The Donner Party

       The American West is filled with thousands of stories of people attempting to find a better life and new opportunities.  These people were chasing after the elusive "American Dream", but chasing that dream was often dangerous and filled with hardships. 

      One of the most famous and tragic stories to come out of the American West is the tale of the Donner Party.  After traveling over 2,3000 miles, a  group of emigrants became stranded in the Sierra Mountains less then 150 miles from their destination.   This story has captured the American imagination, and served as a warning for future travelers.

      The story of the Donner Party begins in Springfield Illinois, where three families set out in April 1846 to begin a new life in California.  The families of George Donner, his brother Jacob, and James F. Reed all traveled to Independence Missouri.  There they stocked up on supplies and joined a larger wagon train heading to California.

        The families from Illinois stayed with the large wagon train for two months.  They stayed close to schedule crossing through the Great Plains.  The route to California was well known and well traveled.  Wagons wheels had created ruts in the ground, some several feet deep.  Along the trail were assortments of belongings that were left behind by the emigrants.  Men and women walked alongside their wagons, while children and the elderly stayed inside.  On a good day a wagon could travel between eight and ten miles a day. 

   George Donner carried with him "An Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California" by Lansford Hastings.  In  this guidebook, Hastings described a shortcut to California by going south of the Great Salt Lake and through a desert to get to California.  Hastings had never attempted the route himself until after several groups had set out to try his theory.  

      The Donners and several other families decided to split from the larger wagon train and attempt to use the "Hastings Cutoff".  The group elected George Donner captain of the wagon train and became known as the Donner Party.  The "short cut" would add an extra 125 miles, adding an extra three weeks to their journey  The desert that Hastings said could be crossed in two days, was 80 miles and wide and took the Donner Party 5 days to cross.  By the time they crossed the desert, one member of the Party had died and all were suffering from dehydration and some were near death. 

   Following the Humboldt River proved to be a challenge as well.  Several wagons broke down and dozens of oxen, cattle, and mules died or ran away.  By the time the wagons had gotten to the Sierra Nevada Mountains, they were all weakened from the journey.  It was decided to rest for five days in the valley before embarking on the final dangerous push up the mountains.

    On the fourth day it began to snow on the summit of the mountains.  The emigrants attempted to scale the summit but over five feet had fallen already and the wagons could not make it up.  It was decided to return to the valley and make a winter camp.  It was October 28th, the snow would not melt until mid-May.  

     By mid-December, supplies were running low, and 15 volunteers (10 men and 5 women) attempted to cross the mountains and find help in California.  They called themselves "The Forelorn Hope".  As members of this group began to die of starvation the surviving members resorted to eating their fallen volunteers.  2 men and all of the women would survive the ordeal and arrived in present day Sacramento on January 18, 1847.

   The First Relief Team set out from California and found  that 14 emigrants had died and that the survivors had been living off of boiled leather, tree bark, and pine needles.  21 survivors set out from the camp on February 22nd.

   Three more Relief Team came to the aid of the Donner Party victims.  Each time a new team arrived they found the camp in further disarray.   As the weeks dragged on between rescues more and more people died and were then eaten by the surviving emigrants.

   By the time the Fourth Relief reached the camp on April 14th, there was only one surviving member of the Donner Party to be found.  He was found alone in a cabin with several partially eaten bodies around him.  

   Of the original 87 members of the Donner Party: 39 died and 48 survived. 

Stories of the Donner Party traveled across the United States.  For a time travel to California slowed down to a trickle, many people back East afraid of meeting a fate like those of the Donners.  It was the discovery of gold in California that would bring back the large groups of emigrants to the West. ntil the discovery of gold that California would begin to have large amounts of people emigrating there.