How many times has Truckee-Donner Historical Society (TDHS) been asked the following  questions: Are there photos of a frozen Donner Lake; what and where is the Donner Cross; was  the Truckee River ever completely covered with snow; was there a “pet” bear in downtown  Truckee; and where was Truckee’s Chinatown? 

Now that TDHS has amassed a very large number of original photographs that are available for  public viewing pleasure online, we can honestly answer these questions with photos and more. 

Pictures tell stories with secondary sources 

In a donated photo album covering the January to February 1922 filming of the movie ‘Over the Border’, a star is standing on a partially frozen Donner Lake – believed to be at the east end of the Lake. A similar image from noted Truckee photographer Herman Kimball Gage taken in 1885 actually shows a group of people skating on a partially frozen Donner Lake.  

That cannot be that early you say, but checking out a Truckee Republican newspaper article of January 28, 1885 titled “The Skating Carnival in Full Blast – How Truckeeites Skate,” it indeed is a partially frozen Donner Lake. Although the article is currently not available on the California Digital Newspaper Collection site, cdnc.ucr.edu, we spotted a copy in a well-preserved, dated, donated scrapbook.  

Confirming an image’s date with a printed article or other document like a newspaper story or first-person account is the best way to verify the date and to tell the story about the image. Gage is well known for some of his stunning photography of Truckee in the early years, especially from the 1870s through the early 1900s. Of particular note are his photographs of the Rocking Stone and bird’s eye views of Truckee. 

The Donner Cross “Sites” 

Today the location of the Donner Cross is on Donner Pass Road just west of Truckee Elementary School, now located on a 20′ x 20′ dedicated easement of 399 square feet. It is hard to believe that the Donner Cross has been “relocated” at least five times since its original installation back in 1887. Neither could we believe it until we did some very serious deep research.

If you want to read all about it, we urge you to browse through the Donner Cross application that TDHS submitted to the Nevada County Historical Landmarks Commission (NCHLC) in 2024 which was unanimously approved by the Nevada County Board of Supervisors and designated as NEV 24-07. In fact, a rededication of the Donner Cross and the 1919 plaque honoring the Graves Cabin site is set for Saturday, September 13, 2025, at the site of the current Donner Cross. Examining each historical Donner Cross image was painstaking because the images did not come with our more current and available GPS coordinates. 

A snowbound Truckee River 

This image shows Truckee River completely covered with snow. We had no date of the original image, but we happened to see a similar image in the same donated photo album of the movie from early 1922. It was a match – the photo of the snow-covered river had to be from early 1922. Looking up the movie in the online movie database, we find found that the photo and information in the donated photo album agree. Even the Director’s name matched. 

As for a “pet” bear in downtown Truckee 

In an Englehart donated photo collection, there is a photo of a bear climbing a telephone pole – but devoid of any additional information. Ironically, we saw similar images in the same donated movie album, and an article in the newspaper collection. We believe the pet bear was downtown around 1922. 

Truckee’s Chinatown 

And lastly, as to the location of Truckee’s Chinatown. You’ll need to read through the application that TDHS also submitted to the NCHLC. This Application was also unanimously approved by the Nevada County Board of Supervisors and designated as landmark NEV 23-02. 

In case you missed it, TDHS and the NCHLC held a dedication ceremony of the installation of the plaque recognizing and celebrating Truckee’s two Chinatowns. Stop by the Old Truckee Jail Museum and out in front of the jail is the plaque mounted on a granite boulder. You can’t miss it. The Museum of Truckee History and the Old Truckee Jail Museum also each have dedicated displays honoring Truckee’s Chinese heritage. Please stop in to learn more. 

Conclusion 

In a nutshell, if you haven’t explored the images in our Truckee-Donner Historical Society’s online Image Collection, https://images.truckeehistory.org, you really should take a look and browse through the remarkable images we have processed so far and made available on our website. Although they have watermarks and image numbers on them – basically so we can find the image again in the thousands that we have amassed. If you want to obtain an image for your home, business, or other personal use, just send us an email to info@truckeehistory.org and we’ll see what we can do for you based on the intended use. We also strongly encourage you to please let us know if you know more about an image than what we have provided, and we’ll be happy to incorporate reasonable explanations. 

Please join us 

On Tuesday, August 19, at the Truckee Tahoe Airport, TDHS is offering a program as part of the Museum of Truckee History’s Speaker Series programs on this very subject – Every Picture Tells a Story. Come join us to see more examples of other Truckee images that tell stories all their own. 

Have fun exploring. As we all know – Every Picture Tells a Story. 

Heidi Sproat lives part-time in Truckee. She is the Truckee-Donner Historical Society’s current webmaster for truckeehistory.org, and manages the Image Collection currently available for viewing on the Society’s website at images.truckeehistory.org.