Overland Emigrant Trail

This is the top of the drop that the Emigrant Gap bronze describes from the bottom. More than thirty thousand settlers came into California by this trail in the year 1849 alone, and the plaque says outcrops of rock near the site still carry the marks of wagon wheels. For anyone who got this far, it adds, the next ordeal was the tortuous descent into Bear Valley, which is where the wagons were lowered on ropes.

What the plaque says

OVERLAND EMIGRANT TRAIL IT IS ESTIMATED MORE THAN 30,000 SETTLERS CAME INTO CALIFORNIA OVER THIS TRAIL IN THE YEAR 1849. NEAR THIS SITE OUTCROPPINGS OF ROCKS STILL BEAR THE MARKS OF WAGON WHEELS. FOR THOSE TRAVELERS WHO REACHED THIS POINT THE NEXT ORDEAL WAS THE TORTUOUS DESCENT INTO BEAR VALLEY. CALIFORNIA REGISTERED HISTORICAL LANDMARK NO. 799-2 PLAQUE PLACED BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION IN COOPERATION WITH THE PLACER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, OCTOBER 23, 1976.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Donner Summit Tunnels — 10 mi
  Granite bored by hand at fourteen inches a day, by Chinese crews the country spent a century forgetting.
• Donner Memorial State Park — 15 mi
  Where the Donner Party spent the winter of 1846, marked by cabin stone and a monument built to a remembered snow depth.
• Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park — 22 mi
  A canyon washed out of a mountain by water cannon, and the lawsuit that ended hydraulic mining.
• Emerald Bay State Park — 33 mi
  A glacial fjord on Tahoe's west shore with the lake's only island and a Scandinavian house at the water.

More markers nearby

• Emigrant Gap — 8.3 mi
• Alpha and Omega Hydraulic Diggings — 13 mi
• Donner Monument — 15 mi
• Pioneer Ski Area of America — 17 mi