User:Moni3/Donner

The 28th page of Patrick Breen's diary recording his observations in late February 1847, including "Mrs Murphy said here yesterday that thought she would Commence on Milt. & eat him. I dont that she has done so yet, it is distressing." (sic)

The Donner Party (also called the Reed-Donner Party) was a group of American pioneers who traveled in a wagon train from Missouri to California during several months from 1846 to 1847. Eighty-seven members of the group started out, most of them in large family groups or as teamsters. After reaching Wyoming, they chose to take a route promoted by Lansford W. Hastings, one that he himself had never traveled. It wound through the Wasatch Mountains and Great Salt Lake Desert, resulting in serious delays, the loss of many of the party's cattle and wagons, and disintegration of the group into bitter factions. They were a month and a half behind schedule when they reached Truckee Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains near the border of California, and winter forced them to stop. An unusually heavy snowfall bound them in and their food stores ran out. Despite several rescue attempts and excursions by individuals to get help, after they had eaten their food caches, oxen, and hides, they were forced to eat some members of the party who had died from starvation and sickness. A little more than half the original members survived the trip, making it into California.

News of the harrowing tale of the Donner Party made its way across the United States, and for the next year western immigration dropped significantly. Gold was discovered in California in 1848, however, and the effects of the Donner Party tragedy became relatively insignificant in the overall movement of westward migration. It has endured in U.S. history as a tragic episode requiring the members of the party to resort to cannibalism. Historians have described it as "one of the most most thrilling, heart-rending tragedies in California history", justifying continuing interest in the events because "the disaster was the most spectacular in the record of western migration".

Background

A 19th-century wagon train

The 1840s in the United States saw a dramatic increase of pioneers: people who left their homes in the east to settle in Oregon and California. Many were inspired by the idea of Manifest Destiny, a philosophy that asserted the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans belonged to Americans and they should settle it. The western portion of North America had been settled by the Spanish and Mexicans, but fewer than 20,000 white Americans lived there by the middle of the 19th century. For most emigrants west, the journey took about four months. Timing was crucial to ensure that between the civilization of Missouri and the vast wilderness to Oregon or California, wagon trains would not be bogged down by mud created by spring rains, or massive snowdrifts in the mountains that came in September, and their horses and oxen would have enough spring grass to eat.

Two pioneers decided to go west in 1846: James F. Reed (1800–1874) and George Donner (1785–1847). Donner was originally from North Carolina, but had settled in several places, gradually moving west to Kentucky, Indiana, and Texas. He was 62 years old, a farmer in Springfield, Illinois, in 1846. With Donner was his 44-year-old wife Tamsen, and five daughters ranging in age from three to thirteen years old. Donner's older brother Jacob also joined along, with his wife, two teenage stepsons, and five children, the oldest at nine years.

Reed was an Irish immigrant who settled in Illinois in 1831. He carried with him wife Margaret, daughters Patty and Virginia, sons James and Thomas, and mother-in-law Sarah Keyes who was in the advanced stages of tuberculosis. Reed had amassed considerable wealth in Illinois by owning a furniture factory, a sawmill, and work as a railroad contractor. He constructed an ornate, custom-made and unusually large wagon for his family. Several young men who were hired to drive the oxen, and a hired girl also came. Both families with their servants and drivers totaled 32 members in nine wagons, all to traveling to Independence, Missouri for a month, leaving in April 1846.

Families and progress

From Independence, most wagon trains followed the same route, creating permanent ruts in the ground. Without any problems, a wagon train could make 15 miles a day. On May 28, Margaret Reed's mother, Sarah Keyes died from her illness. She was buried on the side of the trail. By June 16, the company had traveled 450 miles (720 km), with 200 miles (320 km) to go before Fort Laramie, Wyoming. They had been delayed a few times by rain and a rising river, but Tamsen Donner wrote to a friend in Springfield, "Indeed, if I do not experience something far worse than I have yet done, I shall say the trouble is all in getting started." Young Virginia Reed recalled years later that during the first part of the trip she was "perfectly happy".

