Gribblenation

This past weekend while returning from Lake Tahoe I crossed over the crest of the Sierras at Donner Pass.  My goal was to seek out the old Dutch Flat & Donner Lake Road and the abandoned Central Pacific Railroad tunnels. I've written about Donner Pass several times before; the history of crossing dating back to 1844 up to the construction of Interstate 80 can be found here: Old US Route 40 on Donner Pass Road As stated in the Donner Pass Road article above the original purpose built road over Donner Pass was the Dutch Flat & Donner Lake Road (DF&DLR).  The DF&DLR was a wagon route over Donner Pass which was constructed by the Central Pacific Railroad to assist in construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad.  In 1861 the State of California granted the Central Pacific a 10 year franchise on toll rights to the DF&DLR which completed by 1864.  The DF&DLR was used to finance the Central Pacific's construction of the First Transcontin...

While completing California State Route 89 between Lassen Volcanic National Park and US Route I took a detour in Truckee up the infamous Donner Pass Road. Generally I don't dispense with the history of a roadway before the route photos but the history of Donner Pass is steeped within California lore and western migration.  The first recorded Wagon Crossing of Donner Pass was back in 1844.  The infamous Donner Party saga occurred in the winter of 1846-47 in which only 48 of the 87 party members survived.  Although the Donner Party incident is largely attributed to poor planning and ill conceived Hastings Cutoff it largely led to the infamous reputation of Donner Pass. The first true road over the Sierra Nevada Range via the Donner Pass was known as the Dutch Flat & Donner Lake Road.  The Dutch Flat & Donner Lake Wagon Road was completed by 1864 to assist with construction of the Central Pacific build the First Trans-Continental Railroad over Donner Pa...