TravelWorld International Magazine Fall 2022

Ulysses S. Grant
lysses Grant attended West Point. He visited
his roommate, Fredrick Dent’s family, and fell
in love with Dent’s sister, Julia. White Haven,
the plantation the Dents owned and operated
with about 30 enslaved people, was his home for
several years. Today, it’s a national park you can visit.
A ranger led us on a tour through the home and outbuildings.
Just across the road, visit Grant’s Farm. Along with free ranging
deer, goats, elk, longhorn cattle, and other animals, you’ll find
the cabin built by Grant. Grant and his family lived in the log
cabin in late 1856 for a short time. Grant’s Farm is owned by
the Busch Family, so there are Clydesdales, beer, food, and
more at the farm. It’s free. You just pay for parking and then
take the tram.
White Haven, Julia Dent’s
family home where she
and Grant lived for years.
Log Cabin that
Grant built at
Grant’s Farm.
HANNIBAL
Mark Twain
The living room at
White Haven with
mannequins representing
Grant and his wife.
ark Twain was the man who put
Hannibal on the map. Many of the
town’s attractions tell his story. I
enjoyed all of them. Start with the
museum and his boyhood home. There’s a reproduction
of the town as it looked when Twain, then Sam Clemens,
was a boy. The home of the Elijah Hawkins family is the
Becky Thatcher Museum. Laura Hawkins was a lifelong
friend and Clemens’ model for Becky Thatcher in The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Mark Twain’s life is intertwined with his steamboat
captain career. Take a trip on the Mark Twain Riverboat.
We took the one-hour sightseeing cruise, but you have
an option to take a dinner cruise if you choose.
The Mark Twain Riverboat
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