Several other families joined at various points along the way. Levinah Murphy was a widow with seven children, two grown and married, and five adolescents. The Murphys with their spouses numbered thirteen in all. The Eddy family was head by a young man with a wife and small child. Patrick Breen brought along his wife Peggy, and seven children, all but the youngest boys. A young bachelor named Patrick Dolan camped with the Breens, and a general animal handler named Antonio came along, too. The numbers of the party swelled and shrank at each stop. Lewis Keseberg, a German immigrant, joined in with a wife and two children. Another German couple, the Wolfingers, were rumored to be wealthy. Young single men traveled with them named Spitzer and Reinhardt, and the Wolfingers were able to hire their own driver, "Dutch Charley" Burger. An older man named Hardkoop rode with them and a younger one named Luke Halloran, who seemed to be getting sicker with tuberculosis every day, kept getting passed from one family to the next; none of them really could spare the time and resources to care for him.

When the party reached the Little Sandy River in Wyoming on July 21, they stopped to elect a leader of the train. Donner's peaceful, charitable nature, the fact that he was American, and his age, implying wisdom and experience, made him the group's first choice. The other males in the group were European immigrants, young, and for various reasons, not considered to be ideal leaders, except for James Reed. Donner and Reed were friendly and respectful of each other, but where Donner was charitable, Reed seemed aristocratic and ostentatious with his wealth to the other members of the party. He was an immigrant as well, but had been living in the U.S. for a considerable amount of time and had military experience. Reed was quick to make decisions, sometimes not taking into account others' opinions, making him seem imperious. He had already alienated one of the members of the wagon train with his ways.

Map of the route taken by the Donner Party, showing Hastings Cutoff—which in actuality added 150 miles (240 km) to their travels—in orange.

Several points west forced travelers to decide which route they would take depending on their destinations to Southern California, Northern California, or Oregon. Lansford W. Hastings had gone to California in 1842, and saw the promise of the undeveloped country. To entice settlers to an empire he envisioned himself the head of, he published a guide for pioneers titled The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California. In it he described a shortcut across the Great Basin that he had never traveled, but that he promoted nonetheless. He stayed at a scant supply station, run by Jim Bridger and a partner named Vasquez located in Blacks Fork, Wyoming, trying to persuade travelers to turn south on this route. Hastings furthermore wrote letters to emigrants on the trails, trying to persuade those on their way to California to take the route. On July 12, the Reeds and Donners were delivered a letter from Hastings by a runner on horseback. A journalist named Edwin Bryant had been traveling with the Donner Party, but wanted to make better time; he traded his wagon for pack mules and reached Blacks Fork a week ahead of the Donners. Bryant saw the first part of the trail, and was concerned that it would be difficult for the wagons in the Donner group, especially with so many women and children. He returned to Blacks Fork with several letters warning several members in the group not to take the shortcut.

When the Donner Party reached Blacks Fork, Hastings had already left on his route. Jim Bridger, whose trading post fared substantially better when people used the Hastings Cutoff, told the party that the shortcut would remove 350 miles (560 km) from their journey, was a smooth trip devoid of rugged country, and the group would not encounter any hostile Indians. Water would be easy to find along the way, although a short distance of about 30–40 miles (48–64 km) over a dry lake bed would be necessary, but easily crossed in a couple days or so. Reed was very impressed with this information and when the men in the party discussed what to do, he argued to take the Hastings Cutoff. Neither Reed, nor anyone in the Donner Party, ever received Bryant's letters warning them to avoid Hastings' route at all costs.

Hastings' route

Wasatch Mountains

Wasatch Mountains in Utah

The members of the party, if not wealthy, were comfortable by their contemporary standards. Although they are called pioneers, very few of them had experience living on the frontier. They were hardy farmers and businessmen, not unfamiliar with hard work, but they lacked specific skills and experience traveling through mountains and arid land, and had very little knowledge about how to deal with Native Americans, how to ask for help or recognize when they may be hostile. Tamsen Donner was, according to fellow emigrant J. Quinn Thornton, "gloomy, sad, and dispirited" at the thought of turning off the main trail on the advice of "a selfish adventurer". Despite all this, on July 31, 1846, the party left Blacks Fork after four days of rest, wagon repairs, and some personnel changes. A new family named McCutcheon consisting of a young couple with a baby, joined. Donner hired a new driver to replace one who had left, and a 16-year-old named Jean Baptiste Trudeau from New Mexico, who claimed to have knowledge of the Indians and terrain on the way to California, joined the company.

