History of California

We Are All in the Donner Party

California snowfall is a mixed blessing

Snow in California means much more than skiing and winter sports. It is the source of the year-round water that is the lifeblood of the state. Droughts and resulting wildfires have dominated the news for several years now with stories of ever larger losses of forests, fields, and homes. Rainfall in the Sierra’s can refill reservoirs if sustained but withdrawals on the bank balance begin as soon as the last raindrop falls. Snowpack on the other hand stores immense amounts of water which comes later, on that not-so rainy day.

This past Monday saw 16 feet of snow arrive at Donner Pass surpassing the previous record set in 1970. The images of snow piled as high as an elephant’s eye along the roadside transported me to the back seat of the family Plymouth station wagon, the one with the wood grain decal down the side. The CHP and Caltrans had plowed a stretch of highway 80 a bit wider for travelers to stop on put on chains. It was fascinating for the 8-year-old me to watch my dad layout chains in front of the tires and then, with my mother’s guidance, drive the car forward onto the chains before latching them.

Before the snow is too deep the vistas along the highway have a view onto the railroad grade on the other side of the valley. Sections of the track are covered with long snow sheds since the snow frequently arrives faster than it can be plowed, especially with the machinery available in the 1860s. At first, Central Pacific Railroad thought only the most vulnerable portions of the line would need coverage, perhaps 100 yards of snow shed. By the end of that decade, 9 miles of tunnel were erected and work would continue building until 40 miles of track were enveloped in 65 million board feet of lumber.

The tunnels were plagued by many design challenges requiring a massive amount of support to maintain. In winter the weight of the snow could crush in some tunnels and if snow built up between the mountainside and the tunnel the whole works could be pushed off the grade into the valley below. In summer the tunnels acted as both a fuel source and flue for fires which required fire watchtowers, fire crews, and special equipment designed specifically for fighting tunnel fires. Many of the fires were ignited by the sparks from the trains themselves.

Most of the snow sheds were converted to concrete in the latter part of the 20th century and in 1993 a new tunnel and route were opened leaving the grade and snow sheds abandoned. The new route that does not depend on track prone to avalanches has been a saving grace in the recent supply chain issues in the US. Can you imagine getting containers from ship to rail only to have a major route from the West Coast collapse?

But there is a modern problem with snowpack. Climate change is making the amount of snowpack much more variable and though we are blessed with banks of frozen water reserves this year, the rate of melt is a concern. The downstream reservoirs and lakes are very low but have finite capacity. If the spring weather warms too fast the snowpack will overfill reservoirs and flood control is lost. To avoid running out of headroom, water management for the state will release water in anticipation of a fast melt, thus Sierra Nevada savings account overage is wasted. If the trend continues of long droughts interrupted by heavy snowfall continues more ways to store water will be needed. Damming rivers is the conventional method that is disruptive to the ecosystem.

In a way, we are all the modern-day Donner Party for whom Donner Pass is named. Those pioneers made a series of bad decisions and found themselves fighting each other while at the mercy of nature. An ox that had starved to death was sold to the Eddy family for several times the market value of a healthy animal. The Eddys were reduced to gnawing on the hide of the animal when the Graves family repossessed it leaving them with nothing. So too, we are hurtling headlong toward a natural disaster while bickering about who shall get the spoils.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a step in the right direction but it will not get us out of the woods. We need to pass the Build Back Better Bill by any means possible. In the larger picture, we are already too late, the decisions now are whether we are going to allow the greedy to grab the remaining resources or do we team up and save everyone. I’m looking at you, Joe Manchin.