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I don't think we initially expected to visit Donner Pass when we
were planning the trip, but it certainly made for a nice diversion
while en route from Reno to San Francisco. We stopped here for a
little over an hour, checking out the small museum.
People not already familiar with the tragic story are encouraged
to check out this link
on Wikipedia. The long and the short of it is that a group
of over 80 settlers were trying to make their way to California and
were trapped at this spot during the winter of 1846. Only half
survived.
The memorial shown to the left is impressive in its own right, but
the height of the main pedestal is 22 feet... the amount of snow that
fell that winter that trapped the settlers!
(Kinda makes our winter campouts look pretty easy by comparison.
It's always humbling to learn about what the early pioneers had to put
up with.)
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