Sam Clemens, July of 1861, found himself escapting the Civil War by heading west to the Nevada Territory, Carson City. His brother, Orion, had been appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory and Sam had financed the trip. They departed from St. Joseph, Missouri on the Overland Stage.

Richard Francis Burton made the same journey the previous year. Burton was a man Bram Stoker described as “steel”. “He would go through you like a sword.” He was also quite detailed in his journal of the trip, far more than was Sam Clemens.

I recently asked a group of Mark Twain scholars about a comment in the notes section of the book “Heretical Fictions…”, that Twain had become "sympathetic toward and even admiring of Indians in the final decades of his life." My question drew little comment but I did receive a recommendation for a Masters Thesis from William and Mary College written by Carol Van Dessel Vaughn, “Mark Twain, Richard Irving Dodge, and the Indian: Myth and Disillusionment”, 1984.