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Donner Pass is a 7,056-foot-high (2,151 m) [2] mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada, above Donner Lake and Donner Memorial State Park about 9 miles (14 km) west of Truckee, California. Like the Sierra Nevada themselves, the pass has a steep approach from the east and a gradual approach from the west.
The Donner Memorial State Park visitor center contains exhibits about the cultural history of the area, including local Native Americans, the Donner Party, and builders of the First transcontinental railroad. Near the museum is the Pioneer Monument and the Donner Party's Murphy family cabin site.
The Breens made it up the "massive, nearly vertical slope" 1,000 feet (300 m) to Truckee Lake (now known as Donner Lake), 3 miles (4.8 km) from the pass summit, and camped near a cabin that had been built two years earlier by members of the Stephens–Townsend–Murphy Party. [75]
They took five other wagons across the pass into the Central Valley on November 25, 1844. [2] Both the lake and the pass were named after the ill-fated Donner Party, [when?] which wintered involuntarily near the lake in 1846. Donner Memorial State Park was established in 1928; it is not clear when the name of the lake was changed from Truckee ...
Monument to the Donner Party in Donner Memorial State Park. The Donner Party ordeal is arguably Truckee's most famous historical event. In 1846, a group of settlers from Illinois, originally known as the Donner-Reed Party but now usually referred to as the Donner Party, became snowbound in early fall as a result of several trail mishaps, poor decision-making, and an early onset of winter that ...
August 6, 1846: The Donner Party stops near the mouth of Echo Canyon on the Weber River, present day Henefer, Utah. The Weber River flows on down to the mouth of Weber Canyon at Ogden, Utah; Hastings has left a note for them, warning them that the road ahead is impassable and instructing them to send someone ahead to get instructions.
The Donner Party is a 1992 documentary film that traces the history of the Donner Party, an ill-fated pioneer group that trekked from Springfield, Illinois to Sutter's Fort, California - a disastrous journey of 2500 miles made famous by the tales of cannibalism the survivors told upon reaching their destination.
Hastings Cutoff marker near Pilot Peak The Donner Party , following in the wake of this initial party in 1846, had an unsuccessful experience with the Hastings Cutoff. They had arrived about a week early to travel with Hastings' party, and on his suggestion pioneered an alternate route to avoid Weber Canyon.