When Missouri’s Lover’s Leap Had a Landslide at Hurricane Speed

I have been up Lover's Leap in Hannibal more times than I can remember, but I can't even imagine what it must have been like when that Missouri landmark had a landslide that came down the hill at hurricane speed.

This infamous moment happened almost a century and a half ago on the well-known Hannibal, Missouri overlook. I found this account on a Marion County, Missouri genealogy site. It says that a tremendous roar was heard near Hannibal on January 13, 1859. It says the Hannibal Missouri Messenger documented what happened that day:

They said it was an "awful avalanche of upwards of 100,000 square yards, whirling down the steep descent with the speed of a hurricane, and a rumbling almost to that of thunder".

The result of the Lover's Leap avalanche in January of 1859 was 10 to 12 railway cars were completely destroyed. The wording of the story from the account of that day sounds so much like you would expect in the mid-1800's saying "snapped like so many reeds, others were bent completely double, and the bodies of the cars scattered hither and yon". I love it. Makes me want to get involved in a pioneer reenactment.

Since I'm afraid of heights, I never enjoy getting too close to that enclosed fencing on top of Lover's Leap, but even I had no idea an avalanche of this magnitude was possible. Imagine being up there now if the Earth beneath you suddenly gave way. I shudder.