Despite one of the shortest routes westward, the California Trail contained nothing but obstacles for its travelers. The desert and mountain tested the resolve of emigrants stricken by the wanderlust of the 1840s. The journey demanded decisive action if the wagons were to cross the deserts and summit the Sierra Nevada before the winter snows. Donner stands as a byword for dawdlers. The land, religion, opportunity, and finally gold drew Americans across deserts and over mountains to the rainbows end, California.