My fascination with the Donner Pass region began when I did some research into the Donner Party who in the winter of 1846 became stranded in the pass prior to Halloween. The high sierras were responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths not just for early pioneers who tried to navigate them but even for the men who built the transcontinental railroad which be built across the rugged terrain mainly composed of granite one of the hardest rocks on planet Earth created from volcanic activity. Granite was used to build the pyramids in Egypt because it takes thousands of years for it to break down and even with explosives you were lucky if you could make even a small impression let alone to build the railroad tunnels you see on our website.

The first emigrants to travel through the Donner Pass into California was in 1844 that very same wagon route today is Interstate 80 formerly known as US Route 40 or as some called it the Lincoln Highway. The Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party followed the Truckee River into the mountains at the head waters for it known today as Donner Lake. You will also see photos of Donner Lake that I captured while adventuring through the Rail Tunnels from the summit so make sure you pay tribute so you can sort of get a feel for how vast everything and connected is.  Anyhow these were the first pioneers to use the pass which actually drew the interest from other parties in the Midwest and east coast who wanted to brave a trip over the sierras to settle what is today's California. 

Another group of Californian bound emigrants decided to make the same trek in 1846 only to find that the route was blocked by snow so they were forced to spend the winter on the east side of the mountains not to far from Donner Lake which was named after the Donner Party. Their was a total of 81 emigrants but only 45 survived the harsh winter as it took months for the members of the party to be rescued. Thus the emigrants resorted to anabolism as well as eating their leather, horses and even their own dogs. Keep in mind this is only a portion of the dark history which seems to surround itself around Donner Pass itself. For me to be able to visit the Donner Party cabin site in the woods then to physically visit the old train tunnels of the transcontinental railroad which overshadow it is any paranormal investigators dream come true. 

Which reminded me of another incident such as in 1952 when another group became stranded 17 miles west of Donner Pass at a place called the Yuba Pass. It actually took place on track #1 when a Southern Pacific Railroad passenger train en route to San Francisco encountered a blizzard and it halted the train. The crew and all its passengers spent three perhaps even as long as six days on the tracks till the nearby highway could be plowed sufficiently enough for automobiles to get through to rescue the people who were nearly freezing to death.

The morale of the story I am trying to tell before I get into the history of the Donner Summit Railroad Tunnels is that this region can make you or break you. Snow in this pass averages 35' to 40' per year and during more intense winters as high as 70' in depth. In simple terms there can be snow drifts higher then trees and the powder in the winter blankets everything. Thus causing emigrants to freeze to death while others were not so lucky dying in avalanches that took place here. So when the railroad was built through here it took an amazing amount of strength and many of the laborers did not live to see the tunnel project be completed. 

Theodore D. Judah the chief engineer  laid out the track for the transcontinental railroad in Dutch Flat California which would cross 88 miles of rugged terrain the most difficult area the Donner Pass prior to his passing in 1863.  When he designed the plans for the railroad he felt that the snow would not be an issue if they could find a way to maintain it as each snowstorm occurred.  He was right to a certain degree but a very costly one however the entire reasoning for building such a railroad was to prevent California from being cut off from the rest of the nation.  When William Tecumseh Sherman heard about Judah's plans to lay out a track that would cross the Sierra range being an experienced engineer and surveyor as well as a Union General of the Civil War he felt that this would be the work of giants.  Sherman's brother would be in charge of the project while one brother felt it would be an impossible undertaking the other one had a dream which he brought to life which came at a huge cost with the loss of it as well.  When Judah had passed away L.M. Clement one of Judah's partners also an engineer sought the project through living to see Judahs dream of having a passenger and freight train traverse the mighty sierras. 

Nearly 12,000 Chinese laborers would be brought on board who shoveled, picked, drilled and blasted their way through the Sierra's granite rocks particularly the series of tunnels found in today's Donner Pass.  James Harvey Strobridge was a superintendent of the construction for the project did not want to use a foreign labor force however he felt that most of California's white laborers were undisciplined gold miners. It was true to a certain extent many miners often would get drunk, fight, shoot eachother or rob one another's gold. Strobridge felt that if the Chinese had built the Great Wall in China that they could also build America's Greatest Rail through the sierra portion of it and he was right. Many of those Chinese immigrants came from Dutch Flat California while some of them who died building the railroad are found buried at the Dutch Flat Chinese Cemetery so do click the links check them out as all the projects PGS works on intertwine with one another.

