I found the this item in the new issue (July/August 1997) of _Archaeology_
magazine...

Twain Site Demolished

A California developer has torn down Nevada's Desert Wells Station, a
trading post for pioneers traveling the California Trail in the 1850s and
later a station on the Overland Stage and Mail Route. In _Roughing It_,
Mark Twain chronicled a night he and two friends spent in a blizzard only
to realize at daybreak they were 15 steps from the station. The landmark
was not protected by law because it was on private land.

Calton Bolick
Berkeley, CA