Historic Donner Stock Trail - 2007 -

About the Book

This book presents the issues of a current (2007) conflict between a private property owner and public advocates who want to continue use of a blocked public trail. This is not a case of Eminent Domain where a government agency condemns private property for a public purpose. To the contrary, this case is about a private property owner blocking a public trail preventing hikers, joggers, equestrians, bicyclists and walkers from using the trail. When Highway 40, the Lincoln Highway, was completed the State of California relinquished the old Highway 37 to Nevada County. The old highway was designated as a "stock trail" because the State did not want to maintain highway 37 for vehicular traffic. The stock trail between Donner Lake and Donner Summit is a five mile trail of historical significance because the ill-fated Donner Party used a campsite at what is now called Donner Lake. The trail was blocked by 22 feet of snow during the winter of 1846 when the Donner party was striving to get to California.

About the Author

Milan E. Wight is a native Californian. He attended California schools including the University of California at Berkeley, and also attended Oberlin College in Ohio and the Harvard Business School. He served three years in the U. S. Navy in World War ll. Mr. Wight's professional career included 40 years in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District in Concord, California as a teacher, counselor and school administrator. Mr. Wight's hiking career began while he was in high school and community college. Summers were spent at Sequoia Lake, and Kings Canyon. The Boy Scouts of America conducted hikes from Big Meadows down to the floor of Kings Canyon then up to the John Muir Trail at 11,000 feet elevation and on to Rae Lakes and back to Bubbs Creek. One hike in the Coalinga -- Joaquin Murrieta Rocks area is memorable. With G. L. Thompson, a Boy Scout leader, the author and others, got to the trailhead after dark. Hiking over a knoll we were startled to see a "ghost" all white and overpowering. It was a Yucca plant in full white splendor in the moonlight. Hiking on to the rocks where bandito Joaquin Murrietta hid out in earlier days, we found the rest of the campers. The author remembers asking for a drink of water. The water sort of tickled as it went down his throat. Next day he looked at the basin where the drinking water came from and discovered many wiggly pollyfrogs, the cause of the tickle the night before. They seemed to be edible. The Golden Empire Council Boy Scouts of America had summer camps at Echo Lake and Bear River Reservoir. Mr. Wight conducted 6- day 50 mile hikes during the summer, crossing Carson Pass where wagon wheel marks were visible on the granite trail. The Wights purchased a cabin on Donner Lake in 1958. Hikes were enjoyed on a portion of the Stock Trail, work on the Donner Rim Trail and hikes on the Pacific Crest Trail during summer months. It was about this time when an adult son was hiking from Donner Lake to Donner Summit on the Stock Trail that he encountered signs warning of guard dogs. Not wanting to have a guard dog encounter, he reversed his course back to Donner Lake. Mr. Wight knew that this was a public trail. He sought out Dan Wenden and Carl Rasmussen, local residents, to get information about why the public trail was not assessable. The rest of the story is included in this book. Mr. Wight served on the Trails and Bikeways Advisory Committee created by the Town of Truckee. After two years study the committee's work was approved as the Master Plan for Trails and Bikeways. Mr. Wight's assignment was trails in the Donner Lake area (and ultimately the Stock Trail). Mr Wight formed the 23 member Stock Trail Advisory Committee in 1999, and has been an advocate for retaining public access to this historic trail ever since.