150 years ago, Samuel Clemens spent 88 days in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties in the winter of 1864/65. While taking refuge from the rain in Angels Camp, he was told the story of a jumping frog. That frog made him famous as Mark Twain.

150 years ago, 29 year old Samuel Clemens had to hide out from the San Francisco police for a few months. Virtually broke, traveled to Jackass Hill in the Gold Country where he spent the next 88 days doing a little mining, a little drinking, a little story telling and a little recuperating. He jotted a little story he heard tell about a jumping frog. Upon his return to San Francisco in February 1865 he developed that story and sent it East to be published. The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County launched the career of Clemens' alter ego Mark Twain and he went on to become America's most beloved author and humorist. In this film, we follow Clemens to the West from Missouri to Nevada, San Francisco and the Mother Lode. Re-enactments, interviews with Twain scholars and Twain's own words tell the story of what happened.—Bert Simonis