They saw themselves, their wagons, their teams, and the dogs with them, in very many places, while crossing this plain, repeated many times in all the distinctness and vividness of life. Thornton recorded a common optical illusion on the bright white salt, as told by Eddy: The crossing of the salt desert was a fantastic experience. The Trail left the Gray Back Hills, and crossed the salt flats towards Floating Island at the north end of the Silver Island Mountains, passing Floating Island on the north, and crossing a low pass (now called Donner-Reed Pass) between the Silver Island Mountains and Crater Island Range. King went so far as to suggest that some entries may have been written after Reed arrived in California, which seems unlikely.
Some of the entries appear to have been written after the events, which led both Stewart and King to question it. Virginia apparently did not use it as a source for her Century Magazine article in 1891. Apparently neither Virginia nor Patty revealed the diary to McGlashan. The existence of the diary was not known until the estate of Martha (Patty) Reed donated it to Sutter’s Fort Historical Museum in 1945. The Diary is controversial to some historians. The dated entries below are from the diary of Hiram Miller and James F. The Donner Party traveled from the western edge of the Great Salt Desert (near the present Utah-Nevada border) to Mary’s River (now the Humboldt River) where they re-jointed the the more established California Trail (at present Hunting Siding, Nevada).
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