View from Lovers Leap

This spot is known as Lovers Leap and over looks Hannibal Missouri

" story of Lover’s Leap
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Posted Nov 19, 2011 at 12:01 AM Updated Nov 19, 2011 at 6:18 PM

Nearly every cliffed town, along nearly every river has a Lover’s Leap, and the legend behind the name of the high-topped bluff is nearly always the same. Hannibal is no exception. The myth or legend of Hannibal’s Lover’s Leap was written by a man named Aurthur O. Garrison, who claimed that he obtained the details from “ancient inscriptions and a birch bark manuscript.” No one seems to know who Garrison was. The clipping of his story has vanished and none know what newspaper or book it was taken from or when it was published.

Reprinted from the Hannibal Courier-Post’s Sesquicentennial Edition.

Nearly every cliffed town, along nearly every river has a Lover’s Leap, and the legend behind the name of the high-topped bluff is nearly always the same. Hannibal is no exception.
The myth or legend of Hannibal’s Lover’s Leap was written by a man named Aurthur O. Garrison, who claimed that he obtained the details from “ancient inscriptions and a birch bark manuscript.”
No one seems to know who Garrison was. The clipping of his story has vanished and none know what newspaper or book it was taken from or when it was published.

Here’s is Garrison’s story:
“Many years ago, before the white men landed on the shores of America and when the Indian owned the land, there lived on the banks of the Father of Waters a small tribe of Indians known as the Kirgluou.
“They were less savage than most of the tribes around them and were given to the arts of peace rather than war.
“The Kirgluou’s old chief, Mulza, had an only daughter, Altala, upon whom he lavished all the love and care of a father’s heart. Altala was the most beautiful of maidens and most skilled in all the arts of Indian womanhood.
“Altala’s lover was Peltacen, the bravest warrior, the best runner and most skilled tomahawk thrower of all the great young men in the village.
“The Holrois refused to allow the Kirgluou to fish off their shores, but the Kirgluou said that the fish belonged to whoever could catch them, and they would fish wherever they wished.
“The next Kirgluou fisherman who reached Holrois waters was seized, his canoe confiscated and after a severe beating he was sent home as warning to the Kirgluou.
“The Missouri tribe called a council and Peltacen convinced the braves of the tribe to attack the Holrois in revenge.
“Peltacen and his warriors jumped in canoes and raced across the river where they met Holrois braves in midstream.
“Altala and the other maidens of the village climbed a high cliff which rose from the shore, to watch the battle.
“Peltacen killed four Holrois and then was slain himself by a tomahawk.
“Seeing her lover fall into the river and fail to appear, Altala sprung to her feet and cried:
“We shall not be separated. Thou, O Manitou, has taken him to thee, and thou shall take me also. Today we will roam in the happy hunting grounds and bask in the smiles of the Great Spirit.’”
According to the legend, Altala leaped over the edge of the cliff and into the river.
The cliff has since been called Lover’s Leap.
Such quaint but tragic legends are known up and down the Mississippi, and probably have at least slight basis in fact, but Indians are as expert at fairy tales as the whites that followed them into the land. Only the least romantic of men would question their legends, however. And only the most cruel would attempt to prove or disprove the existence of such unrecorded tribes as the Kirgluou and the Holrois." http:--www.hannibal.net-article-20111119-NEWS-311199980

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