Mark Twain Cave: Jimmy Carter Guest Book

Hannibal, Missouri

Some caves have all the luck. Mark Twain Cave is not exceptional in size or formations, but it's had some memorable visitors. Samuel Clemens (later Mark Twain) hung out in the then-nameless cave as a kid, and later gave it a key role as "MacDougal's Cave" in his book Tom Sawer. A mad doctor named Joseph McDowell used it as a mausoleum for his dead daughter, who he preserved in an alcohol-filled glass coffin. Jesse James once hid in the cave and left his signature on a wall to prove it. And President Jimmy Carter and the First Family visited the cave on August 23, 1979, and signed its guest book, which is still displayed in the gift shop.

As far as we know, it's the only instance of a serving President taking the time to visit a tourist cave, or maybe just the only one who was down-to-earth enough to sign a guest register like a regular tourist.

"Mark Twain always had a good thing to say about America," said President Carter in a speech he gave that day in Hannibal. "He had some good things to say about the Federal Government. And I particularly liked this because you don't hear that very much any more."