When we think about California, certain images come to mind. Tall palm trees, miles of stunning coastline, famous movie stars, silicon valley, and award-winning winemakers. With it’s multi-trillion dollar economy and reputation as one of the most beautiful states to visit, California has a lot to offer. It’s long-standing notoriety intrigues us now and it intrigued early pioneers in the 1840’s. Back then, California offered European-American settlers a fully Catholic culture and, in their eyes, the promise of a better life.
It was 1846 in Independence, Missouri. 500 horse-drawn wagons embarked on a six month journey out West. The last nine wagons of the caravan departed on May 12th and carried two of the most infamously tragic families in American history: The Reeds and the Donners. Their California dreams were only a few hundred miles away; so close they could almost taste it. But a trip filled with lies and folly would soon have them tasting human flesh instead.
“The Plan”
The Donners and the Reed’s original plan was to take the “tried and true” route out West. This route followed the Oregon Trail, which led from Independence, Missouri to the Continental Divide. The path mostly followed rivers, ensuring the travelers (including their horses and oxen) had access to fresh water. It was also known for having fairly good terrain for wagons to traverse. On average, the caravan could travel 15 miles/24 km per day. At this rate, the pioneers could expect to reach California in 4-6 months. So far, so good.
Introducing the Donner-Reed Party:
Two families and their staff made up the last 9 wagons of the 500 wagon caravan that departed for California in 1846.
The Donner Party:
- George (60 years old) and his wife, Tamsen (44 years old), with their five daughters ages: 14, 12, 6, 4, and 3
- Jacob (George’s 56 year-old brother) and his wife, Elizabeth (45 years old), with their children ages: 14, 12, 9, 7, 6, 4, 1
- The Teamsters: Hiram O. Miller (29 years old), Samuel Shoemaker (25 years old), Noah James (16 years old), Charles Burger (30 years old), John Denton (28 years old), Augustus Spitzer (30 years old)
The Reed Party:
- James (45 years old) and his wife, Margret (32 years old), and their daughters ages 13, 8, and sons ages 5, and 3.
- Sarah Keyes (Margret’s 70 year-old mother)
- The ox-driving team: Milford Elliot (28 years old), James Smith (25 years old), and Walter Herron (25 years old)
- The handy man and his sister, the cook: Baylis Williams (24 years old), and Eliza (25 years old).
The First Month On The Road
Only 16 days into the long walk to California, the Donners and the Reeds were off to a shaky start. On May 28th, their adventure claimed the life of Sarah Keyes, James Reed’s mother-in-law. Sarah had begun to show signs of Tuberculosis upon their departure, but joined her daughter on the journey anyway. Given the number of miles they had already traveled at the time of her death, the group had no choice but to bury her by the side of the trail. Considering how this story ends, Sarah was one of the lucky ones.
Back on the road, the Donner party eventually caught up to a group of travelers with 50 wagons and joined them. This group was led by William H. Russel and included the Murphy, Murphy-Foster, and Murphy-Pike families, the Breens, the Kesebergs, two men named Spitzer and Reinhardt, the Wolfingers, Patrick Dolan, an older man named Hardkoop, and lastly, Luke Halloran.
By this time, the group had traveled 450 miles/720 km and were 200 miles/320 km away from their first checkpoint, Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Despite the dreary weather and the death of Sarah Keyes, spirits were relatively high.
Enter L.W. Hastings
Lansford W. Hastings was an immigrant who had made the voyage out West from Ohio to California in 1842. Inspired by the land and the massive opportunities for newcomers, he published a guidebook called: “The Emigrant’s Guide to Oregon and California”. In his book, he described a shortcut. It would take the wagons across the Great Basin, through the Wasatch Mountains, and across the Great Salt Lake Desert. The new route promised to shorten their journey by 350 miles/560 km (approximately 24 days). Though he had never actually made the trip himself at the time, he encouraged travelers to use his shortcut. What could go wrong?
Look, Honey, a Shortcut!
On July 12, the Donner party received a piece of promotional mail that advertised Hastings’ route: “A better road to California”. The mail included a small warning that travelers may run into issues with the Mexican authorities in California; however, if they were traveling in a large group, they should be fine. The letter also noted that Hastings himself would guide the travelers along the cutoff and would be waiting to meet them at Fort Bridger at the Blacks Fork.
After some discussion, the Donner-Reed party, enticed by the promise of an easier and guided route to their dream destination, decided to follow Hastings’ guidance. The decision; however, was not unanimous. Tamsen (George Donner’s wife) was suspicious of Hastings’ claims and thought of him as a “selfish adventurer”.
