One Eternal Winter: The Story of what happened at Donner Pass, Winter 1846-47

What happened at Donner Pass has always been controversial. This is a novel about the incident, told from the perspective of one of the survivors, Virginia Reed, who was only twelve years old when she set out for California. The other characters in this tragic event all come to life through the eyes of Virginia. Donner Pass is a rocky opening in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range on the Nevada-California border. Before emigrants pushed into the region, Native Americans warned early explorers of the dangers of getting trapped by deep snows, describing these moun-tains as “rock upon rock, snow upon snow.” The events that occurred at Donner Pass in the winter of 1846-47 have been described as “a horrendous act against nature and against God” as well as “a testament to human courage and resiliency in the face of extreme circumstances. This is when Virginia found out the characters of her peers for what they really were in time of crisis.