Donner's Pass Memorial. The snow level of 1846/47 was as high as this statue is tall.

In 1846 a group of people started out for California. Along the way they met a man who said “hey, I know a shortcut” and so 87 people in 23 wagons headed off on a route that took them through the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert. The arduous trek took three weeks longer than the more normal route and by the time the parties reached the Sierras in November, snow was falling. With Pioneer Spirit and I’m suspecting more than an average amount of stupidity (and perhaps a little whiskey), the party took on an attitude of “hell, we’re almost there, no sense stopping now!” and trod off through the snow and mountains.

After hitting 22-foot deep snow they decided to stop and send 10 men and 5 women for help. Two men and five women eventually found help on the other side of the mountains. The balance of the 15 members became tasty little morsels.

Four waves of rescue parties went after the folks camped out in the Sierras, each wave finding fewer and fewer people alive with those less fortunate once again becoming People McNuggets. Finally, the last surviving man was rescued and taken back to Sutter’s Fort, where he arrived on April 29. In the end, 39 people died and 48 survived. In addition, two California Indians who were bringing supplies from Sutter’s Fort became trapped and also died, bringing the total to 41.

Today, we’ve erected a monument at Donner’s Pass, with the inscription below, to warn others not to try to cross the Sierras in winter without adequate food and supplies lest ye be eaten.

VIRILE TO RISK AND FIND; KINDLY WITHAL AND A READY HELP. FACING THE BRUNT OF FATE; INDOMITABLE, -UNAFRAID.

Related reading:

• Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West
• The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate
• Ordeal by Hunger
• Donner-Reed Tragedy