Truckee Parks and Recreation - Explore the Parks Near Best Western Truckee Tahoe Inn

Donner State Park

In the early 1840s Mexico owned California, but American political leaders were begining to think that it was their country's "Manifest Destiny" to push its borders to the Pacific Ocean. American mountain men had established rudimentry trails through the western mountains and an increasingly large flow of people began traveling overland to California.

In April 1846 George Donner and his brother Jacob Donner loaded six wagons with their families and possessions and joined the stream of emigrants moving westward. After many months of hard travel from their homes in Illinois they reached the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near present day Reno. It was October and winter came early and hard that year in the mountains. They pressed on but became snowbound at Alder Creek a few miles from a large lake that today is known as Donner Lake in their honor.

It was a very bad winter for all of the 91 people in the party. Only 49 of them lived through the ordeal.

Vikingsholm

In 1928 Mrs. Laura Knight started construction of a summer home on Tahoe's Emerald Bay.

The inspiration for the architecture was drawn from Scandinavian farmsteds, stave churches and at least one castle. Vikingsholm was completed in 1929 and is now accesible to the general public. Tours of the interior are provided during summer months.