When I was a teenager, the family took a trip out west. One of our stops was at the place in the Sierras where these events occurred. I remember a monument there where a statue of the Donners was atop a very tall pedestal, well over twenty feet high. The plaque said that the height of the pedestal represented the depth of the snow that winter. It obviousy made a lasting impression on this teenager, now a greybeard.