where did the donner party stop to eat people?
In the Sierra (somewhere between CA and NV). Not sure exactly, but I think it was on the CA side. I yo drive over I80 to Lake Tahoe, you will go thru Donner Pass, past Donner Lake and the town of Tahoe/Donner (all on the CA side).
Did you try Google?
That should’ve been “If you”, not “I yo”.
And, IIRC, when you’re in Donner Pass you can stop and eat at the Donner Family Restaurant if you’re so inclined.
It should be noted that the spot where the party was trapped by the winter snows is extremely difficult to get out of. Donner Lake (then called Truckee Lake on the often mistaken assumption it was the headwaters of the Truckee River) lies at the head of a long, narrow glacial trough running West to East. As a party climbs out of the defile of the Truckee River from the eastern flats in Nevada where the town of Verdi now lies, it is presented with a funnel shaped valley full of meadows and realtively unwatered slopes of brush. This valley funnels down to the West, and past the junction of the Truckee and Donner Rivers, the Donner River end of it narrows down considerably. Donner Lake is three miles long, and at the upper end there is a small flat area, above which is a roughly 1000’ circular wall of granite. To the south is Shallenburger Ridge, with its famous railroad grade that is protected in places by sheds; to the north is Donner Ridge.
The Donner party did not reach the upper end of Donner Lake until November 1, 1846, and all but the Donners themselves attempted to make it up and over the pass, minus the wagons, on November 2. Having lost the trail, they sent a scouting party ahead, which made its way to the top of the pass, but when it got back to the main party, they were determined to wait until morning for the attempt. In the night it snowed heavily, and the last chance to escape the trap westward had been lost.
Today, the route out of the Truckee River valley westward starts up the south (RR) or north (I-80) slopes well to the east of the lake, and basically just keeps climbing by clinging to the slope with a significant grade. As you reach the summit, you can look down into the valley, and imagine the difficulty of facing six months trapped therein. Not a pretty picture.
For a website about Donner Lake, go here
For information about the disaster of the Donner Party in an interesting read, try looking for the book Sierra-Nevada Lakes, by George and Bliss Hinkle, published by the University of Nevada Press. Originally written in 1949, it was re-printed with a new foreword in 1987. It has all sorts of interesting stories about the various large lakes in and around the Sierra.
[Maitré d’]Donner, party of 87… 86… 85… [/Maitré d’]
The Ogden (UT) Standard-Examiner once had a typo in their TV listings for the PBS documentary linked above. It was listed as “The Dinner Party.”
True story: the two families making the treks were actually the Donner and Reed families.
So it was really “The Donner Reed Party!”
[Spaulding voice]
Are you going to eat your Fat Bald Guy?
[/Spaulding voice]