. Elsberry was at one point on the Mississippi, and is a kind of rail/river hybrid, but the channel has allegedly since left her high and dry. Theoretically this is where I expect your next threads, back over in Illinois...theoretically, that is to say in the universe where you keep belting out thread after awesome thread of Rivertown or River City. This is a very time consuming proposition, as my memory serves to recall that it took me the same time to make a loop through this area and back to St. Louis through Missouri as it takes me to get to THE (Chicago) loop. I still reserve hope that you have pictures of every major river hamlet all the way to New Orleans...and at some point you then board a steamer to Havana.

[Sekkle]

love those storefronts. Excellent set!

[Thundertubs]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

Yeah, now we are all spoiled!

South of Clarksville, you really have to take the ferry at Winfield or the Golden Eagle ferry (or bridge at Louisiana) over to Illinois and down into mysterious Calhoun County Illinois wedged between the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to keep up with the rivertowns on the Mississippi before St. Louis. Elsberry was at one point on the Mississippi, and is a kind of rail/river hybrid, but the channel has allegedly since left her high and dry. Theoretically this is where I expect your next threads, back over in Illinois...theoretically, that is to say in the universe where you keep belting out thread after awesome thread of Rivertown or River City. This is a very time consuming proposition, as my memory serves to recall that it took me the same time to make a loop through this area and back to St. Louis through Missouri as it takes me to get to THE (Chicago) loop. I still reserve hope that you have pictures of every major river hamlet all the way to New Orleans...and at some point you then board a steamer to Havana.

Thanks for the background info. I didn't know as much about the area as I would have liked while I was traveling through. Unfortunately, this is where I turned around. In keeping with my plan to photograph every (interesting) town in the US, I will pick up the river at this spot and keep heading south at some point in the future. I am intrigued by the isolation of Calhoun County, and am looking forward to someday shooting Alton, which seems like my kind of town.

I do still have about three more threads form this trip, but of cities further north, and off the Miss. river.

[xzmattzx]

Nice pictures. Was there any Mark Twain House or Huckleberry Finn House or anything in Hannibal?

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Thundertubs

Thanks for the background info. I didn't know as much about the area as I would have liked while I was traveling through. Unfortunately, this is where I turned around. In keeping with my plan to photograph every (interesting) town in the US, I will pick up the river at this spot and keep heading south at some point in the future. I am intrigued by the isolation of Calhoun County, and am looking forward to someday shooting Alton, which seems like my kind of town.

I do still have about three more threads form this trip, but of cities further north, and off the Miss. river.

I still can't believe someone on SSP found their way into Louisiana! Calhoun County is very isolated with about 5,000 - 6,000 people total, interesting considering its geographical proximity to the two fastest growing countys in Missouri. It's regionally known for its peaches, and you can see vendors who came across on the ferry set up along highway 79 in Missouri during harvest.

[le calmar]

Very interesting!

[thrillbilly]

sigh... anyone else sick of seeing empty storefronts in downtowns? Seriously, this country is losing its architecture heritage because everyone would rather keep building new strip malls and cookie cutter houses//// I wish I could move back to England.

[MolsonExport]

great series...shame about the plethora of empty storefronts.

[JBoston]

Reminds me a lot of Pittsburgh in some of those shots.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by thrillbilly

sigh... anyone else sick of seeing empty storefronts in downtowns? Seriously, this country is losing its architecture heritage because everyone would rather keep building new strip malls and cookie cutter houses//// I wish I could move back to England.

Rural flight is a big part of Louisianas woes, so far as I can tell it's still losing people. It's too bad, the town is an antebellum/victorian gem with a stellar street grid. Theres some really cool old homes up on the bluff with amazing back yards that drop almost straight down to the river valley below. Theres actually a small population of rehabbers, some from St. Louis City, that live there part or full time. I actually have met one who moved there from Minneapolis as well (I don't recall how he found Louisiana).

[CastleScott]

The town of Louisiana, MO. Population 3,500, and a heck of a downtown for it's size. This is in the greater "Little Dixie" region of Missouri. Folks around here indeed had strong southern accents, despite us being north of St. Louis.

Yes sir everytime I go to see my mom's side of the family in Hamilton IL I hear those southern accents and thats even about 70 miles north of Louisiana and 40 mi north of Quincy, kinda funny because once back when I was in high school I stayed most of a summer back there and came home to metro Denver with that accent and my friends thought I'd gone to Alabama or someplace in the deep South.

This is a great photo thread and are you going to go up the Illinois side before St Louis (I noticed you mentioned photograhing Alton sometime in the future)?

Oh btw Warsaw IL has a cool dense core for being just around 1,900 (its north of Quincy about 35 miles).

Scott (formerly Shoowaa on here back before I got married, and yes you can still call me Al)

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by Thundertubs

I do still have about three more threads form this trip, but of cities further north, and off the Miss. river.

54 northwest through Pike County, IL towards the Illinois Valley?

When you come back down the mighty Miss, Grafton, Elsah are worthy destinations for A) an order at the window fish market in Grafton that serves fresh caught mississippi river buffalo that is terrible (maybe order something else), and B) a nice somewhat creepy The Village feel at Elsah. Grafton has a bit of a Door County, WI tourist town feel in the summer. Both are an interesting alchemy of geography and architecture, and Elsah is just plain ancient for the midwest and is home to many faculty members of the Christain Science institution just up on the hill and Robert Duvals alma mater, Principia College. Elsah was also considered for the location of the US Air Force Academy. Supposedly Grafton was heavily financed at some point by St. Louis merchants to intercept downriver commerce away from Alton, which was in turn shunting downriver commerce on the railroad to Chicago. C) would be Alton and its Fast Eddies Bon Air and its mid century style draft beer servings among other things.

I could just keep babbling.

[Evergrey]

Louisiana is awesome.

[Centropolis]

you may have been the last person to photograph the building on the right (behind the caboose) standing.

http://www.hannibal.net/features/x27...collapse?img=2

[kool maudit]

it is strange to think of america in 1926, a powerful, growing country full of functioning towns and enormous cities.

it's still a pwerful country, but it now seems like it is playing a very dangerous game, or sawing at the wheel a bit in an effort to stay on the road.

it doesn't make as much innate sense as it once did.

[Ex-Ithacan]

Hannibal looks like a great river town. I like the hills too. This is my favorite shot:




Too bad about Louisiana, impressive commercial district for a town its size, but the empty buildings are a sad sight.

Thanks for the tour Tt.