We drive to Truckee again, this time
visiting the Donner Memorial
State Park. The visitor center includes a movie on the
California Trail and the ill fated Donner Party, and this kicks off our
visit. The rest of the time is spent
exploring the exhibits.
Let's start with the Donner Party. It was named for George Donner who was
elected captain of the wagon train, but actually included other families - a
total of 45 adults and 42 children. The
Donners were not poor. They had $10,000
with them, sewed inside a quilt! George
was born in North Carolina and
had been a successful farmer in Illinois.
The party's whole journey is a series of unfortunate and, in
retrospect, probably avoidable mistakes.
They were part of one of the last groups to leave Missouri
in 1846, making it important that they made good time so as to be over the
mountains before winter. At Fort
Laramie, Wyoming (which we visited earlier this summer) they, along with other
travelers, received an open letter from one Lansford Hastings, promoting an
alternative route to California, proceeding south of the Great Salt Lake, which
cut 350 miles from the route to Sacramento (or Sutter's Fort as it was then
called). Hastings
had apparently only traveled the route on horseback, and was now recommending
it to wagon trains!
While most of the emigrants in the group chose the longer,
but well traveled northern route, Donner and his co-leader James Reed chose to
take the "short cut". George's
wife, Tamsen Donner, apparently was not happy with the idea but she was
overruled (or more likely ignored). Hastings
was to meet them at Fort Bridger
to lead them on his route, but left earlier with another party. A letter advising them strongly against
following Hastings was sent to them
at Fort Bridger
but never given to the Donners. One
theory is that Jim Bridger, proprietor of the "Fort" (which was not a
military installation, just a trading post), may have withheld it in order to
increase the number of people following the Hastings
route and therefore visiting his own business.
Well, both the Wasatch
Mountains (east of today's Salt
Lake City) and crossing the salt flats took much more
time than Hastings had
advised. Since there was neither water nor
food on the salt flats both the travelers and their oxen came close to
starving, but they did eventually arrive at Truckee's
Meadows, close to today's Reno, Nevada,
where they were able to rest and recuperate for a short time.
However, it was now later in the year and they pressed on,
encountering early snowstorms in the Sierra Nevada. They attempted several times to crest the
summit but ended up spending the winter in 3 cabins on the site of today's
park, near the town of Truckee, California.
Although there were trout in Truckee
Lake (now Donner
Lake) they didn't know how to catch
them and there was almost no other wildlife around, so half the party starved
to death.
James Reed had been banished from the party after a violent
incident, and made it to Sutter's Fort on his own. He organized the first of several attempted
rescues of the Donner party but it was not until late February 1847 before the
first rescuers reached the party. Even
then, some people couldn't travel due to illness, and the journey down through
the mountains was still dangerous.
Reed's entire family survived, but the Donners were not so lucky. The children were taken to safety but George
couldn't travel due to a severe infection in his hand, which he had sliced open
when cutting a log. Tamsen refused to
leave him alone, and both were dead when the later rescue parties reached them.
The whole story is told tastefully in the museum, which
includes relics from the party and a particularly moving exhibit that describes
each of the people in the party and what happened to them.
As if this weren't enough, the museum also has interesting
exhibits about the Washoe people, who, like many other native tribes, were
roughly displaced by the 19th century settlers.
It includes a 3,000 year old multi-purpose Washoe hearth, discovered
when excavating for a housing development.
A video describes its purpose as well as how it was carefully taken
apart and re-assembled in the museum.
Two other videos highlight ethnic groups who are often
forgotten. The Chinese were the main
workforce in building the Central Pacific Railroad through the Sierras. Despite this, they were harassed for many
years, and even banned from obtaining citizenship. The second video highlighs the difficulty faced
by African Americans driving cars across the country, up to the time of the
Civil Rights Act in the mid 1960's. They
were frequently stopped by law enforcement for no reason; many towns would not
let them in after dark; few motels would accept them. A book called the "Green Book" both
for its author and its color, listed "negro-friendly establishments"
(sic). There were none between Reno
and Sacramento and only 3 in the
latter city!
A highlight for me is the exhibit on the building of the
transcontinental railroad. It highlights
the difficulties in the mountains, particularly in blasting 11 tunnels. In particular, the "Summit Tunnel"
had such slow progress from the western end that they started blasting from the
eastern end at the same time. It was
still taking too much time - the Central Pacific was in a race with the Union
Pacific who were laying track west from Omaha
and each company was given free land along their right of way. The CPR dug a shaft downwards from the center
of the mountain and started digging in both direction from there. When the tunnels met up they were within 6
inches of each other, an amazing feat of engineering.
We don't have much time to peruse the last exhibit, on early
motel accommodation, or the gift shop as it's closing time at the visitor
center. But we do visit the Pioneer
Monument and walk a nature trail
that takes us past the sites of two of the cabins used by the Donner party.
Wednesday has been, as you've seen, a very full day so we come
home to the cats, cook up some sausages, and sleep
It's time for a quiet day, and time to catch up with real
life. So today Thursday we stay around
the campground doing domestic chores (cleaning, washing clothes, etc.) and
spending quality time with the cats.
Tomorrow we return down the hill to Lake
of The Springs for another 4 night
stay.
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