FROM THE SHADOWS
TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL
The Ghost of Mark Twain Cave

Its cold in Hannibals Mark Twain Cave. Fifty-two degrees all year round.
The feet of tourists scrape along the dusty rock floor, where an
uncountable number of feet have scraped since the caves discovery in
1819 feet that belonged to the curious, the romantic and the likes of
Jesse James and Mark Twain.

I seemed to tire of most everything I did,? Twain wrote in his
autobiography. But I never tired of exploring the cave.
The cave has been home to town meetings, weddings and the ghost of a
teenage girl.
When Twain was a boy, the cave was owned by Dr. Joseph Nash McDowell, a
surgeon from St. Louis who founded the Missouri Medical College.
McDowell was a gifted physician and a little nuts.

He was trying to petrify a human body,? said Susie Shelton, general
manager of the cave. His own daughter died of pneumonia at 14. He took a
copper cylinder lined with glass. He filled it with an alcohol mixture,
put in his daughter and hung it from a ceiling in a cave room.

Children would tell ghost stories around that cylinder among other
things.
The top of the cylinder was removable, Twain wrote in Life on the
Mississippi. And it was said to be a common thing for the baser order of
tourists to drag the dead face into view and examine it and comment upon
it.

After two years of complaints from the residents of Hannibal, Dr.
McDowell moved his daughters body to the family mausoleum in St. Louis.
But, according to some, the lonely figure of young Miss McDowell is
still there, walking in the chilled darkness of the cave.
Ive had guides say theyve seen somebody,? Susie said. Ive been in and
out of there 15 years and have never seen or felt anything.?
Former tour guide Tom Rickey saw something there in the late 1990s that
still haunts him.
I got a cold chill,? he said. I got them now thinking about it. I got
a chill over me and I turned around and she was there.
She was a girl wearing a long, old-fashioned dress with a cape.
I happened to look back in McDowells room and I saw her standing there
as plain as day,? Tom said. She had long dark hair. Very, very pretty.
She was only there for an instant.

Thinking the girl was a lost tourist, he tried to speak to her, but she
turned and walked into the cave room.
She walked off,? Tom said. She didnt fade away, but there wasnt
nowhere to walk. She went through the wall. She just walked off and she
wasnt there anymore.
Susie said Toms experience isnt isolated.

There have been stories of people seeing a little girl in there, so its
possible,? she said. Ive had a few tour guides whove said theyve felt
something. Some guides dont like to go in there by themselves.?
Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a
ghost, UFO or a creature you couldnt identify? Let Jason know about it
at jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Include your name, address and telephone
number for verification only. Your story might make an upcoming
installment of From the Shadows.

Jason Offutt is a syndicated columnist, author and fan of all things
Fortean. His book of ghost stories, Haunted Missouri,? will soon be
available at www.jasonoffutt.com and all major bookstores.