Is this true? In the years ahead there are going to be sophisticated "digs" on and near the famous summit, so answers to many questions may be forthcoming.

A $6 million museum has been approved for the Donner Lake Memorial State Park. Starting this summer, California State Park archaeologists, overseen by a Chico State professor, will conduct a dig in the area where the new museum is to be constructed. The location is on the path between two of the three cabins built in November 1846 by members of the Donner party.

This boulder (glacial erratic) near the east end of Donner Lake served as the west wall of the Murphy family cabin during the heavy winter of 1846-7. Archaeological digs conducted on this site in the 1980s and 1990s produced artifacts and animal bones, but no evidence of human cannibalism.

Summer 2006's excavation is focused primarily on finding artifacts and remnants of Native Americans. Previous digs at one of the cabin sites revealed many Donner party artifacts such as ceramic shards, jewelry and other miscellaneous items. A pioneer monument was erected over a second cabin location in the early 20th century; so far it has stymied efforts for a scientific exploration there.

Over the years, souvenir hunters and amateur archaeologists have looted the site (located close to old Highway 40 and the first transcontinental railroad), but this summer's dig may still unearth additional Donner relics. More exciting would be the discovery of evidence from the Elisha Stephens-led wagon train of 1844, the first pioneers to haul wagons over Donner Pass and open the California Trail. (Attempts to name the pass, Stephens Pass, have failed over the years.)

Frank X. Mullen, a Donner party historian and senior journalist for the Reno Gazette-Journal, reported that in the deeper layers of the soil, archaeologists "may find artifacts from the Washoe people (who wintered in present-day Western Nevada), the tribes who preceded them, and other humans who crisscrossed Donner Pass thousands of years ago. Previous digs have unearthed Washoe ovens, projectile points - spear and arrow tips - that go back at least 6,000 years."

This picture is of Indian "metates" at Spooner Lake. A metate is a shallow grinding bowl in which nuts and seeds were ground by milling with a small stone held in the hand.



American Indians may have used the cave pictured below to rest, spot game, or take shelter from the weather.

Editor's Note: The photos and story are by Mark McLaughlin who is a weather historian living on the North Shore.