The caravan of wagons parted ways on July 20th. The trail diverted at the Little Sandy River. The majority of the wagons continued on the well-known trail on Fort Hall. The Donner-Reeds, on the other hand, headed for Fort Bridger with George Donner leading the way. Though George was well-liked, he was unskilled at traveling through mountainous terrain and had no experience in interacting with Native Americans.
A Good Samaritan
A single traveler named Edwin Bryant had begun to traverse the first part of the shortcut. He recalled passing the Donner Party’s wagons a week earlier. He knew that if he was having this much difficulty, there was no way the caravan of wagons filled with woman and children would be able to handle the difficult terrain. Faced with a tough decision to delay his own travels, Edwin Bryan returned back to the Blacks Fork and left several letters addressed to the Donners, warning them to turn around and use the more well-known trail.
Okay. We’re Here. Where’s Hastings?
The Donner Party reached Blacks Fork on July 27th . To their dismay, they discovered that Mr. Hastings had already left six days earlier with another band of travelers, the Harlan-Youngs. The group did; however, meet Jim Bridger, the owner of a trading post along the shortcut. Bridger, being the greedy opportunist that he was, informed the party that the shortcut was “a smooth trip” and encouraged them to press onward. The Donner-Reed’s were delighted by the news. It is presumed that the warning letters were intentionally (and devastatingly) prevented from reaching the Donners.
Image by: Paul Hermans CC BY-SA 3.0
Five days later, the well rested Donner party set out to follow Hastings. They were joined by the McCutcheon family who traveled with a 16-year-old boy named Jean Baptiste Trudeau.
First Impressions of the Shortcut
Within the first few days, the Donner party started experiencing difficulty with the terrain. There were steep inclines that threatened the stability of the wagons and the path hadn’t been used enough to be clearly defined. The Donners were finding letters pinned to trees with additional directions from Hastings. On August 6th, the group found a letter instructing them to stay where they were until Hastings could come back for them to show them yet another alternate route.
It was time for the Donner-Reeds to re-assess. Not wanting to sit and wait for Hastings, James Reed, Charles Stanton, and William Pike took three horses and rode ahead to catch up with Hastings. Along the way, they discovered the terrain was even worse. It was mostly made up of canyons and steep drops that would splinter the wagons to pieces. When the three men found Hastings, he only rode back with the men a part of the way and gave them ambiguous instructions on which way to go.
Wait. Reed Wants to do What?
Stanton and Pike opted to stay and rest on the trail. Reed returned to the party alone and convinced them to keep using the shortcut. He recruited all of the men to ride ahead of the wagons. They were to clear brush, large rocks, and fallen trees from the pathway so that the carriages could pass. This slowed the group down to a pace of 1.5 miles/2.4 km per day, but at least they could save themselves the embarrassment of turning back, right?
The Donner Party was joined by the Graves family while crossing the Wasatch Mountains. This brought the total number of men, women, and children to 87 with approximately 70 wagons.
After weeks of inching their way through the mountains, tensions were running high. Too many things were going wrong. Stanton and Pike got lost on their way back to the group. They had run out of food and were contemplating eating their horses when the party finally found them. People were arguing with each other. Food and supplies were running low. Doubts of James Reed’s intelligence began to bubble to the surface and on August 25th, the group was forced to bury it’s second tuberculosis victim, Luke Holloran.
Success…Kind Of
With a 1,000 foot mountain standing in their way, the weary group discovered another note from Hastings. The letter instructed that there would be a very difficult two days and nights of travel once they reached the Salt Lake Desert at the bottom of the mountain. The land would be devoid of grass and water, so the travelers would need to rest their horses and oxen and bring all the water they could carry. At this point in the journey, the party had no choice but to press forward.
The desert proved to be worse than the mountains. The wagon wheels sunk into the soil. The heat during the day was oppressive and the cold during the night penetrated the traveler’s bones. The animals grew so weak, many of them could not continue and were left for dead. All but one of Reed’s oxen broke free of their restraints, and took off into the desert, crazed with thirst.
Though Hastings’ letter advised them to prepare for two days in the desert, it took the Donner Party six days to cross. When they finally reached the springs, they spent a number of days trying to recover their cattle, repair their wagons, and consolidate their food and supplies. At this point, no one (including Reed) had any faith in Hastings or his shortcut, but they had come too far. Turning back at this point would mean certain death.
On September 26th, the Donner Party had miserably, yet successfully, emerged from Hastings’s shortcut. They finally re-joined the traditional trail along the Humboldt River. Instead of saving them 24 days of travel, it had cost them an additional 30 days.
