[4] It supposedly received its name from the Paiute word pa-o-ha, for spirits they believed to exist in Paoha Island's hot springs.

These spirits, or elves, were described as "diminutive sprites having long, waving hair, that were sometimes seen in the vapor-wreaths escaping from the hot springs.

[6] In his semi-autobiographical book Roughing It, writer Mark Twain recounted a "voyage of discovery" to the island while camping on the shores of Mono Lake.

Marooned, they would have died of thirst and starvation: it was a twelve-mile[8] swim back to shore and "that venomous [lake] water would eat a man's eyes out like fire, and burn him out inside too, if he shipped a sea.

"[7] As the wind of a rising storm blew the rowboat past an island cape, Twain's companion managed to jump aboard and recover it.