Samuel Clemens grew up in Hannibal Missouri, though he wasn't using his pen name of Mark Twain at the time. He learned the trade of riverboat pilot, earning his pilot's license in 1859 at the age of 23.
Clemens had signed on as a pilot's apprentice in 1857 while on his way to Mississippi. He had been commissioned to write a series of comic travel letters for the Keokuk Daily Post, but after writing five, decided he'd rather be a pilot than a writer. He piloted his own boats for two years, until the Civil War halted steamboat traffic.
Have a read at one autobiographical chapter: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1875/03/old-times-on-the-mississippi-part-iii/537831/
The caption with this statue of Train reads, "In 1857 young Samuel Clemens began to learn the trade of a steamboat pilot on the Lower Mississippi River. When his piloting career ended with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Clemens went to Nevada Territory where he first used pen name Mark Twin in 1863 while writing for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City. Clemens took the name 'Mark Twain' from the River sounding that indicated 12 feet of water which was safe for navigation. This statue was given to the City of Hannibal by the Schwartz Family of East Hannibal, Illinois, July 4, 2003." The statue is located in Riverfront Park where there is plenty of free parking.
[Review 19723 overall - round number 200 in Missouri - 695 of 2023.] read more