MTF readers should not be misled by the hypothetical placement of Sam
Clemens at an occupied cabin on the East Shore of Lake Tahoe at
Glenbrook. Robert Stewart’s storytelling relies on a letter written by
SLC to his mother that recounts certain aspects of his first visit to
Lake Tahoe in 1861 and he views it through the lens of rationalization
and speculative interpretation. This is done to bolster his theory
about a Lake Tahoe East Shore timber claim and campsite location.

This is the passage from the letter that deals with the cabin:

So we set out for the only house on this side of the Lake--three miles
from there, down the shore. We found the way without any trouble,
reached there before sundown, played three games of cribbage, borrowed
a dug-out and pulled back six miles to the upper camp. As we had eaten
nothing since sunrise, we did not waste time in cooking our supper or
in eating it, either.

One may view the full text of the subject letter at Mark Twain Project
website and search letters for MTL  1  56  59  UCCL  00029.

A direct and reasonable reading of this passage at face value leads
one to conclude the two men continued another three miles farther from
their current location, entered the cabin before dark, played cards,
consumed no food, found a canoe, and used it to paddle back to the
first night campsite where they cooked and ate a meal. There is no
mention of encountering people in the cabin. However, Stewart would
have us believe they encountered people who gave them no food, a deep
transgression of traditional 19th century Western cooperation and
mutual aid and never mentioned the incident in writing.

In an earlier attempt to fix this inconsistency with his scenario,
Stewart tried to make the case to me that the cabin was occupied. He
argued that SLC left open the question of occupancy of the cabin,
cribbage was a game played by more than two people, persons arriving
after set meal times were normally refused food at Nevada ranches, and
borrowing of a canoe implies someone present to borrow from. We
pointed out these speculative rationalizations were not credible. He
responded that four unnamed Mark Twain scholars disagreed.

Consider that MT was known for rich character development and
extensive focus on the human experience in his writings. In the
Stewart cabin scenario, SLC chooses not to mention any other people,
though he encountered people. In his counter factual report, Stewart
more recently said the SLC letter did not mention meeting people in
the cabin because his mother did not know them. This, despite
identifying in the same letter John Kinney, a person his mother did
not know either. Further, MT would have chosen to skip another
opportunity to write about people in the cabin in Roughing It, a book
loaded with interesting characters and rich human-interest stories.

Finally, the cabin that Stewart cites is located near the middle of
the East Shore, over nine miles south of any geographical point that
could be considered the North Shore. Recall that Twain twice
referenced the North Shore  as his location and gave the same
information to another author in 1907.

We could continue with more logical analysis, but for the sake of
brevity, we will conclude here having made our case. We thank all MTF
readers who take the time to consider all sides to this debate and
reach their own conclusion on a factual basis using critical thinking
skills.

David C. Antonucci
Author of Fairest Picture - Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe