In 1852, the Clark-Skidmore Party became the first pioneers to struggle across this almost impassable section of the Sierra Nevada, taking 35 days to do what a modern drive from Highway 395 to Sonora might take four hours to cover. Exhausted, starving, and running low on provisions, they raised and lowered their wagons by hand around forbidding peaks, moved tons of rocks to fill chasms, and drained Fremont Lake to make the route passable. Their guide, General Morehead, had promised it would take less than 10 days to reach Sonora and Columbia, but he, Nathan Clark, and five others had gone ahead days earlier to get help and were nowhere in sight as the group reached East Flange Rock above Relief Valley and waited for rescue. Unlike the ill-fated Donner Party of 1846, the Clark-Skidmore emigrants were rescued and reached their destinations. For some, the rewards were great: John App married Donner Party survivor Leanna Donner a few weeks after arriving in Columbia, and they settled in Jamestown, where they opened the profitable App gold mine.