Mark Twain's first lecture in 1866 was at Maguire's Academy of Music in San Francisco. He also appeared on stage at Maguire's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada. These, and many other opera houses were built by Thomas Maguire in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The actor that gives voice to Mark Twain's words in the film is Thomas Maguire. Apparently no relation.
Samuel Clemens was a chain smoker of either cigars or pipes. During the winter of 1864, he had several corn cob pipes with him keeping the stems in his pocket and the cobs in his tobacco pouch. The Missouri Meerschaum Company custom made "Mark Twain" model pipes with reed stems for the production team so that the look of the pipes was as authentic as possible.
When Samuel Clemens was in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties in the winter of 1864-65, it was a particularly wet winter with constant rains that kept him and the miners confined to their cabin or the local hotel in Angels Camp. When filming started in the winter of 2013-14, California was in a major drought. Director John C. Brown ran out to Jackass Hill or Angels Camp with his camera equipment during every rain storm so that there would be enough rain scenes for the film.
The photo that is used on the cover of the DVD was taken by one of the producers at Twisted Oak Winery in Vallecito. Vallecito is where Samuel Clemens saw a lunar rainbow on New Year's Eve, 1864. He dreamed of his friend and colleague Jim Townsend that night. Townsend wrote the story of the jumping frog for a Sonora newspaper ten years earlier. The story was constantly being retold in the mining camps of the Mother Lode.
88 Days in the Mother Lode won Best Documentary Feature Film at the Las Cruces International Film Festival in March, 2016.