Donner Pass

The abandoned Track #1 CPRR/SPRR/UPRR railroad grade over Donner Pass. 
The Lincoln Highway winds up the pass on the left (2003)
 ©2003-2007 DigitalImageServices.com

N 39 19.000  W 120 19.793

There is a unique collection of roads, trails, and right-of-ways that run west from Truckee, California up and over the Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  Running more or less parallel to each other are the California Trail, the Overland Route of the first Transcontinental Railroad, the Lincoln Highway, US 40, and Interstate-80.  These routes bear witness to the amazing history of the building of California.  Looking east from the viewpoint at Donner Pass, you can still see the evidence of 170 years of dreams, endurance, tragedy and triumph.

Prior to the 1840’s, a few brave souls had crossed into California over the Sierra on foot or horseback but no one had done it with wagons.  The first group to make the crossing with wagons was the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party of 1844. They crossed the Sierra over Donner Pass by unpacking and disassembling their wagons and carting them over the steep granite pass on the backs of their oxen.  Two years later, the Donner party attempted the same route but was not so lucky.  The Donner party left Springfield, Illinois in the spring of 1846, early enough to get to the Sierra before the snow fell.  But the party was delayed when they were persuaded to take Hasting’s Cutoff which took them over the Wasatch Mountains, across the Great Salt Lake, and around the Ruby Mountains before rejoining the California Trail.  They lost over a month thanks to this ‘shortcut’ and, as a result, when they reached the Sierra, they became trapped by early snow.   After several attempts to climb the snow-covered pass, they built shelters near what is now Donner Lake and waited out the horrendous winter.  Out of food, some members of the party are said to have resorted to cannibalism to survive.  Forty-eight of the original eighty-seven members of the Donner party were rescued in February 1847 and made it to California. 

Pioneer Monument, Donner Memorial State Park
Photo: M. Beckman (2009)

At Donner Memorial State Park, the site of the Donner Party’s long winter, a short walk takes you to the large rock which made up the north wall of the Murphy family cabin.  A plaque at the site lists those who survived and those who did not.  At the site of the Breen family cabin, there is a monument to the intrepid men and women who immigrated to California via the California Trail.   The monument has a 22-foot pedestal to represent the depth of the snow the winter of 1846/47.  On the top is a statue of a family bravely trudging west.  The plaque reads “Virile to Risk and Find, Kindly Withal and a Ready Help. Facing the Brunt of Fate; Indomitable – Unafraid.”   After California was purchased from Mexico in 1848, a wave of immigrants poured down the California Trail, probably right past this spot, over the Donner Pass, and into the fertile San Joaquin Valley of California.  It is estimated that from 1848 to 1869, 250,000 people found their way to California via the California Trail.

Summit of Sierra Nevada - snow sheds in foreground,
Donner Lake in the distance, Central Pacific R.R.Photo:Russell, Andrew J. 1868

In the 1860’s, the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad built the first Transcontinental Railroad connecting the eastern network of railroad lines with the Pacific Ocean.  Known as the Overland Route, it ran from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Oakland, California via (you guessed it) the Donner Pass.   The Central Pacific Railroad started in Sacramento and built east while the Union Pacific started in Council Bluffs and built west.  The difficulty of building the Sierra Nevada portion of the Overland Route is hard to imagine as tunnel after tunnel had to be dug through the granite.  Chinese laborers were employed because they tolerated the harsh conditions and back-breaking work.  On May 10th, 1869, the two railroads met at Promontory Point, Utah where a golden spike was ceremoniously driven in to complete the line.  The dust on the California Trail settled for good as new California immigrants took the train.  Standing at Donner Pass today, you can see the path of the Overland Route climbing up the grade through several tunnels.  The track is gone now but the rail route that first connected the two oceans can still be seen.

Rainbow Bridge.  Photo: B. Perry (2009)

Early in the 20th century, the rising popularity of the automobile made good roads a necessity.  In 1912, entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher proposed a transcontinental highway through 13 states from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Square in San Francisco.   The Lincoln Highway, dedicated in honor of President Abraham Lincoln on October 31, 1913, was the first highway to cross America.  Of course, this historical highway went through Donner Pass.  With the numbering of U.S. highways in 1926, the western portion of the Lincoln Highway became U.S. 40.  Though it’s now named Donner Pass Road, the highway is very much as it was when it was the main route over the mountains. Travelling west from Donner Memorial State Park, the old highway skirts Donner Lake and then climbs almost 1000 ft. through tight switchbacks to graceful Rainbow Bridge before cresting the summit, passing the Sugar Bowl ski area, and heading down the western slope of the Sierra.

During the 1950’s, the Interstate Highway System was conceived as a network of limited access, high speed roadways with no stoplights.  President Eisenhower championed the construction of the Interstate Highway System primarily as a way to quickly moving troops and military equipment but also for evacuating large numbers of people in the case of natural disaster or civil emergency (this was during the Cold War, after all).  In 1960, a new Interstate highway was built to replace the twisty US 40 over Donner Pass.  I-80 takes a route two miles north of the pass over Euer Saddle, commonly called Donner Summit.  Straight and fast, I-80 serves the stream of commuters who daily cross the perilous Sierra Nevada without a care in the world – unless it’s snowing.

Question of the Day:  Is there a place new you that has been a nexus of history like the Donner Pass?