Truckee, California is best known today for its often-snowbound pass through the High Sierras, through which wagon trains, the early Transcontinental Railroad and later automobile highways, including the current Interstate 80, wound. This dangerous passageway became known as "Donner Pass," after the Donner Party, a group of westbound settlers from Illinois who, in 1846, became snowbound in early fall as a result of several trail mishaps, poor decision-making, and an early onset on winter that year. Photo by Carol Highsmith.