For thousands of years, people have crossed the Sierra Nevada near Donner Pass, and whether traveling by foot, wagon, train, or automobile, the journey has always been challenging. Long before its discovery by Euro-Americans, this 7,000 foot pass served as a travel corridor for Native Americans, including the Washoe Indians, who trekked from their Great Basin home to the foothills of California to gather acorns and trade salt, obsidian, rabbit skins, and pine nuts for other food items, animal skins, and sea shells. In 1844, Elisha Stephens led the first wagon party across this rocky pass, blazing the emigrant trail, and during the covered wagon migration nearly 300,000 people crossed the Sierra Nevada, including the Donner Party in 1846-47. Incorporating portions of the emigrant trail, the Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Wagon Road was completed in 1864, opening the area to permanent settlement. From 1866 to 1868, thousands of laborers, including Chinese workers, drilled and blasted through the granite cliffs to make way for the first transcontinental railroad, the Central Pacific Railroad, and this rail link made travel across the nation seem quick and easy, drew more than emigrants west, and marked the beginnings of the area's tourist economy. By 1909, motorists were ascending Donner Pass on a primitive unpaved road; in 1913, this Sierra route became part of the Lincoln Highway, the first driving route linking the east and west coasts; in 1926, this section was replaced by Highway 40, which remained the major driving route over Donner Pass until Interstate 80 was completed in 1964.