In Nevada, Mark Twain’s rabble-rousing legacy lives on

CARSON CITY, Nev. (CN) — Local author Bob Stewart isn’t sure which came first: his love of Nevada history or his appreciation for Mark Twain’s humor.“It’s kind of a strange relationship,” the 90-year-old retiree chuckled.Stewart is part of the “Never Sweats,” a group of local authors who meet up to talk regional history and books. A self-described Mark Twain scholar, he publishes articles and speaks at conferences about the famous American satirist.Although Twain is most associated with his home state of Missouri, he also spent several formative years in Nevada Territory.His brother Orion was territory secretary. After Twain’s career as a steamboat captain was abruptly cut short by the Civil War, he spent two weeks in a comically ineffective pro-Confederate militia before joining his brother. It was here in Nevada where he first used the pen name Mark Twain.On a sunny afternoon in October, Stewart explained how he began researching Twain’s life in the Silver State.Stewart had come to possess an 1862 journal by a miner named Samuel Youngs. He was interested in writing a book about Youngs — but as he pored over original documents, the same name kept popping up.“I ran into Clemens, you know, kind of again and again,” Stewart said, using Twain’s birth name, Samuel Clemens. “I got interested in his life here in Carson City.”Bob Stewart sits under a Mark Twain bust at the Fox Brewpub in Carson City, Nevada on Oct. 15, 2026. (Carly Nairn/Courthouse News)Plenty others here are interested, too. Four years ago, Carson City began holding a Mark Twain Days Festival in October, honoring the famed American writer and his connection to the region with events like public lectures and walking tours.Outside the former St. Charles Hotel where Twain once visited, there’s now a statue of Twain, paid for by the Never Sweats and other locals. The sculptor has made 40 versions of this statue; in most of them, Twain is holding his classic “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” In Carson City he instead holds “Roughing It,” a memoir of his time in Nevada including his misadventures in silver mining.As legendary as Twain was during his lifetime, his literary shadow has only gotten longer since then.He’s now remembered as one of the greatest American writers. And in an era of political turmoil with heated midterm elections fast approaching, his ability to dress down even the highest-ranking political figures is particularly inspiring today.“Virtually everything he wrote has some political element to it,” said Kerry Driscoll, associate editor of UC Berkeley’s Mark Twain Papers and Project. It’s the world’s greatest repository of Twain’s writings, from personal correspondences and manuscript drafts to even ephemera like receipts for stagecoach rides.Driscoll sees Twain as the precursor of politically minded late-night comedians like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. And with Colbert’s show recently canceled over what critics say was political pressure, one can’t help but wonder whether a modern-day Twain would have been able to stay on the air.Audiences in Twain’s time “loved the freedom that he would say what you think but would never dare to utter,” Driscoll said. “Now, of course, in these politically perilous, politically correct times, he’d be canceled in a heartbeat.”Kerry Driscoll, an associate editor at UC Berkeley's Mark Twain Papers and Project, points to a photo of Mark Twain. (Carly Nairn/Courthouse News)As for Stewart, he takes particular pleasure in exploring and researching Twain’s life here in Nevada. There are many interesting frontier characters, including Robert Howland, a prison warden who Twain describes knocking over another man’s collection of scorpions and tarantulas while in a drunken stupor one night.“It’s been a lot of fun,” Stewart said. “It’s been about 20 years I’ve played with this, of looking at Twain’s journals and then sort of taking it from there.”A plume of steam rose from the festival’s two-car “Twain Train” as it chugged through sagebrush-dotted hills between Carson City and Virginia City.Inside, passengers sipped on sarsaparilla and “Huck’s Honey Hooch,” a grapefruit and vodka concoction. Guitarists played old-timey tunes, and a pair of raconteurs reenacted a conversation between Twain and his wife Olivia.It was in Virginia City where — working as a columnist for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper — Clemens first used the moniker Mark Twain for a column on Feb. 3, 1863. He signed off with, “Yours dreamily.”“This is a landmark column,” Driscoll said. “I mean, it almost gives me goosebumps.”Playing the part of Olivia Clemens in this reenactment, actor Carla Wilson said that researching Twain gave her a newfound respect for him.“He was quite the character,” she said as the train rumbled along. “It was nice to see that a lot of the stories he developed came from those younger years,” the same era he was in Nevada.Clemens arrived in Nevada at just 25. Adopting his Twain persona, he began selling out shows at the Piper’s Opera House theater in Virginia City.“People were going there in throngs to see this comedian writer who had a commanding presence on stage and the ability to entertain,” Wilson said. “He liked to find ways to carefully do an insult.”Mark Twain performed at Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada, in the early 1860s. (Carly Nairn/Courthouse News)In discussions of how Twain got away with his barbs and takedowns, Driscoll says the topic of his pseudonym often comes up.She says the idea is that “Mark Twain had license to be as outrageous as he wanted to be” and was “a kind of protective cover or armor,” whereas Samuel Clemens “was in many respects a proper Victorian gentleman.” Personally, she doesn’t quite buy the logic. She thinks most people knew Clemens was Twain and just loved the persona.Whatever the reason, Twain’s writings spark enough controversy that Americans continue to grapple with them more than 100 years after his death.Case in point is “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”: It offers moral lessons about racism and is considered one of the finest works of American literature, and yet it also uses the N-word more than 200 times. It’s been restricted by countless libraries and schools since it was published, and educators still debate how to teach it.Driscoll, who was a literature professor before she began working for the Mark Twain Papers and Project, said she taught the book alongside writings by contemporaries like the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, so that students could understand the broader context and language of the era.Others might assign it alongside the 2024 novel “James” by Percival Everett, which retells the story from the perspective of escaped enslaved character Jim. Still others might decide it no longer makes sense as required reading. For her part, Driscoll thinks “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is still important.“It’s such a reflection — and a damning one in many ways — of our culture in the 19th century,” she said. “On the other hand, I know that it is so painful.”A plaque commemorating Mark Twain's time working for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada. (Carly Nairn/Courthouse News)Although societal norms were very different back then, it’s worth remembering that in a sense, Twain also got canceled.It wasn’t just “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” which many readers at the time found uncouth and disrespectful of authority.The most notorious example might be the Sanitary Affair — an incident that directly led to Twain leaving Nevada. To simplify a bit: Twain, who loved hoaxes, claimed in an article that proceeds from a Carson City ball had been diverted to a made-up group that was encouraging interracial relationships.“Well, that did not go over well,” Stewart said.Twain was accused of libel — and in the uproar that followed, he challenged another man to a duel. Since duels were illegal in Nevada at the time, he left the territory before he could be criminally prosecuted.Whatever his modern legacy and regardless of whether a TV show hosted by Twain could stay on the air, it’s clear he remains a significant figure in this stretch of Nevada.As a political circus ramps up for the 2028 midterm elections, this October festival is just one way that Carson City is remembering this source of hometown pride.On the last day of the festival on Saturday, Oct. 17, there was a street fair with authors, musicians and mule rides.Coincidentally, there was also a “No Kings” protest going on a block away. Protesters carried signs with messages like “Nothing is more American than fighting tyranny.” The statue of Twain sat nearby with a slight, knowing smile.Protesters gather in downtown Carson City, Nevada, on Oct. 17, 2026. (Carly Nairn/Courthouse News)A shadow of the "Twain Train" as it moves between Carson City and Virginia City, Nevada. 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