As I traveled around Lake Tahoe, I stopped for a couple of days in Truckee CA, home to Donner Pass. Quick history, The Donner Party was a group of 87 people that migrated west along the Oregon/California trail in 1846 and got stuck in the early winter snows of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Today that is Truckee CA. Obviously there is really nothing to actually see from that time. The Donner Memorial State park is in Truckee, the park is located at the location that the majority of the Donner party stayed during the winter of 1846/47. They have a nice museum that has in addition to the history of the Donner party, local Indian history and intercontinental railroad which also came through Donner Pass. This is a beautiful area. I took the Ranger tour, but not really a tour, but more a conversation on the Donner Party based on diaries and firsthand accounts.
I am one of those people that believe the Donner party was doomed from the beginning. They started a month late, during the Oregon trail time, the groups would leave Council Bluffs early April, main reason was to make over the Rockies before first snow. The Donner’s left May, they were already behind. 2nd blunder they stayed almost 2 weeks at Fort Laramie. 3rd mistake, they also stayed about 2 weeks at Fort Bridger. From Fort Bridger, they took a new route, the Hastings Cutoff, which was suppose to be a short cut, but wasn’t. The main reason for these delays if how the group was lead. George Donner was the elected leader, but he wanted to be liked by all, so that would lead to internal dis-agreements and caused the delays. Anyway, the pictures also includes pics of the area, I camped by the Truckee river. I took a ride up to Donner Pass, about 8000 feet to see if I could see the Chinese wall, but with the snow, I decided not to try the hike. Donner pass has the original tracks and tunnels from the intercontinental railroad that was abandoned. You can hike to see the tunnels the Chinese built and walk the rails. Also the Chinese built these walls to protect the tracks. I was so close. The lake pictures are of Donner lake.