The task of building a railroad over the sierras was monolithic for example many of the construction materials had to be shipped from NYC around the Cape Horn to the city of San Francisco literally a journey of about 19,000 miles.  About 12,000 Chinese laborers had to also be brought in this was a dangerous job as they had to suffer white outs, extreme cold, snowfall and avalanches in Donner Pass.  When the railroad ties and track could not be laid out they would build a tunnel chipping away at the granite using explosives, drills and pickaxes.  The project went from west to eat slowly reaching Donner Summit by the day till the year of 1867.  Granted the elevation in this region is between 6,000 and 7,000 feet this area is truly the snowbelt of the sierras. I have myself hiked at much higher elevations and have always from my journeys found that even some of those locations are not as heavily ridden with snow as this pass is. So it is my opinion that even though the railroad succeeded at this project it could have been built in a less snow ridden area but that is just my own personal opinion based on my adventures in the sierras over the years. A total of nine tunnels would be excavated which totaled 5,158' in length and our team journeyed through every single one of them not once but twice!

In the year 1863 the task of building the railroad was rather simple once they reached the Sierras 1866 and 1867 had record snowfalls. Can you imagine trying to lay out track and excavate tunnels in the middle of a blizzard? Snow in Donner Pass could fall anywhere between October all the way into June even today it sometimes still does. We found that out in April when we investigated and explored the tunnels what a mild winter here is like in the Spring and trust me it was a very difficult journey for our team.  I read somewhere that between 1866 and 1867 the years the Donner Pass tunnels were being build their were 44 snow storms and 44' of snow if not more. Being that I am from Buffalo NY I use to think seeing an 8' drift was high but once you journey in certain regions of the sierras you find out that the mountains get hit harder then the lake effect snow that hits the cities of the Great Lakes of the United States. 

One of the biggest storms produced 120 inches of snow in a 13 day time period. This caused an avalanche near the summit that winter of 1866-67 that wiped out an entire work camp. The bodies would not be discovered till spring the men still were clutching their work tools completely frozen solid. Shortly after that incident twenty Chinese laborers were swept in a second avalanche while working on Tunnel No. 9.  When you did not have snow you had major rain falls for eample sub tropic storms flooded the region with 40 inches of rain in December of 1867 causing extensive damage even dangerous mud and rock slides which were responsible for deaths as well. In March of 1868 a blizzard dumped 10' of snow in five days taking a toll on many of the laborers. Death was a constant occurrence and today tracks or no tracks these tunnels are extremely haunted believe me when I say that. I work with allot of paranormal sites some are rather peaceful but this place has a place of tragedy, struggle and mass death. Even while hiking I found in the pass remnants of a tractor trailer clinging to the side of a cliff as it went right over the guard rails. If someone did not perish while building the rails they did so in their vehicles trying to traverse the Lincoln Highway which was the old emigrant route that many of Californians first pioneers traversed. 

Tunnel No. 6 is the longest of the 9 tunnels built in Donner Pass and perhaps one of the most unique historical sites in the state of California.  You have to understand that the Central Pacific Railroad was heading east while the Union Pacific Railroad was heading west. They amount of federal earnings would depend on the amount of track they would lay. The faster the tracks were laid the more money they received kind of like how grants work today in general. Each railroad wanted to lay as much track as possible and perhaps meet somewhere in the middle. The Central Pacific Railroad had their work cut out for them imagine having to cross the sierras knowing you had to build large bridges over canyons, construct trestles, fill crevices, reduce grades, cut down trees, move earth, excavate tunnels and even build snow sheds.  Nine of the fifteen tunnels that they had to bore were construct in Donner Pass through solid granite.  Tunnel No. 6 was near Donner Summit at about 7000' and is about 1659' in length.  It has a thirty foot elevation change over its length and was slightly curved.  It was built from four directions at the same time from east to west and west to est then from the inside out which made it all the more dangerous. When four of the nearby tunnel headings were joined they were only a little off so technically I would say that they are an architectural wonder of their time.

The tunnels were built so that it could maintain a maximum grade of 105' per mile.  When Tunnel No. 6 was excavated the Chinese built a vertical shaft 90' deep 12' wide where they would be lowered down by rope. This is so they could work towards the middle out but again it was very dangerous work.  They would be digging and blasting nonstop sometimes working 12 hours shifts making very little pay.  At least 300 kegs of black powder a day were used to build this tunnel only being able to advanced 8" to 12" per day.  The Chinese workers hardly ever saw the sun in the winter months if they were lucky. The Chinese when they were not working slept in tents or out under the stars some of them built tunnels in snowdrifts where they slept while in the warmer months little shanties at the work sites.  The laborers lived most of the time in the cold for weeks at a time. They endured frostbite, rock slides, mud slides, Pneumonia, avalanches, keg blasting accidents, sickness, work related accidents, deadly falls and some sadly just froze to death.  Despite all of the hardships Tunnel #6 is an engineering marvel  of the 19th century so that is why you will see so many photos of it on our website because it truly is a fascinating piece of history to walk through and experience.

When the black keg powder was failing to blast through the granite the CPRR decided to use a new explosive during that time period called Nitroglycerin and this may have been the first time it was every deployed in the United States especially for construction. Nitroglycerin was highly volatile thus it would explode unexpectedly thus during transport many fatal deaths occurred. So after awhile the explosive was manufactured on site however regardless black powder kegs and nitroglycerin were responsible for many Chinese laborer deaths. 

The railroad and its tunnels would be completed by May of 1868 that same year nine miles of track had to be built to connect with Truckee but once known as Coburn during the 1800's which also created a route for the Truckee Railroad which would to and from Virginia City Nevada bringing miners to and from the Comstock Lode.  It took four thousand men who worked nonstop for twelve days to complete this project. By June of 1868 the first trip made by the Central Pacific Railroad was made from Sacramento to Lake's Crossing also known as Reno Nevada in present time.   Coburn had burned down being a major railroading hub it was quickly rebuilt that is how its name changed to Truckee. This would not completely the transcontinental railroad however not until track was laid across the Nevada desert connecting it to Promontory Utah which was a distance of about 600 miles. Imagine that it only took 5,00 men just a little over a year to build this set of track compared to the 12,000 men and five years of labor it took to build the tracks line that ran from San Francisco through Donner Summit. 

While Judah may have been responsible for the engineering plans for the building of four of the tunnels in the sierras the other 11 came from L.M. Clement. You have to understand that sure the project was a huge undertaking but the problems continued to arise even after the tunnels and track were laid. As these problems really began to arise in 1870 just a few months after the golden spide was pounded into the ground completing Americas first transcontinental railroad an avalanche covered and tore away hundreds of feet of track. Shortly after a blizzard followed miles of track were blocked and the snow just continued to accumulate.  Some of the Chinese laborers who once built these tunnels became snow shovelers to try and clear the snow. Buckers were even used these are engines with plows which were not clearing the tracks either.  The buckers and snow shovelers spent six days clearing snow and still had another 7 more miles to go in Donner Pass. 

Passengers would take the train west or east often being let off in the middle of the wilderness and told to walk the rest of the way.  Some passengers were not well equipped to walk through the snow. Sure along the way they might have found a small railroad facility but allot of them had to walk through these tunnels to to where they had to go. I am willing to bet some passengers got off that train and were never seen again. The sierras as I said earlier in my piece will make you or break you. I have hiked in the snow before and even in avalanche zones you knock on deaths door everytime you set foot into them. 

After that harsh winter the Central Pacific RR decided that it would build more snow sheds at least sixty miles of them which then could be used to protect their tracks. They used nearly 65 million board feet of lumber and at least 900 tons of bolts and spikes in their construction. The wooden sheds in the summer time were fire hazards while in the winter months the snow was so heavy they could collapse. The snow sheds project however did bring thousands of new jobs to the area such as snow shovelers, carpenters, fire lookout men, track walkers and even fire train workers. Many of them were Chinese some of those workers lived in old freight cars found along the railroad line.  Not to far from the snow sheds in the Donner Pass their were railroad shops, turn tables, local businesses, worker houses, a hotel, school, various buildings and even blacksmith shops.  In the winter these laborers hardly ever seen the light of day some of those sheds were built inside the tunnels can you imagine your on a passenger train going through tunnel #6 and you see a couple China men huddling around a fire? That was what life was like but the snow sheds worked it kept the snow at bay so that the railroad could continue to operate all year around.  I heard that the passengers did not care much for the tunnels because it obscured much of the beautiful scenery found in the high sierras for me its different because our team can hike anywhere around Donner Summit and get 200 mile views in every direction almost!!

Despite the snow sheds danger always lurked in Donners Pass sure the crossing the mountains was made more comfortable but in 1890 a massive snow storm derailed a train shutting down Donner Pass for 15 days.  It took 5,000 snow shovelers to clear the tracks during this incident. That year alone 66' of snow fell and even the operators who lived in the snow sheds were overwhelmed they could not shovel fast enough.  Journalist Nellie Bly almost did not make her attempt to circumnavigate the global in less time then novelist Jules Vern's author of the fictional voyage of  "Around the World in 80 Days". Heavy snowfall put a huge hamper on her attempt which she did complete but the snowfall nearly stole it away from her and imagine having to start that journey all over again?

Eventually snow removal was improved thus more of the sheds were being removed while remaining sheds left behind were reinforced with concrete so that they would not be a fire hazard or collapse due to heavy snowfall.  Many of the Chinese returned to China while some immigrants who found labor here migrated to other towns found in the Sierras like Volcano, Jackson and Markleeville California just to name a few I have come across in my journeys.  By the 1920's and 1930's they became a high maintenance problems so even more of them were removed. I believe their were a few remaining ones that were replaced near track #1 in the 1980's sadly to be abandoned by 1993 when the summit tunnels finally were closed down and the tracks were removed along with its ties.  This was due to the fact that the Union and Southern Pacific railroads merged which used a much safer tunnel called the Mount Judah Tunnel. Please keep in mind if you decide to visit these abandoned tunnels when you come to the end of the line heading west it will intersect with the Mount Judah Tunnel. Yes its very active I seen a train come through here during our investigation their is a photo of the train further below across from the Donner Summit. Do not go into the Mount Judah tunnel as those tracks are currently active. 

Your probably wondering why also their is no more need for snow shovelers or snow sheds? Well its simple today they use Jordan spreaders, flangers and rotary plows on the lines to keep the snow off the tracks.  Back in the day when the train engineers would stop at depots the staff would hang up train orders sometimes even from various snow sheds. This allowed them to understand what they might encounter ahead of them on the tracks. Some of the trains had to move slowly till the snow could be cleared and well during WWI this played a role especially when they were transporting troops or freight across the sierras to the west coast to be used in war time efforts. 

Over 130 years later and so much as changed for example the tracks are no longer found running through all 9 of the tunnels found at Donner Summit. Some of the tunnels are collapsing while others are flooded with water. Where some snow sheds were built today are just concrete shells. There is allot of graffiti and murals found along the walls of the tunnel. I am sure I did not capture every photograph of every piece as I want others who visit here to discovery some of the beautiful art for themselves. Today some people four wheel, hike, job and even mountain bike through the tunnels while others who are paranormal enthusiast come here to encounter its ghosts. 

While hiking through the tunnel you might come across an occasional leaky ceiling where water is just pouring down blocking your path while you might find a fallen rock where occultist have used it as some sort of alter. I remember their was a section inside the tunnel where their was a massive wall of ice while another part of the tunnel had a massive snow drift that we had to physically climb over to continue our pursuit into the darkness.  There are areas so dark that you really should carry a head lamp or flashlight with you to navigate as their are things you can trip and fall over which could lead to serious injury just to warn other explorers ahead of time.  When the Southern and Union Pacific merged the Central Pacific Railroad was long gone which meant big changes and also the abandonment of certain rail worthy sites. 

For our society this was one of the biggest and most major projects of our group since we been based out west. Not just because of its major historical value but the fact is that these tunnels are a major paranormal hotspot. You have allot of ghosts people who died in the process of building these tunnels while some froze to death others were buried in earth or blown to pieces. So are the tunnels haunted a big YES as to where most locations we do are mildly haunted this is a major designated haunted location. Also this region has a long history of Bigfoot sightings and strangeness to the area. I believe the loud branch we heard snapping on our first expedition and the strange toe track impressions we found may prove that something monstrous might be using the tunnels today to traverse Donner Summit which would make sense since the tunnels bore through the peak making it much easier to traverse. In certain parts of the tunnel where it is very dark or their are little rooms or dark passages you always get this feeling like something is hiding in them and about to jump out at you. Even if their is nothing there your mind is always wandering when you explore tunnels especially tunnel No. 6 which is over 1600' deep! To think that the Chinese worked for two to three times less then the amount of most railworkers making only around $30 a month often made me wonder if this amount of money was worth the sacrifices these laborers made which including risking their very own lives.

Which brings me to another point that back in the 1860's the granite was so hard to tunnel through that the Chinese were using Nitroglycerin instead of black powder. The blast from these explosions was very loud day in and day out. Ancient Chinese lore and even today talks about a wild man that roams China. They were also very aware of the Yeti that is said to roam the Himalayan Mountain Range. While they were blasting these tunnels numerous Chinese workers were having sightings of what they called a yeti. More or less Bigfoot is a cousin of such a creature at least in theory since descriptions and evidence is very similar. They mentioned more then often seeing this creature peer out of the woods or sometimes watch them blast the tunnels out of curiosity. They also mentioned that whenever the nitro went off it always scared this creature away or it would run away. With that being said its quite probable that a creature such as this still roams the Donner Lake and Summit area. I would not even doubt it if this creature traverses these very tunnels sure it sounds preposterous but then again we have so much yet to learn about our planet and the species that have evolved over thousands of years. 

I do not know the artist but what I can tell you is this was engraved on a granite rock up by the Donner Summit Railroad Tunnels. More then likely a Chinese railroad worker may have chiseled or engrave it to depict the creature that was stalking them during tunnel blasting. This is your typical bigfoot like creature very muscular, large brow, strong arms, fur and bipedal. More then likely this creature may be using these tunnels to traverse the mountain more efficiently. More then likely what drew this creatures curiosity was the encroachment of the railroad camps and tunnel blasting in an area that at one time was completely desolate where creatures like this could remain undisturbed.

Someone had asked me the purpose of the Great China Walls found along the trail well the answer is very simple. The Chinese used large stone slabs to create the wall to be used as a grade for the railroad.  The building of the wall started in the Fall 1866 as to when the tunnels were being blasted through solid rock.  The grade between tunnels seven and eight required a rock fill of at least 75' high. It was built by the Chinese with their very own hands and today two walls can be seen while hiking through those tunnels on the north end. In the Spring of 1867 snow tunnels were dug into the bottom of the wall and tracks. In its place the Chinese began to place rocks there by hand building much of the lower wall under snowdrifts. All in all their are three walls two walls between tunnels No. 7 and No. 8 while their is another one built below them which its a bit hard to see unless you were to climb below the tunnels if you wanted to see it. Besides the great walls being a symbol of what the Chinese had to endure here they are a historic wonder. Where else can you see a great wall in the world besides Donner Pass other then China itself? The same rocks which killed so many China men in the tunnel blasting and rock slides would be used in the walls construction. Even though it served as a grade it also was strong enough to hold back some of the snow that accumulates here and if you really want to delve a bit deeper the wall also serves as a memorial to all the men who died. It is quite plausible to say that every stone slab placed here is meant to honor the dearly departed who braved their in building one of the countries most difficult transportation projects of that time period.  If you truly want to delve even deeper not to far from the tunnels are ancient petroglyphs which were depicted onto various rocks during ancient times when the Natives used this pass as a means to hunt, fish and gather food. 

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Lord Rick aka AngelOfThyNight
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4000 Year Old Petroglyphs found at Donner Summit not far from the tunnels Courtesy:
http://exploredonnersummit.com/pages/petroglyphsexplanation.html