Clemens Cove planned

In a meeting at Lake Tahoe’s Thunderbird Lodge on Sept. 14, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names will consider naming a cove at Lake Tahoe after Samuel Clemens.

In his book Roughing It, written as Mark Twain, Clemens recounted a trip he took to Lake Tahoe during which he camped at a flat-topped rock and started a forest fire.

Also in that book, he wrote one of the most quoted observations about the mountain lake: “As it lay there with the shadows of the mountains brilliantly photographed upon its still surface, I thought it must surely be the fairest picture the whole earth affords.”

The book did not spell out the location of the camp clearly, other than mentioning an 11-mile hike followed by a boat ride. But most historians, following the few clues in the book, believe it was near Incline Village where an unusual flat-topped rock is located. A second site, near Tahoe Vista, is championed by a retired U.S. Forest Service employee.