The Donner Pass

From Nevada City
I headed
east on Route 20. It was an early morning drive through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The fog still had not lifted from the South Yuba River valley peaks.

Route 20 quickly connects with Interestate 80. Today Rt. 80 connects New York to San Francisco via easily traversed pavement. Emigrants traveling to California over the "Donner Pass" 160 years ago did not have it so easy...

The famed Donner Party was stranded near here in the winter of 1846. Having taken an ill-fated shortcut south of Salt Lake City, their wagon train was delayed in the desert. They reached the Sierras just in time to be trapped by the first winter storm!

The visitor center and museum at Donner Memorial State Park explain this story in detail. Watch a short introductory film and view dioramas illustrating how the "Big Four" and Chinese "coolies" blasted track for the Transcontinental Railroad through the steep grades of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.