Sierra Speaker Series: The Fremont Sierra Expedition

In partnership with California State Parks and the Nevada County Library, the monthly Sierra Speaker Series connects folks to the rich cultural and natural history of the area. Join us at Donner Memorial State Park Visitor Center to learn and engage! Doors open at 5 pm with the presentation beginning at 5:30 pm. Admission is a suggested $5 donation. Light refreshments and wines, sponsored by Highway 12 Winery, will be available. No registration required.
History Expeditions will present The Frémont Sierra Expedition 2026: a five-day, 100-mile mountain journey that honors John C. Frémont’s audacious 1844 winter crossing of the Sierra Nevada and its deep connection to the Donner region and westward expansion.
The team of five veteran endurance athletes and researchers will retrace his documented route from Bridgeport through Charity Valley, Red Lake Peak, Carson Pass, and down the South Fork of the American River to Strawberry, tying a year of historical research to boots-on-the-ground field verification.
In 1844, Frémont, guided by Kit Carson and others, rejected Chief Truckee’s recommended Truckee River–Donner Pass corridor and instead forced a desperate mid-winter line over Carson Pass, enduring deep snow, starvation, and psychological strain but losing no men—a striking contrast to the Donner Party’s tragedy two years later along the Truckee–Donner route now commemorated at Donner Memorial State Park.
Their mission is to stand in that same high country to understand his decisions better, investigate unresolved mysteries such as the missing howitzer barrel and possible scientific instrument caches, document Indigenous guides’ roles, and use GPS, film, and daily journals to create a fully digitized, field-verified route map and rich storytelling that allows visitors and the public to experience this survival epic and its legacy with us.