Located next to the Mark Twain Dinette is The Haunted House on Hill Street and Wax Museum. When you glance at the house you’ll see that it looks similar to most of the historic houses that surround it.
As you look closer you’ll notice a shackled skeleton in plain view out of the top window and that’s when you think that something sinister must be taking place inside!
As you enter, you’ll quickly forget that you’re entering a haunted house as you’re greeted by a sweet old lady, who welcomes you inside with a delightful smile.
Standing next to her and by the window is Injun Joe, sculpted from wax. He stands as a preview of what’s to come.
After you fork over the admission price and go thru the turnstyle, you enter a dark room and are now greeted with the unblinking stares from 27 wax figures. These figures have the likeness of real and fictional people that were a part of Mark Twain’s life in Hannibal. For the next 15 minutes the sweet old lady acts as your tour guide and introduces you to each wax figure.
These wax figures were sculpted by Martin Krewson, the same sculptor of the Jesse James Hideout Wax Museum located in my neck of the woods here at the Lake of the Ozarks.
Once the sweet old lady is done speaking about the wax figures, she invites you to step thru the doorway at the end of the room. She informs you that she won’t be going with you and that you are on your own. Oh, you almost forgot that this place is haunted! The image of that skeleton in the window is now on your mind!
As you step thru the door you can’t see a thing, as everything is pitch black and you notice there is a dampness in the air. Suddenly, a giant spider falls from the ceiling and then something brushes against your ankles as you quickly walk thru a narrow corridor.
A few more steps and a full view of a room opens up with ghastly sites of skulls, coffins, bigfoot and a guy in a bee keeper mask? (Well, I don’t know about you, but bee keeper masks are kind of scary!)
Now you turn the corner and a chilling breeze shoots up your leg that makes you jump forward right smack dab into the face of a giant screeching bat.
You ask yourself, “when will this terror end?” It ends after you walk by the cemetery with the creepy long-haired skeleton ghosts that wave white hankies at you.
Finally, you find the exit door and out you step into the gift shop, where you can catch your breath and try to slow down your heart rate.
Next time you’re in Hannibal, be sure to visit The Haunted House on Hill Street and Wax Museum, as it’s two attractions in one! Of course you must take it with a grain of salt as this attraction is more than 30 years old and it’s something I would’ve loved as a kid, made fun of as a teenager and now respect as a classic tourist trap! It’s simple roadside spook show fun!
