Donner Lake...."Who's For Lunch?"

That's a bad old joke!

I still remember - my trip to Truckee, California, 30 years ago. It was a time before tacky T-shirts were all the rage. There it was, in the tourist shop emblazoned with the title statement above with a picture of a family of settler's looking off in the distance.

Truckee has two claims to fame - there are times of the year when it is the coldest place in the United States. It was also the place where the Donner party ran into a little issue as they attempted to settle out into the West.

I can just imagine them arriving from somewhere - that you can see on the other end of the lake in this picture. They knew they were a little behind schedule. They saw this lake for the first time and probably said, "what a nice spot!"

Then, some bright guy in the group probably looked up to where I was standing to take this photo and said something like - "uh....excuse me....I think we are screwed!"

The Power of Positive Thinking - hadn't been written yet but there was probably a person that replied, "you are always so negative. It is what it is. If need be, we'll just hunker down, camp by the lake, and the trip is just going to take us a little longer than we planned."

Of course, not knowing this freak little basin that they were caught in, - the second guy was on point as well.

Most of you are probably aware of what happened from there - they couldn't find enough food to fend off the extreme cold winters. Starvation set in. Cannibalization of the dead to survive began.

I wonder what the conversation was like - before someone actually carved into that first "meal"? NO, that is not a gross thought! YES, it was a tragedy, but someone had to think about it first, be brave enough to think about suggesting it, and then actually broach the subject. It HAPPENED!

Next thing you know it - the people are digging in!

While I didn't stop this time - there is a monument there that I would encourage you to spend some time with so you can become a little more familiar with this unique piece of American history.