The party turned south to follow Hastings' Cutoff and within days found the terrain to be much more difficult than had been described. The drivers had to lock the wagon wheels to keep them from sliding down steep inclines. Several years' of migration on the Oregon Trail had created an easy path to see and travel. The cutoff, however, was more difficult to find. Hastings wrote directions that he was just ahead and left letters for the Donner Party stuck to trees. On August 6, the party found a letter warning them of rough areas ahead, where they would need to scout further. Each scouting trip cost the group another delay of a few days. Reed, Charles Stanton, and William Pike (with the Murphys) rode ahead to get Hastings to return with them and show them an easier way. Reed and the others encountered exceedingly difficult canyons showing that boulders had to be moved and walls cut off precariously to a river below; it was very possible that taking the wagons over this route would result in breaking some of them. Although Hastings had offered in the letter to guide the Donner Party around the more difficult areas, he rode back with Reed partway, stopped, and showed Reed the general direction in which they should be traveling.

When Reed returned after four days, he urged the group to attempt to take the route that Hastings had pointed out to him instead of through the canyon he had seen to go after Hastings. This, however, meant that the party had to clear their own trail. Their progress slowed considerably to about a mile and a half (2.4 km) a day. All the able-bodied men were required to clear brush, fell trees, and heave massive rocks before the wagons could move, and the party quickly grew unhappy with the labor. Another family named Graves, an older couple with nine children, a son-in-law, and a teamster named John Snyder, all in three wagons, came upon them after following their tracks, bringing four young men who could assist with the work. This brought the total number of the Donner Party to 87 members in between 60 to 80 wagons. By the time they had reached a point in the mountains where they could look down and see the Great Salt Lake, it was August 20. It took almost another two weeks to travel down out of the Wasatch Mountains. Morale dipped to a new low, caused by the back-breaking labor. Arguments between the men began to occur, and doubts were cast against those who had decided to use this route, chief among them James Reed. Food and supplies for some of the less affluent families began to run out. Stanton and Pike, who had ridden out with Reed, had gotten lost on their way back; by the time the party found them, they had begun to starve and were a day away from eating their horses.

Great Salt Lake Desert

Great Salt Lake Desert

Luke Halloran died on August 25, nursed to the end by Tamsen Donner. Out of reverence for his death, the party waited a day before traveling again. A few days later, the party came across another letter from Hastings, this one torn and tattered in pieces. Tamsen Donner attempted to put it back together to see if it was a warning or another change in direction; it indicated that two days and two nights of difficult travel without grass or water was ahead of them. The party rested their oxen and prepared enough water, grass, and food for the ordeal. After 36 hours, they set out, but were dismayed to find a 1,000-foot (300 m) mountain necessary to traverse. When they got to the top and looked down, they saw a dry, barren plain, perfectly flat and covered with white salt, larger than the one they had just crossed. It is an environment described by author Ethan Rarick as "one of the most inhospitable places on earth". Their oxen were already fatigued and their water was nearly gone.

Nowhere else to go, they went forward to find their wagon wheels sank into the salt. Lighter wagons and stronger oxen pulled some families farther ahead while the weaker ones fell behind. The days were blistering hot and the nights frigid. Several members of the party were confronted with visions of lakes and wagon trains; they believed they had finally overtaken Hastings, but the mirages disappeared. After three days and no end in sight, some of the party removed their oxen from the wagons to go ahead to find water. Some of the oxen were so weakened they were left yoked to the wagons and abandoned. Reed forged ahead on horseback to move faster to see if he could locate water. All he found was a slight rise, and on the other side, another expanse of desert. He returned to find nine out of ten of his oxen had broken away and run loose in the desert to find water. Many other families' cattle and horses had also gone missing. Irreparable damage had been done to some of the wagons; Reed and his family suffered the greatest losses to property, but no human lives had been lost. The journey across the Great Salt Lake Desert took six days.

