topic Re: Donner Pass in Community Chat

Donner Pass

qualitygal — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 18:46:29 GMT

Well, that subject has come up in this house (probably due to t.v.) and I want to search some more on that subject. Busy watching them clean the train tracks of snow there now. Isn't it funny, how a subject can just seem to pop up numerous times, for no reason at all?

I'm going to look on line and then see if the library has any books I can check out or read on this. Think it's facinating.

If anyone lives near that area now, it would be interesting to hear what you can tell about this place. I only know, some.

Re: Donner Pass

SharkE — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 18:51:41 GMT

all I know off top of my head is they misjudged the weather and a group of settlers was looking for a better life and got lost and bitter weather set in, people started dying, no food, etc. They had to resort to whatever they could to survive.

Not a real good ending and not for the faint of heart. Sure movies been done on their survival story.

Re: Donner Pass

Peaches McPhee — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 18:52:44 GMT

There is a good documentary on youtube. I knew the basic story but this show taught me a lot more.

Also, there is a statue to the Donner party near the original location of their emergency winter camp. Go figure, it's in the middle of a bunch of expressways now. I think it's in Nevada. Saw it on a road trip.

Re: Donner Pass

SharkE — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 19:00:02 GMT

I just now put on hold a movie called 'The Donner Pass' from the lib.

Re: Donner Pass

shoekitty — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 19:00:09 GMT

@qualitygal wrote:
Well, that subject has come up in this house (probably due to t.v.) and I want to search some more on that subject. Busy watching them clean the train tracks of snow there now. Isn't it funny, how a subject can just seem to pop up numerous times, for no reason at all?

I'm going to look on line and then see if the library has any books I can check out or read on this. Think it's facinating.

If anyone lives near that area now, it would be interesting to hear what you can tell about this place. I only know, some.

Shoekitty said, what exactly do you want to know? The history, the trail, about the lake...? which is so beautiful Like a mirror. I used to belong to OCTA, the Oregon-California Trail Association I have actually followed much of the trail that is accessible. There are grave markers, hidden. But they are there. The original journey was the toughest i know of. The amazing the grit, determination courage of the early pioneers. They left everything, for they knew not what. Many of the first to go had no idea what to expect, or the weather. And that trail was so dusty, dirty, smelly, the smell of animal excretion so thick masks did not help. There is alot of folk lore as well. There are many small publication that tell individual stories. I know the museum at Donnor Pass and in Sacramento have many interesting books.

Re: Donner Pass

DiAnne — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 19:01:14 GMT

That used to haunt me when I was a little kid. I don't know how I heard about it - probably one of my crazy cousins!

Re: Donner Pass

SilleeMee — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 19:02:24 GMT

There was a documentary movie about them. The title is:

"Dead of Winter: The Donner Party" (2015)

I saw it on The Weather Channel when it came out. It's worth watching.

Re: Donner Pass

Sushismom — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 19:40:21 GMT

Unfortunately, the one thing that led to this was them believing in Lansford Hastings and taking his "cutoff". That and their bad luck along the Humboldt River caused them to be trapped by the early snowfall in the Sierras with less cattle and wagons.

I don't know if it's because of where I live but have seen quite a few documentaries on the Donner Party.

P.S. Better than "Dead of Winter" is the 2009 "The Donner Party".

Re: Donner Pass

chickenbutt — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 19:38:45 GMT

I've been over Donner Pass a zillion times over the decades but I didn't know there were any stories besides the Donner Party one.

We've gotten some pretty good snow up there this week. I don't know how much they got (I'm just a bit east of the mountains in W Reno), but it had to be measured in feet and not inches.

Hoping the ski resorts are doing well because this is the only time of year they make enough to get through the rest of the year. For a while there, this winter, we had hardly any snow. At my house I got over a foot this week but then it warms up to around 40 and some of it melts. I love winter and we just don't get much anymore.

Re: Donner Pass

songbird — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 19:46:32 GMT

That was in the 19th century. Well there have been more recent disasters similar to the Donner party. Except this happened with a plane. it crashed in the Andes Mountain. 45 people on board. Long story short. Survivors were cut off from any civilization....even the uncivilized kind. The results were the same as the Donner Pass. It happened in Oct. 1972. One survivor made a 10 mile hike for help & got there. 16 people were picked up to safety.

Re: Donner Pass

Witchy Woman — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 21:40:00 GMT

@songbird

I read a book about this, but forget the name. Just Googled it and the one I read was "Alive."

Any plane crash is horrfying, but stories like this are impossible to forget.

I avoid reading about them now.

Re: Donner Pass

drizzellla — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 20:00:55 GMT

@SilleeMee wrote:
There was a documentary movie about them. The title is:

"Dead of Winter: The Donner Party" (2015)

I saw it on The Weather Channel when it came out. It's worth watching.

I am quite sure I saw a portion of that movie. And yes it was well worth watching. I was sorry that I did not see the entire movie.

Re: Donner Pass

colliemom4 — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 20:18:24 GMT

@Witchy Woman wrote:
@songbird

I read a book about this, but forget the name. Just Googled it and the one I read was "Alive."

Any plane crash is horribying, but stories like this are impossible to forget.

I avoid reading about them now.

I saw a movie called Alive. It's a similar story that took place in the Andes mountains in South America.

Re: Donner Pass

SeaMaiden — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 21:02:30 GMT

When I was a young girl, my Mother remarried and moved to Truckee CA.... near Donner Pass, ...I learned about the Donner Pass story when there when visiting her.

such a very sad story...can not imagine what suffering they endured to the point of eating their friends.....

and there was also murder involved with the cannibalism....🙁

Re: Donner Pass

mspatmac — Sat, 30 Jan 2021 22:01:37 GMT

Everytime I drove over Donner Pass I could only think of the brave men and women who traveled by wagon and foot through the mountains. I don't know how they did it. It was a bit scary the first time I drove it.

Of the 81 pioneers who began the Donner Party's horrific winter in the Sierra Nevada, only 45 managed to walk out alive.