A Too White Christmas for the Donner Party

By Chuck Smith Appeal-Democrat The weather report we have for the Donner Lake region on Christmas Eve, 1846, comes from the diary of Patrick Breen, one of 81 members of a wagon train trapped in the Sierra Nevada by a blizzard two months earlier, many of whom were dying of starvation. “Rained all night & it still continues to rain”, Breen wrote the morning of Dec. 24. “Poor prospect for any ... Read Full Article »