Donner Spring

For the emigrants who trusted Hastings, this spring at the foot of Pilot Peak was the end of the worst stretch. Hastings had promised a two-day dry crossing of the Great Salt Lake Desert; the Donner-Reed Party found it nearer six, eighty waterless miles of heat and salt mud. They abandoned wagons and lost dozens of cattle out on the flats, and some walked the last miles on foot to reach the water here. The days that crossing cost them are part of why the snow caught them in the Sierra that winter.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Unknown Soldiers — 15 mi
• Pilot Peak — 28 mi