 The Donner Party passed through the southern end of the valley in 1846, heading for the Overland Pass route across the Ruby Mountains – part of the Hastings Cutoff.Overland Pass was also the site of much activity in the 1860s.A transportation route through central Nevada had been scouted by Howard Egan in 1855, and then surveyed by Captain James H. Simpson for the U.S. Army in 1859.