The smartest person I've ever met regarding Bixby and Twain - and the
river -
was Tommy Thompson, ace banjo picker with the Chapel Hill-based Red Clay
Ramblers Band.  He had worked for the Corps of Engineers on the Lower
Miss, to
support his music habit, before he and a partner at UNC did a
well-researched
musical for the Playmakers' Theatre in Chapel Hill called simply "Life
on the
Mississippi."  I produced the play and played Bixby, about a dozen+
years ago
in San Francisco. He visited the production, and we had a lively chat
about
Bixby.  Only a touch of Thompson's knowledge was in the play.

You could probably reach Tommy through the Ramblers' record producer
(Rhino,
maybe? Flying Fish? - should be easy to find) in Chicago, or by writing
a
plain postcard or letter to Playmakers' Theatre, affiliated with UNC in
Chapel
Hill, NC. (I'm in Poland, or I'd check it personally)

Richard Reineccius, Lodz, PL