Livy, I guess that after all I shall become interested in this “Herald,” & then you shall be Managing Editor—that is to say, you’ll manage the editor. I think we’ll live in [Clevland], Livy—& then we’ll persuade Mr.

Region of Oklahoma mentioned in  The American Claimant.  The character Washington Hawkins arrives in  Washington, D.C. as Congressional Delegate from Cherokee Strip.   "He explains to Colonel Sellers that he has no official status in Congress because 'we are not even a territory, there's no organic act,  the government hasn't any official knowledge of us whatever'."

Mark Twain Cave — originally McDowell's Cave — is a show cave located near Hannibal, Missouri. It was named for author Mark Twain whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Clemens lived in Hannibal from 1839 to 1853, age 4 to 17.

A prominent hill in Hannibal, originally known as Holliday's Hill.  Mark Twain named the fictional location from a place in Cardiff, Wales that reminded him of Holliday's Hill.  It figures in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  It stands about 300 feet above the Mississippi River, the southern end of a long escarpment that parallels the river.  Rasmussen reports that this is the location from which Sam and a friend rolled a boulder down the hill and through a cooper's shed in town.

Gold prospecting in Calaveras County began in late 1848 with a camp founded by Henry Angel. Angel may have first arrived in California as a soldier, serving under Colonel Frémont during the Mexican War. After the war's end, he found himself in Monterey where he heard of the fabulous finds in the gold fields. He joined the Carson-Robinson party of prospectors and set out for the mines. The company parted ways upon reaching what later became known as Angels Creek. Henry Angel tried placer mining but soon opened a trading post.

Twain's father purchased the property in 1839 but the date the house was built is unknown.  Sam was living there by the time he was eight years old.  The family lived there until 1853.

Bear Creek passes through southern Hannibal, about a half mile from Sam's boyhood home.  He learned to swim in Bear Creek and as with other boys ignored the ordinance against swimming within the city limits.  He saw two friends drown there and claimed to have nearly drowned there twice, himself.  See chapter 55 of Life on the Mississippi.