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After decades of searching, Mark Twain’s signature was found inside a cave

 

Mark Twain made this cave famous through his writings, and speculation swirled for decades that he’d signed his name somewhere inside it.

This week, the owners of the cave can finally confirm: “Sam Clemens,” Twain’s real name, is indeed inscribed inside the Mark Twain cave in Hannibal, Missouri.
Clemens lived in Hannibal for most his childhood, from 1839 to 1853. Back then, the cave, first discovered in 1819 and containing three miles of passageways, was known as McDowell’s cave.
It was a popular hang-out for locals, and over the years it has amassed nearly 250,000 signatures on its walls, according to Linda Coleberd, whose family has owned the cave since 1923.
The cave figured prominently in Twain’s book, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” published in 1876, and became famous thereafter.
For decades, people have looked over the writing on the walls hoping to find Clemens’ own. In July, Coleberd and her friend, Cindy Lovell, finally discovered his signature.
“My single hope has been that someone would find it during my lifetime,” Lovell said in a statement from the Mark Twain Cave Complex. “Sam knew the cave so well and described it in exact detail. We just knew it had to be in here somewhere.”
Lovell, a former director of the Twain Museum in Hannibal, is a self-proclaimed “Twainiac,” and has been looking for his signature since 1996.

Source: After decades of searching, Mark Twain’s signature was found inside a cave