thumb|Beach at China Cove in Donner Memorial State Park

Donner Memorial State Park is a California State Park, located at the town of Truckee, California, United States. The park preserves a portion of the Donner Camp site, where members of the ill-fated Donner Party were trapped just short of Donner Pass by weather during the winter of 1846–1847. Caught without shelter or adequate supplies, members of the group resorted to cannibalism to survive. The camp site, high in the Sierra Nevada, has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

The Donner Memorial State Park was established in 1928. It includes memorials to the Donner Party, such as the 1918 Pioneer Monument, along with a visitor center. Recreational opportunities include of trails, campgrounds, and of frontage on Donner Lake. the state park contains the sites of two of the three cabins used at this larger camp. The Breen and Murphy Cabin sites are within the state park, the Graves Cabin is not.

Early attempts to memorialize the Donner Party at the larger camp site included at least two different crosses, with the Donner Ice Company erecting a cross in 1906, after an earlier one was toppled in a storm. However, these crosses were built at the site of the Graves Cabin, which lies outside the current state park.

See also

  • Donner-Reed Museum
  • List of California state parks

Notes

References

  • Donner Memorial State Park