The Stabbing Incident
By mid-October, members of the Donner Party began to turn on each other. Fatigued and stressed by the limited provisions, things only seemed to be getting worse. An argument broke out between John Snyder and John Reed when two wagons became tangled. Snyder whipped at Reed’s ox and then turned the whip on Reed himself. Not one to be bullied, Reed stabbed a knife into Snyder’s collarbone, fatally wounding him.
The remaining travelers were faced with another hard decision. What was to be done about Snyder’s murder? Some wanted Reed hanged, but the group reached consensus that James Reed should be banished from the group. Reed was forced to move on ahead, leaving his wagon and family with the caravan.
Death Toll Rising
The fall season was ending. Grass was difficult to find and the health of the animals began to decline. In an effort to preserve them, everyone was told to get out of the wagons and walk. Hardkoop (age 70) walked on swollen feet until they split open. Unable to continue, he sat down under a tree and was left there to die.
A few days later the Donner Party was confronted by a group of Native Americans. The Paiutes tribe took all of the Graves family’s horses and shot 100 oxen and cattle. The Eddy family was left with nothing and were forced to abandon their wagon. No one would help them, so they were forced to walk through the next stretch of desert with their children in their arms.
The group’s misery came to a brief end when they finally reached the Truckee River, but there would be little time to rest here. There were mountains to cross, and though this was part of the normal route to California, the Donner Party was a month behind schedule. The route was never intended to be used in the snow.
Winter Is Coming
It was October 20th when William Foster was loading his gun and accidentally shot and killed Willam Pike. Wary of each other, each family proceeded along the path on their own. The Breens went first, followed by the Kesebergs, then the Stantons, Reeds, Graves, Murphys, and lastly, the Donners.
The Donners had traversed only a few miles when they ran into trouble with a broken axle on their wagon. Attempting to fashion a replacement piece, George Donner accidentally sliced his hand open. The wound looked superficial so he wrapped it up and continued as the first few snowflakes began to fall around him.
Within a few days, nearly all of the families had made it to Truckee Lake, approximately 3 miles/4.8 km from the summit of the mountain and had set up camp there. The Donners were still 5 miles/8 kms behind. The snow made the trail impassible and they could not reach the other families. The other families could neither reach the Donners nor continue forward. All anyone could do was set up camp for the winter.
Cramped Quarters
The 60 people (19 men, 12 women, 29 children), made up of the Breens, Graves, Reeds, Murphys, Kesebers, and Eddy families, were lucky to find three poorly constructed pine log cabins to share among them. The floors were made of dirt and the roofs were flat and leaky. The Donners didn’t fair so well and were forced to put up tents to shelter their family of 21 people (6 men, 3 women, 12 children).
On November 4th, the travelers were hit with a snow storm that lasted 8 days. The snow accumulation from this event would seal the group’s fate and their will to survive would be tested in the most gruesome way imaginable.
Dire Straights
The oxen were dying of starvation. The meat that was pulled from their bones didn’t last. By the end of November, all that was left for the miserable travelers to eat was boiled oxhide strips and broth made from ox and horse bones. They had been re-used so many times that the bones crumbled to bits.
The children were so desperate they charred and ate pieces of the rug that lay in front of the fireplace. The pioneers took to catching and eating mice that ventured into the cabins, but most of them had grown so weak it was common for them to spend their days in bed.
By December, the Reeds had to choose between having a hide roof over their heads or eating the hide to stave off starvation for a few more days. They ate the roof and moved into the Breens’ cabin next door.
Jacob Donner and three of their hired men had died. George Donner’s sliced hand had become infected.
Indecent Proposal
By January, the Truckee Lake Mountain had accumulated 12 feet/3.7 meters of snow. It was time to attempt an expedition to get help. A group of 17 men, women, and some of the older children fashioned snowshoes and attempted to walk across the mountain pass. They brought six days worth of pitiful rations, a rifle, some hand guns, and a blanket each.
Within a day, one man and one boy without snowshoes had to turn back. On day three, most of the party had gone snow-blind. On day six, Stanton sat down in the snow to rest and urged the group to keep going. He told them he would catch up with them later, but his remains would be found in that spot a year later.
On day eight, the group got disoriented and had completely run out of food. Patrick Dolan was the first of the party to suggest that someone should sacrifice themselves as food for the others. They discussed other options, such as dueling or creating a lottery, but in the end they agreed to keep walking until someone died.
