If you look to your left, you’ll notice that we’re driving parallel to the Truckee River and Bike Path. We’ll turn left for Olympic Valley in a little over five minutes. 

The drive through the valley, even in the summer when everything’s green, is stellar, with the mountains and ski trails looming above. And when we make the turn onto Olympic Valley Road, you’ll spy the 1960 Winter Olympic torches! 

Then, we’ll park at “The Village at Palisades Tahoe,” which the locals call “Olympic Village.” The skiing there is legendary. And check out the California Historical Landmark plaque near the ski lift; it’s pretty awesome to consider all the athletes that came here to compete. 

We’ve got some time, so I want to share a story that, um, might be a little hard to swallow. Warning: this story involves cannibalism, and it happened only eight miles north of here in Truckee, California. That’s right, I’m talking about the Donner Party, and how this pioneer family met their tragic demise. 

In 1845, people began hearing stories about California being the land of opportunity, and they dreamed of making the long trek out west. During this period, an Ohio attorney named Lansford W. Hastings wrote a book called “The Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California.” Hastings described a shortcut from the traditional route. The “Hastings Cutoff” could shave 300 miles, or up to two months, off a typical 19th-century cross country journey!

However, Hastings grossly miscalculated the distance, and underestimated the brutal terrain. The book came out before the author could personally test the route. And once he tried his shortcut and realized it was a bust, he went back and left notes along the way, fervently telling travelers to avoid it at all costs! 

But not everyone saw Hastings’ updates, including the Donner Party—it’s not like they had a clever app to guide them, or the internet for that matter…and that’s where the story takes a turn.

George and Jacob Donner were brothers and farmers from Illinois. They decided to take their families to California in search of a better life. In May of 1846, the brothers packed up nine ox-drawn wagons, and joined up with a wagon train in Independence, Missouri. Early in the journey, George Donner’s wife, Tamsen, wrote a letter to a friend telling her how pleasant the trip was going. Little did Tamsen know, that letter was the last good news she’d have to share.

When the wagon train reached Wyoming, they came to a fork in the trail, and the group split up. Most chose the traditional route through Idaho. But others, including the Donner party, having read Hastings’ misguided guidebook, decided to try the shortcut instead. 

What they trusted to be a shortcut, was instead 125 miles longer, and took the group several weeks, leading down a dangerous and narrow canyon in the mountains of Utah. After that, the families were forced to leave much of their livestock and supplies behind in order to walk 80 miles across the Great Salt Lake Desert!

Somehow, they crossed Nevada. And by late October, they reached Truckee Meadows–better known today as Reno. But they were exhausted and depleted. So with winter approaching, the Donner Party decided that instead of continuing to California, they’d stop and rest awhile before crossing the Sierra Nevada. That fateful choice would lead them to tragedy. Sit tight, and I’ll tell you the rest of the story after we turn left, just up ahead.

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