Where 41 of 87 emigrants died in the winter of 1846–47 and survivors ate the dead to live — the cabin foundations and Murphy family remains are still here.
12593 Donner Pass Road, Truckee, CA 96161
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Vehicle day use $10; includes museum admission. Senior discount available. Annual pass accepted.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved paths around Pioneer Monument and museum. Hiking trails range from flat lakeshore to rugged backcountry. Museum is wheelchair accessible.
Equipment
Photos OK
Donner Party disaster — winter 1846–47 · 41 of 87 emigrants died of starvation and exposure · Documented incident of survival cannibalism · Pioneer Monument — 22-foot base marks snow depth · Murphy cabin foundation preserved on-site · National Historic Landmark
The wagon train that would bear the Donner name numbered 87 people when it reached the eastern Sierra Nevada in late October 1846. The party had taken the Hastings Cutoff on the advice of Lansford Hastings' promotional pamphlet — a route that turned out to be slower than advertised and cost them critical weeks crossing the salt desert of what is now Utah. By the time they reached the pass above present-day Truckee, heavy snow had already fallen, and their attempts to cross were blocked.
The party made winter camps in two main locations. The Breen, Reed, Graves, and Murphy families settled near the lake at roughly 5,900 feet elevation, sheltering in a log structure and lean-tos. The Donner families — George and Jacob Donner and their families — were camped six miles east at Alder Creek, in wagon beds and makeshift shelters. Snow reached 22 feet at the lake camp by midwinter, as documented by the base height of the Pioneer Monument erected at the site in 1918.
The first rescue parties from California did not reach the camp until February 1847. Over four relief expeditions between February and April, approximately 47 survivors were brought out, some on foot over the pass, some on horseback. Forty-one members of the original party died. Survivors in the most desperate periods of the winter had consumed the flesh of those who had already died from starvation and cold. The practice was not concealed — survivors' accounts described it directly, and the transcriptions circulated in newspapers across the country within months of the rescue.
California State Parks acquired the lake-camp site and opened the Emigrant Trail Museum in 1962. The park encompasses Donner Lake, the Murphy cabin foundation (preserved masonry from the original structure), and the Pioneer Monument — a 22-foot granite base representing the snow depth, topped by a bronze pioneer family. The park also interprets the Washoe people, who inhabited the Sierra Nevada long before the Donner Party's arrival.
Sources
Tamsen Donner was among the most documented members of the party — a schoolteacher who kept detailed journals and corresponded with family back East. Her husband George Donner had wounded his hand and was dying of gangrene by the time the fourth rescue party reached Alder Creek in April 1847. Tamsen refused to leave him. She survived George by several days. Her fate in those final days at the camp — whether she died of starvation, exposure, or otherwise — has been debated in the historical literature for 175 years.
The apparition attributed to Tamsen Donner at the lake-camp site is described in paranormal accounts as yellowish and luminous, hovering above the ground rather than standing on it — a specific visual detail that distinguishes it from more generic apparition reports. A 1988 account describes a woman driving to the park who experienced sensory phenomena before arrival: odors resembling a pioneer encampment and spontaneous, uncontrolled weeping. At the encampment site itself, she reported an overwhelming sense of being watched.
A separate account involves a researcher in the early 1990s who conducted past-life regression interviews. A subject with no waking knowledge of the Donner Party described being eight years old, cold, and in the mountains with a Frenchman who carried her away from camp — details that correspond to documented Donner Party accounts without the subject being able to identify the source.
The park does not promote paranormal programming. The museum addresses the Donner Party story factually and without ghost content. The apparition accounts accumulate from visitor reports and paranormal investigators rather than institutional promotion, which gives them a different quality than haunted venues that actively cultivate the lore.
Notable Entities
The state park museum covers the Donner Party disaster in detail alongside the Washoe people's history, the construction of the transcontinental railroad through Donner Pass by Chinese laborers in the 1860s, and early automobile travel over the route. The Pioneer Monument outside marks where snow reached 22 feet during the 1846–47 winter. Museum open daily 10 am–5 pm (closed major holidays).
Interpretive trails lead to the preserved foundations of the Murphy family cabin and the general area of the Donner Party's winter camps. The 22-foot Pioneer Monument base marks the snow depth the party endured. More than 8 miles of trails cross the park through terrain that looks much as it did when the party was snowbound.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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