Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In the end, only 47 of the 89 members of the Donner Party survived. They settled in
California, their lives forever changed by the harrowing winter at Donner Lake.
TRUCKEE & DONNER LAKE
Cradled by mountains and the Tahoe National Forest, Truckee is a thriving town steeped in
Old West history. It was put on the map by the railroad, grew rich on logging and ice har-
vesting, and even had its brush with Hollywood during the 1924 filming of Charlie Chap-
lin's
The Gold Rush
. Today tourism fills much of the city's coffers, thanks to a well-pre-
served historical downtown and its proximity to Lake Tahoe and no fewer than six down-
hill and four cross-country ski resorts.
Sights
The aura of the Old West still lingers over Truckee's teensy one-horse downtown, where
railroad workers and lumberjacks once milled about in raucous saloons, bawdy brothels
and shady gambling halls. Most of the late-19th-century buildings now contain restaurants
and upscale boutiques. Donner Memorial State Park and Donner Lake, a busy recreational
hub, are another 3 miles further west.
Donner Memorial State Park
PARK
museum 10am-5pm,
closed Tue & Wed Sep-May; )
At the eastern end of Donner Lake, this state-run park occupies one of the sites where the
doomed Donner Party got trapped during the fateful winter of 1846-47. Though its history
is gruesome, the park is gorgeous and has a sandy beach, picnic tables, hiking trails and
wintertime cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. The entry fee includes admission to the
excellent
Emigrant Trail Museum
, which has fascinating, if admittedly macabre historic-
al exhibits and a 25-minute film re-enacting the Donner Party's horrific plight.
The new and more multicultural
High Sierra Crossing Museum
sits completed across
the parking lot; it's scheduled to replace the other museum when funding becomes avail-
