to start,this is not a complaint or a disparaging comment as so many seem to take my posts as lately...
but having grown up in a place in california thats farther west that los angeles,,ever reno nevada is BTW,,it allways amuses me to see when some movie or historyian refers to the "true wildwest" as colorado or Kanas of all places.....maybe the true wildmidwest...and then when they do talk about california or oregon it seems the focus is on the spanish colonies and not on the gold rush ( which was short i know) and all our bandits like rattlesnake dick just to name one...or the Donner party...i chat online alot and im shocked at how man people first have never heard of the donner party ( im talking about americans here) and when i told some of my friends we have a snow total for the season of 710 inches they dont believe the sierra nevada could get that much...there is 24 feet on the ground now at the sky resort on donner sumit..in the 1840s there was a wagon train trail that was kept open year roound in those snows,,,they cant do it now with heavy machinery...I80 is closed often...