Truckee, CA

Truckee grew as a Transcontinental Railroad town first called Coburn Station, and passenger trains still stop downtown. Around 1875, Chinese residents—many arriving after the Pacific railroad’s completion—made up roughly one-quarter of Truckee’s residents; a local security committee later barred them from rebuilding and forced their relocation across the river. Donner Lake carries an earlier overland story: the Donner Party was halted there by snow in 1846, and Donner Memorial State Park at the lake’s east end commemorates the settlers. The Nevada County town sits near the Sierra Nevada crest at about 1,798 meters, where a 24-hour winter storm can drop nearly a meter of snow. The 2020 census count of 16,729 was 549 higher than in 2010. Truckee-Tahoe Airport provides general aviation for the California side of the Lake Tahoe region.