The Orion Clemens House is a modest frame structure dating from the early 1860s, when Carson City was the capital of Nevada Territory and the silver bonanza was at its height. Samuel Clemens arrived here in 1861, having recently abandoned a brief and undistinguished career as a Confederate militiaman in Missouri, and spent the next two years as his brother's unpaid assistant while trying his hand at silver mining (unsuccessfully) and journalism (more successfully). The experience of Nevada in those years — the speculation, the violence, the spectacular landscapes, the characters encountered in mining camps and saloons — formed a substantial part of Clemens's voice as a writer.
The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is preserved as a historic structure. Interpretation focuses on both the Clemens brothers' time here and the broader context of territorial Nevada. "Roughing It," Clemens's 1872 account of his western years, is the essential reading companion for a visit — it's funny, sharp, and surprisingly accurate about the period, given that Twain was not always rigorous about such things. The house is a few blocks from the Capitol in the historic residential district.