It seemed like the perfect living history experience: Snowshoe in the footsteps of the Donner party.

Seriously, if someone were to ask you to name famous historical events involving snowshoes, could you think of anything but the Donner tragedy? True, the snowshoe part happened in California. But Utah was the reason they had to snowshoe at all.

Blame it on the Wasatch. Utah looked like a shortcut, shaving about 300 miles off the normal California route. But someone forgot to factor in the effort of cutting a whole new road over the mountains. Then there were the salt flats, and then no midget wrestling in Wendover, and there are only so many bummers the heart can take. There were other problems, too -- a late start in Missouri, cattle losses, a misunderstanding about mountain snowfalls. But the shortcut "is the single biggest component that caused the delay and the ultimate tragedy," historian Ethan Rarick said in a 2008 interview with U.S. News and World Report.

Later, though, that shortcut became a pretty big deal to a bunch of other people.

I wanted to hike a little segment and soak up the fateful ambition of it all. I went to the historical marker at the Mormon Flat picnic area north of Park City expecting to find a little plaque or brochure about the Donner party and the thoroughfare they founded.

Instead there was a whole interpretive sign about the Mormon pioneers and their long road from Nauvoo. Nearby is a small signpost for the California Trail and the Pony Express.

There is no mention of the poor bastards who actually made the road for everyone else and then ate each other.

Look. Of course the Mormon migrants are more important to Utah history than the Donner party was. The Mormon pioneers actually stayed here, and their journey wasn't an eat-the-neighbors flop. They get the big state holiday, the big state park*, the big capitol rotunda mural.

But on the very path that facilitated their settlement, let's give credit where credit is due. The Mormons didn't pioneer a thing at Mormon Flat. They improved a trail that ultimately cost the lives of the people who blazed it. Is a sentence on the sign too great a concession?

In the scheme of things, I suppose it's not a huge deal. A Donner might say, "To hell with that trail. I hate that trail. Name it the Don't Take This Heritage Trail."

And the hills that rise out of East Canyon give no credit. They have been crossed and claimed by so many people, and they'll outlive any recognition we try to confer. They do not care whether the Donner party's biggest mistake was also its greatest legacy.

I know this.

But it feels different when you're in snowshoes, cutting the first tracks up that hill.

Go after a storm. Go where the people before you did not go. Work up an appetite.

It's such a tiny effort, but you'll find yourself with just a little more admiration for real waymakers.

*There is a plaque about the Donner party at This Is The Place park. There's also a plaque at Donner Hill, which states the Donner party "gave up" there (i.e. dragged the wagons directly up the hillside instead of hacking through the trees), whereas the Mormons finished the road in just 4 hours.

Erin Alberty has more Utah adventures and musings on her blog, poorpenmanship.com.