On I-80, 3 miles West of Truckee. At Donner Memorial State Park, the Emigrant Trail Museum recounts the sad tale of the Donner Party, a wagon-train of 89 men, women and children which set out in 1846 on the Emigrant Trail (the route crossing the northerly section of the Sierra Nevada mountains into California). Attempting to negotiate what is now the Donner Pass – part of which the park occupies – the party became trapped by snow and were forced to spend the winter without supplies. Forty people perished during the ordeal, some of the survivors resorting to cannibalism to stay alive. A 22-ft-high called the Pioneer Monument marker reaches the height of the snow which filled the pass during that fateful winter. Next to it is the Pioneer Museum and the Donner family house. For a fee you can also camp here and enjoy the fishing, hiking and boating, more information can be found here – (www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=503).