They Made Sure No One Had to Eat Their Own Family Members
Hit with a blizzard, the first two men to die were Antonio and Graves. Patrick Dolan broke down into hysterics and ran off naked into the woods and died a few hours later. Ironically, Dolan’s flesh was the first to be consumed in the hopes that it would save the 12-year-old Murphy boy, but Murphy was too far gone and passed away as well. The group took the bodies of Antonio, Graves, Dolan, and Murphy, stripped them of their muscles and organs, and dried them so they could be used as sustenance to keep the group moving forward. With their own morality weighing heavily on their decision to consume human flesh, the group made it marginally less reprehensible by ensuring no one had to consume their own relatives.
It had been 25 days since the group departed from the cabins. Having eaten all of their fallen party members, the group, once again, turned to eating oxhide – the only material holding their home-made snowshoes together. William Foster; however, was determined to survive. When Eddy and Mary Graves left the camp to go hunting for deer, they returned to find William cutting up one of the party member’s bodies. He later shot two more party members to consume their flesh for the good of the group.
On January 12, the group came upon a Miwok camp. The Native Americans took pity on them, gave them food, and brought them to a community at the edge of the Sacramento Valley. There, Eddy assembled a rescue party made up of 10 men and departed on February 4.
Rescue Part 1
On February 18, the rescue party reached the cabins. They where exactly where Eddy told them they would be; however, they were completely buried under the snow. The rescuers shouted and shouted until Mrs. Murphy popped her head out of a hole in the snow and waved them over.
Out of the 60 people who set up camp in the cabins, 47 survived. When the rescuers reached the Donners, only 4 children and 3 adults (including George Donner and his wife) had made it. By this time, George’s cut was so gangrenous that he was no longer able to move. The rescue party selected the strongest survivors to go back with them. This totaled 23 people, leaving 21 people in the cabins.
The rescuers left food for those who were too weak, promising to return with more help. Sadly, the death toll was still climbing. One of the Donner children, malnourished and unaccustomed to having access to real food, gorged himself to death on the care package left to them by the rescuers.
As the rescue party led the group to California, they discovered that the cache of food stores they had brought with them were ravaged by animals. They had to complete the remaining 4 day walk without food. This proved too much for John Denton and Ada Keseberg who died along the way.
As they descended the mountain, they came upon another rescue party which included the previously banished James Reed.
Rescue Part 2
The second rescue team was made up of experienced mountaineers. They reached the cabins at Truckee Lake on March 1st. Though there was no further loss of life in between the first and second rescue, the Murphy woman had lost her mind as well as most of her eyesight. Rescuers also found that the Murphy family had eaten Milt Elliott.
As for the Donner camp, though Elizabeth Donner never ate human flesh, her children and the hired assistants had been eating Jacob Donner’s limbs and organs. Three other bodies had already been consumed.
The relief party was able to evacuate 17 more people from the cabins at Truckee Lake. There were five people that remained to wait for the 3rd relief party: Keseberg, Mrs. Murphy and her son, child Eddy, and child Foster. Tamsen Donner and her three daughters stayed to care for George.
On the way back to Bear Valley, the group of 17 was hit with a blizzard. One of the Donner children froze to death in the storm. Once the storm passed, the Breen and Graves families were so exhausted and weak, they refused to continue the journey. The rescue team had to continue moving with those who were able to walk and left them behind.
Rescue Part 3
On March 14th, a return to Truckee Lake revealed that Keseberg had eaten the Eddy and Foster children. George and Tamsen Donner and one of Jacob Donner’s children were still alive, but since George was unable to evacuate, Tamsen decided to stay with him. The third relief party returned to Bear Valley with a total of four children, Trudeau, and Clark.
Nearly a month later, a salvage party was assembled to see what could be recovered from the site. The idea was to sell the Donners’ belongings and give the proceeds to the remaining Donner children for their care. Instead, they found George Donner’s corpse and Lewis Keseberg, still alive, but behaving rather strangely.
According to Keseberg, Tamsen Donner came to see him at his cabin, but died during the night. Mrs. Murphy had also passed away after the third relief party left. The salvage team were suspicious of Keseberg, and upon investigating further, they found a pot of human flesh in his cabin, along with George Donner’s belongings including his guns, jewelry, and gold. On April 29th, Keseberg returned with the salvage party to Sutter’s Fort. He was the last member of the Donner Party to be rescued.
Reflection
What would you do to survive a bitter winter with no food and little shelter? Do you have what it takes to eat another person if it meant you would live? Would you kill or be killed?
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References: https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-donnerparty/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_California https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party
wow,talk about a eat or be eaten situation. I have no idea if I would be able to do it?
I hope to never be tested with this one.
Very interesting and very well written!
Thanks for the feedback, Alyce. I’m glad you enjoyed it.