Update: See where Mark Twain grew up in Hannibal.

We stumbled upon one of the most interesting examples of Mid-Century Modernism out in the middle of nowhere this weekend, on a peninsula of Mark Twain Lake. There nestled between two branches of the lake, is the Mark Twain Shrine.

The building features a self-supporting hyperbolic parabola roof, or so the guide told us. The building opened in 1958, after Mark Twain’s daughter had approved the plans.

The roof is self supporting, allowing the moving of Twain’s birthplace house under the eaves of the roof before the walls were constructed.

You’ll never know what you find out in the middle of nowhere.