One hundred and sixty-plus years ago this week, members of the Donner Party were crossing present-day eastern Nevada on their way west toward the south fork of the Humboldt River. The trail they wanted to reach along the river was the western end of the traditional California Trail from Missouri.

If the Donner group, which had taken the Hastings “short cut” near Ft. Bridger WY instead of the traditional trail, could have traveled from the Great Salt Lake Desert in a more or less straight line directly to the Humboldt, it would have taken little more than a week.

More Mountains Block the Way
Unfortunately, the Donner group would not reach the vital river, which flowed several hundred miles westward across northern Nevada, until the end of September. Once it left the Great Salt Lake Desert, the Donner group had entered the basin and range country of northern Nevada, a forbidding zone where barren, desiccated deserts sprawl between towering mountain ridges. Worst of all, the mountain ranges generally trend north-south, each one a forbidding barrier to westbound emigrants.

At Fort Bridger, the Donner group had been led to believe that if it took the Hastings route, only about seven weeks would be required to reach Sutter's Fort in the Sacramento Valley of California. Yet after six weeks of grueling work, the Donner group hadn't even reached the Ruby Mountains in central Nevada, the last major obstacle to reaching the Truckee River and the Sierra.

Ruby Mountains of Nevada
Since leaving mountains of Utah, the Donner group had been following the tracks of wagons actually led by Lansford Hastings. (Hastings and his train had left the Fort before the Donner group arrived.) In mid September, the Hastings=led party was 200 miles ahead of the Donner Party; the Hastings party was already at the Truckee River and Hastings himself had ridden ahead to Sacramento on horseback.

On September 18, the Donner group reached the Ruby Valley in central Nevada, which funneled them south in Nevada. As the group rolled down through the valley, the massive Ruby range was on its right (to the west) blocking the party’s passage toward the Humboldt River and the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In a time-consuming detour around the southern end of the rugged Ruby Mountains, the Donner company spent nine days heading south and then back north, not west where it wanted to go. This was another delay that added to the stress and frustration of individual, group members.

September 22
On September 22, the Donner wagon train finally reached the southern portion of the Ruby Mountains; it crossed Overland Pass and entered Huntington Valley. Overland Pass is a broad, relatively low (elevation 6,789 feet) pass, that later became part of the Pony Express route.

In contrast to the prior weeks of traveling in choking dust clouds, Huntington Valley was laced with meandering streams and soggy, muddy meadows. The sloppy conditions slowed the Donner group down even more, but at least it had fresh water and its battered oxen were able to regain some of their strength on the abundant grass.

Donner Party falling Apart
By this point in the journey, the Donner party was no longer a cohesive unit, if it ever had been one. Each family tended to travel on its own. The Reeds and Donners stayed together, but were a day ahead of the other people who had elected George Donner their captain. The situation had become “every man for himself” in the race with the approaching Sierra winter, and tempers were rising as the pioneers struggled to rejoin the traditional California Trail and get to California.

Editor's Note: This installment is #12 in an exclusive, weekly series tracing the actual experiences of the Donner Party as it worked its way into American history. Mark McLaughlin, weather historian, who lives on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, wrote the series for Tahoetopia.