Pond's datebook shows engagements in Grand Rapids (13 Dec) and then Toledo
(15 Dec), no Muskegon:
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/c6021d90-0ebd-0132-6b4f-58d385a7bbd0/book#page/27/mode/2up

On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 4:54 AM Mac Donnell Rare Books <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Good question. I looked at that earlier and contemporary papers put them
> in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. No mention of Muskegon.
>
> Kevin
> @
> Mac Donnell Rare Books
> 9307 Glenlake Drive
> Austin TX 78730
> 512-345-4139
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>
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>
> ------ Original Message ------
> From: "JULES AUSTIN HOJNOWSKI" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: 4/8/2020 5:41:32 AM
> Subject: Re: Mark Twain in Muskegon, MI
>
> >Hi
> >Are there any newspapers from that time from around that area that might
> have better info?
> >
> >:)
> >Jules
> >
> >
> >Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36>
> >________________________________
> >From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Benjamin Griffin <
> [log in to unmask]>
> >Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2020 6:26:05 PM
> >To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> >Subject: Re: Mark Twain in Muskegon, MI
> >
> >The plot thickens. Through the decency of the HathiTrust Library, which
> has
> >given the UC Libraries emergency access to online texts, I've been able to
> >see In digital copies of the earliest printings of this lost letter.
> >
> >In Cyril Clemens's *Mark Twain, the Letter-Writer *(1932), the dateline is
> >simply "*Michigan, Dec. 1884*." When Cyril Clemens printed this letter
> >again in the *Mark Twain Quarterly *in 1941, the dateline had grown to
> >read: "*Muskegon, Michigan, December 4, 1884*."
> >
> >There are two possibilities. Either Cyril returned to the manuscript
> letter
> >and transcribed it more fully than he had before, OR [a strong nudge here]
> >he supplied "Muskegon" and "4" out of his own erratic brain. Since both
> >"December 4" and "Muskegon," as Scott points out, make no sense, I think
> >it's clear these details are mere invention. Later, no doubt, some well
> >meaning person made a "correction" from 4 to 14, on the grounds that at
> >least Clemens was *near *Muskegon on the latter date. Unluckily, they
> >"corrected" without getting all the facts. (I think it's right to
> emphasize
> >again that, for the letters of years we haven't edited yet, MTPO
> >information isn't as refined as it will be later.)
> >
> >So much for Mark Twain's phantom side-excursion to Muskegon! (Rabbit hole?
> >. . . What rabbit hole?)
> >
> >Ben
> >
>


-- 
Benjamin Griffin
Associate Editor, Mark Twain Project
The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000
(510) 664-4238