The Nightmare Begins

The first emigrants to take wagons through the new Hastings Cutoff found that although it was shorter, it was a difficult detour through rugged mountains and arid deserts, and they lost valuable time, oxen, and supplies; one person was banished and five people died. These mishaps made them late in reaching the Sierra Nevada. In late October the weary Donner Party started into these mountains, but when an axle broke on one of the Donner family wagons, the Donners stopped to make repairs while the larger portions of the wagon train continued on to Truckee Lake, now called Donner Lake, six miles from here. A snowstorm then stopped both groups from continuing over the summit, and the Donner family and their teamsters were forced to make camp in the Alder Creek Valley.

California · United States