Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe - Two Men Stake a Timber Claim

Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe - Two Men Stake a Timber Claim. . , A Plan to Sell Trees , In the latter part of September 1861, Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) and a friend camped for three nights on this sandy beach. After hiking more than 11 miles from Carson City, the two rowed about three miles across "a deep bend of the lake", now known as Crystal Bay. In order to sell trees for mining and development, the two men were in search of a place to stake a timber claim, which they discovered about three miles west of here., A Good Night's Sleep , Mark Twain dubbed this location as "Upper Camp" because of the towering ridge above them. They used a flat granite rock as a table to play cards by firelight until falling asleep in the warm sand between the boulders. Despite ants "exploring their persons," as Twain recalled, "We never moved a muscle all night, but waked at early dawn in the original positions, and got up at once, thoroughly refreshed, free from soreness, and brim full of friskiness.", Boulders as Large as a Church , One morning, Mark Twain and his friend set about drifting in the rowboat, gazing over the sides at the submerged offshore boulders. Twain estimated the massive boulders were "as large as a village church" and marveled that the "water was not merely transparent, but dazzlingly, brilliantly so." He added, "So singularly clear was the water, that where it was only twenty or thirty feet deep the bottom was so perfectly distinct that the boat seemed floating in the air! So empty and airy did all spaces seem below us, and so strong was the sense of floating high aloft in mid- nothingness, that we called these boat-excursions "balloon-voyages.", Did you know? The two would-be timber barons spent their days working on their timber claim but nearly lost it all when Twain let his campfire escape, setting the forest ablaze.