Many times I thought of the "Forty-niners" as we saw the sign, "Overland Trail." In coming along the Lincoln Highway, we are simply traversing the old overland road along which the prairie schooners of the pioneers passed. How much heart-ache, heartbreak, and hope deferred this old trail has seen! I think of it as we bowl along so comfortably over a somewhat rough but yet very passable road.
---Effie Gladding, 1914
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An 1877 Andrew Hill
painting depicting the 1844 Stephens-Murphy pioneer party making their way around the same hill that drivers go around today on old Highway 40.
(click photo for
full screen) |
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The same location 82 years later in 1926, soon after the bridge was opened. The remnants of the old road can be seen in the
foreground. |
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The same location another 79 years
later in 2005. |
(when it extended out to the lake)
Above, two pre-1926 photos of the road on the section that is currently being illegally blocked
Below, "The Road Past Donner Lake" 1916
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1915 color photos (not colorized) by J. Waters |
Below is page 48 of the surveyor's field book for the 1915 State Department of Engineering Survey of the old road,
found in Sacramento in Nov 2005. Click image for large view.
The photo below shows this same area as the survey page above, and was taken two months before the survey in 1915.
The surveyor was working east to west. Note the "cottage" on the left is 150' to the right of the road, and then the hotel is 426 feet beyond that point (closer to the photographer).. The big round sign is a Red Crown gasoline sign.
1865 photo of the Dutch Flat Donner Lake Wagon Road, within the 1 mile section that is being illegally blocked.
Lawrence & Houseworth photo
If you look here --->
you'll see the photographer's
covered carriage off to the side of the road.
It held a portable darkroom.
(click photo for
full screen)