Donner Hill

The Donner Party met the Wasatch before the Sierra, and the mountains cost them dearly here. After hacking four and a half exhausting miles up the boulder-choked canyon bottom, the emigrants gave up on the streambed and, on August 22, 1846, hauled their twenty-three wagons straight up the steep hill to the southwest — doubling nearly every team in the train to drag each wagon over the crest. The days they lost fighting through this canyon helped doom them in the snows ahead. A year later, the Mormon pioneers cut a road through the canyon mouth in four hours.

What the plaque says

After 4 1/2 miles of fighting boulders and brush along streambed, Donner Party gave up here, and on August 22, 1846, climbed steep hill to southwest. A survivor wrote, "We doubled teams, almost every yoke in the train (of 23 wagons) being required to pull up each wagon." Mormon Pioneers a year later built road through to mouth of canyon with four hours labor.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 0.7 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon
• Emigration Canyon — 1.2 mi
  The final stretch of trail the Mormon pioneers took into the valley
• Natural History Museum of Utah — 1.4 mi
  A world-class museum built into the foothills above Salt Lake City
• Red Butte Garden — 1.7 mi
  A 100-acre botanical garden with panoramic valley views

More markers nearby

• Emigration Canyon Monument - Mormon Pioneers — 0.5 mi
• Emigration Canyon Monument - Natvie People — 0.5 mi
• Mary Fielding Smith House — 0.6 mi
• This is the Place Restored Monument — 0.7 mi