Audrey Fullerton-Samora of Sacramento, great niece of William and Grace McCarthy, donated the William M. McCarthy Photograph Collection to the California State Archives in 1996
Date Created and/or Issued
1927
Publication Information
California State Archives, a division of the California Secretary of State's Office
Caption: "Pioneer Monument Near Truckee." Tall monument with man, woman, and two children peering west. The Pioneer Monument was first dedicated on June 6, 1918 to commemorate those who emigrated to California in the mid 1800s. Today, the monument and surrounding area is known as Donner Memorial State Park. The park was established in memory of the ill-fated Donner Party, a group of emigrants whose wagon train was caught in the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the winter of 1846-47. The Pioneer Monument's stone pedestal stands twenty-two feet high, the height of the snow that the party had to contend with. Of the eighty-seven people in the wagon train, only forty-eight survived to be rescued the following spring. Some of the survivors are said to have resorted to cannibalism in order to survive.
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