Donner Pass

Donner Pass
Looking east from Donner Pass in the 1870s
Elevation	7,056 ft (2,151 m)
Traversed by	California Trail Lincoln Highway US 40 (until 1964) Overland Route I‑80 (Indirectly, See below)
Location	Nevada County, California, United States
Range	Sierra Nevada
Coordinates	39°18′57″N 120°19′17″W / 39.31583°N 120.32139°W / 39.31583; -120.32139Coordinates: 39°18′57″N 120°19′17″W / 39.31583°N 120.32139°W / 39.31583; -120.32139
location in California

Donner Pass (el. 7,056 ft (2,151 m))^[1] is a mountain pass in the northern Sierra Nevada, above Donner Lake about 9 miles (14 km) west of Truckee, California. It has a steep approach from the east and a gradual approach from the west.

The pass has been used by the California Trail, First Transcontinental Railroad, Overland Route, Lincoln Highway (later U.S. Route 40 and still later Donner Pass Road), as well as indirectly by Interstate 80.

Today the area is home to a thriving recreational community with several alpine lakes and ski resorts (Donner Ski Ranch, Boreal, and Sugar Bowl). The permanent communities in the area include Kingvale and Soda Springs, as well as the larger community below the pass surrounding Donner Lake.

History

To reach California from the East, pioneer emigrants had to get their wagons over the Sierra Nevada mountain range. In 1844 the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party followed the Truckee River into the mountains. At the head of what is now called Donner Lake, they found a low notch in the mountains and became the first overland emigrants to use the pass.^[2]

The pass was named after a later group of California-bound emigrants. In early November 1846 the Donner Party found the route blocked by snow and was forced to spend the winter on the east side of the mountains. Of the 81 emigrants, only 45 survived to reach California;^[3] some of them resorted to cannibalism to survive.^[4][5]

On January 13, 1952, 222 passengers and crew aboard a train became stranded about seventeen miles (27 km) west of Donner Pass at Yuba Pass, on Track #1 adjacent to Tunnel 35 (on Track #2), at about MP 176.5.^[6] Southern Pacific Railroad's passenger train City of San Francisco was en route westbound through the gap when a blizzard dumped so much snow the train was unable to move forward or reverse. The passengers and crew were stranded for three days until the nearby highway could be plowed sufficiently for a caravan of automobiles to carry them the few miles to Nyack Lodge.^[7]

Central Pacific Railroad

Summit Tunnel, West Portal (Composite image with the tracks removed in 1993 digitally restored)

In the spring of 1868, the Sierra Nevadas were finally "conquered" by the Central Pacific Railroad, after almost five years of sustained construction effort, with the successful completion at Donner Pass of its 1,659-foot (506 m) Tunnel #6 (aka the Summit Tunnel) and associated grade, thus permitting the establishment of commercial transportation en masse of passengers and freight over the Sierras for the first time. Following a route first surveyed and proposed by the CPRR's original Chief Engineer, Theodore D. Judah (1826–1863), the construction of the four tunnels, several miles of snowsheds and two "Chinese Walls" necessary to breach Donner Summit constituted by far the most difficult engineering and construction challenge of the entire original Sacramento to Ogden CPRR route.

CPRR Engineers L.M. Clement and T.D. Judah

Principally designed and built under the personal, often on-site direction of the CPRR's Chief Assistant Engineer, Lewis M. Clement (1837–1914), the original (Track 1) summit grade remained in daily use from June 18, 1868, when the first CPRR passenger train ran through the Summit Tunnel,^[8] until 1993 when the Southern Pacific Railroad (which operated the CPRR-built Oakland-Ogden line until its 1996 merger with the Union Pacific Railroad) abandoned and pulled up the 6.7 mile (10.7 km) section of Track #1 over the summit running between the Norden complex (Shed 26, MP 192.1)^[9] and the covered crossovers in Shed #47 (MP 198.8)^[10] about a mile east of the old flyover at Eder.^[11] Since then all East and Westbound traffic has been run over the Track #2 grade crossing the summit about one mile (1.6 km) south of Donner Pass through the 10,322-foot (3,146 m) long Tunnel #41 (aka "The Big Hole") running under Mt. Judah between Soda Springs and Eder. Then operator SPRR made this change because the railroad considered Track 2 and Tunnel 41 (which was opened in 1925 when the summit section of the grade was finally double tracked) to be far easier and less expensive to maintain and keep open in the harsh Sierra winters than the Track 1 tunnels and snow sheds over the summit.^[12]

Panoramic view of Donner Summit from above CPRR Tunnel #6 with Donner Lake in the distance.

