What newspaper did Mark Twain write for in Virginia City, Nevada?

The newspaper Mark Twain wrote for in Virginia City, Nevada, was the Territorial Enterprise. Samuel Clemens, before becoming famous as Mark Twain, joined the paper during the early 1860s after moving west to seek opportunities in the mining region.

The Territorial Enterprise was one of the leading newspapers of the Comstock Lode, a booming silver-mining district. Clemens worked alongside writer Dan DeQuille and contributed lively reporting, humorous sketches, and commentary about life in the Nevada Territory. His experiences there later supplied material for Roughing It.

Virginia City was also where Clemens first used the pen name “Mark Twain,” signing a newspaper piece with it in February 1863. Readers sometimes confuse the paper with The Sacramento Union, for which Twain later traveled and wrote reports, or with newspapers based in Carson City. The Territorial Enterprise was specifically the Virginia City paper associated with his formative Western journalism.