Donner Pass is located west of the city of Truckee and north of Donner Lake along Interstate 80. It is now marked along the highway as "Donner Summit" (elevation 7239 feet). The first emigrant group to get wagons over the summit was the Elisha Stevens party in 1844.  Elisha Stevens also spelled his name “Stephens.”

The Stevens party is sometimes referred to as the "Stevens- Murphy-Townsend Party" by some historians who are referencing two additional leaders of the wagon train.  But as the wagons headed west from Council Bluffs on the Mormon Trail on May 22, 1844, Stevens led the party as its duly elected captain.  The pass was originally called Stephens Pass.  However, the name would not stick as the pass would be named for the ill-fated Donner party that followed in 1846.

At nearby Donner Lake, this party of eighty-nine Illinois settlers, led by George and Jacob Donner, was stranded in a massive snowstorm.  Forty-two of the pioneers died of starvation. Some of the survivors had resorted to cannibalism.