In conjunction with major ongoing upgrades and expansions being made to the Port of Oakland in order to better accommodate the rapidly growing North American trade with Asia and the Pacific, the cooperation of the UPRR, the Port's principal rail partner, has been sought to "construct a second track and raise tunnel clearances over Donner Pass for container trains linking California with the rest of the country."^[13] This would likely require either a new parallel tunnel next to Tunnel 41 or the replacement of the summit section of Track 1 between the Norden complex and Shed 47; either would increase capacity and effectively eliminate delays currently caused by having to run all east and west bound traffic between Norden and Shed 47 over a single track. (To fully eliminate "bottleneck" delays the now single track 7.1-mile (11.4 km) section between Switch 9 (MP 171.9)^[14] and Shed 10 (MP 179.0)^[15] west of Cisco would likely also have to be restored to double track.) Improvements were completed on the Sierra grade in November 2009, including increasing 18,000 lineal feet of tunnel clearances in 15 restricted tunnels between Rocklin and Truckee and upgrading 30 miles of signals to CTC, although the original Donner Pass grade (Track 1) was not restored. Since then trains of full-height (20 ft 2 inch) double-stack container cars have run over Donner Pass; some tunnels on Track 2 between Bowman and Colfax were not enlarged, so stack trains in both directions must use the older, tunnel-free Track 1 between those points.^[16]

Route of the original CPRR grade at Donner Pass.

Highways

Sign for Donner Summit on Interstate 80

The Lincoln Highway, the first road across America, crosses Donner Pass. Interstate 80 was built through this area in the early 1960s. I-80 generally parallels the route of US 40 through the Sierra Nevada, but it crosses the Sierra crest at the Euer Saddle, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Donner Pass. Euer Saddle is referred to by CalTrans as "Donner Summit" at 7,240 feet (2,210 m); it is about 150 feet (46 m) higher than Donner Pass, but is wider and has a gentler approach that aided construction to Interstate Highway standards, which do not allow the sharp curves used by the Donner Pass Road. The 1920s highway has been preserved as a scenic alternative to I-80.

Weather

Snowpack at Donner Summit, April 13, 2011 and in the 1930s.

Winter weather at Donner Pass can be brutal. Precipitation averages 51.6 inches (131 cm) per year, much of which falls as snow.^[17] At an average of 411.5 inches (10.45 m) per year, Donner Pass is one of the snowiest places in the United States. Four times since 1880 total snowfall at Donner Summit has exceeded 775 inches (19.7 m) and topped 800 inches (20 m) in both 1938 and 1953.^[18] To take advantage of the heavy snows, the Boreal Ski Resort was built to the north. Ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area report an average of 300 to 500 inches (7.6 to 12.7 m) of snowfall per season.^[19] Winds in the pass can also become extreme and wind gusts in excess of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) are common during winter storms. Winter temperatures in the area drop below zero several times each year; the all-time record low for California of −45 °F (−43 °C) was recorded at Boca (east of Truckee) in January 1937.

The winter of 1846-47 was especially severe, and this is generally cited as the single most important factor in the disaster of the Donner Party. In the winter of 2010-11, over 700 inches (1,800 cm) had fallen as of May 23, 2011. Snow depth peaked in early April 2011 with over 250 inches (21 ft) of snow on the ground.^[20]

Recreation

Snowboarder at Sugar Bowl Ski Resort located near the top of Donner Pass

Summer and winter offer a wide variety of recreation and lifestyle sports such as backpacking, alpine and cross-country skiing, rock and ice climbing. The region was made world famous during the early 1990s with snowboarding films by Fall Line Films (FLF) and Standard Films, for its easy access to frontcountry and backcountry terrain. However, its fame and quick access from Old Highway 40 or nearby Sugar Bowl Ski Resort has led to a large number of avalanche fatalities, including professional snowboarder Jamil Khan.^[21]

Popular culture

Albert Bierstadt's painting View of Donner Lake (1871–72).^[22]

The Donner Pass is featured in the History Channel special episode, America: The Story of Us: "Westward". It is featured in the National Geographic Channel series Hell on the Highway, which series focuses on the towing and recovery companies working the region.

Notes

References

• Powell, Margie Powell (2003). Donner Summit. A Brief History. Grass Valley, CA: Cottage Hill Publishing. ISBN 0-9658240-4-7. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Donner Pass.

• [url=http://cprr.org/Museum/Sierra_Grade_8-2003/Tunnel_7_Pan.html 360° QTVR Panorama #2 Above Tunnel #7 (Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum)]
• Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
• Fremont's 1845 descent from the Pass (Longcamp.com)
• Sierra Grade Exhibit - Donner Pass (Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum)
• Southern Pacific's City of San Francisco Stranded (1952) (Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum)