Donner museum opening delayed one year
By Barbara Barte Osborn, Sacramento Bee
TRUCKEE – Mired in the bureaucracy of a contract dispute and lacking the funds to hire a coordinator, California state parks officials have delayed the opening of a new museum at Donner Memorial State Park.
Instead of opening this fall, the High Sierra Crossing Museum – a 9,400-square-foot structure that’s nearly complete – will sit empty until fall 2014.
When it finally does open, the museum will feature exhibits on the Donner Party, regional American Indian history, the history of railroad development through Donner Pass and early highway construction.
Donner Memorial State Park is probably best known as the site where most members of the Donner Party, an 81-member wagon train from the Midwest, camped in 1846 and became trapped by heavy snows.