No one in the party had any faith in the Hastings Cutoff by the time the company recovered among the springs on the other side of the desert. They spent several days trying to locate their cattle, then taking trips either to retrieve the wagons they had to abandon in the desert, or simply taking the food and supplies and transferring them to other wagons. In order to carry the excess stores of food that Reed had, the other members of the company did so only under the condition that they could eat it. Although his family incurred the most damage, Reed became a more assertive leader at this point, asking all the families to submit an inventory of their goods and food to him. He suggested two men go to Sutter's Fort in California; he had heard that John Sutter was exceedingly generous to wayward pioneers, and could assist them with extra provisions. Two men, Charles Stanton and William McCutcheon, volunteered for a job that would be dangerous, as they had to ride alone through unknown territory. What wagons were usable were pulled by mongrel teams of cows, oxen, and mules. It was the middle of September, and two young men who went in search of missing oxen reported another stretch of desert 40 miles (64 km) long lay ahead.

Reed banished

Although their cattle and oxen were exhausted and lean, the Donner Party made it over the next stretch of desert relatively unharmed, and the journey seemed to get easier, particularly through the valley adjacent to the Ruby Mountains. Despite their near-hatred of Hastings, they had no choice but to follow his wagon wheel tracks, which by this time were weeks old. The first day of autumn passed and the trail wound south, then north without any apparent reason. They found themselves along a stream that was to be known as the Humboldt River. There they met some Paiute Indians which they called Diggers, who joined them for a couple days, but stole or shot several oxen and horses. Well into October now, fights began to break out among the Donner Party. Jacob and George Donner split off to be able to make better time. Reed was left with the group behind, to witness two wagons get tangled and the drivers shout names at each other. In control of one wagon, John Snyder became enraged and began to beat the ox of Reed's hired teamster, Milt Elliott. Reed intervened and Snyder turned the whip on him. Instantly, Reed retaliated with a knife, fatally plunging it under Snyder's collarbone. That evening, the witnesses gathered to discuss what was to be done; no legal authorities were responsible for law enforcement west of the Continental Divide; wagon trains often made their own justice. The party had seen Snyder hit both James and Margaret Reed, but Snyder was popular and Reed was not. Keseberg suggested hanging Reed, going so far as to tip his wagon tongue up to use as an improvised gallows, but an eventual compromise allowed Reed to leave the camp without his family, who would be taken care of by the others. After he assisted in burying Snyder the next morning, he left the camp alone.

Last advance

Disintegration

The Truckee River in winter

The ultimate result of the trials the Donner Party had thus far endured were splintered groups of families, employees, and associates all looking out for themselves and distrustful of each other. Keseberg ejected the older man Hardkoop, almost 70 years old, from his wagon, telling him he had to walk or die. A few days later, Hardkoop sat next to a stream, his feet so swollen they split open, and he was not heard from again. When William Eddy pleaded with some of the other men to find him, they all refused, some angrily, swearing they would waste no more resources on an old man.

Reed caught up with the Donners and went on with one of his teamsters, Walter Herron. The rest of the party found the Donners again as well, but their luck continued to decline. Indians chased away all of Graves' horses and another wagon was left behind. With grass in short supply, the cattle spread out more, which gave the Paiutes further opportunity to steal 18 more head during one evening, and several mornings later, shoot another 21. So far, the company had lost nearly 100 oxen and cattle. Their rations were nearly nil by this point. One more stretch of desert lay ahead. The Eddys' oxen had all been killed by Indians and they were forced to abandon their wagon. The family had eaten all their stores, but the other families refused to assist their children, a 3-year-old boy and an infant girl. Eleanor Eddy had to carry the girl and Eddy carried his son, who were so miserable with thirst through this phase that Eddy was certain they were dying. Margaret Reed and her children were also forced to leave their wagon and carried only a change of clothing. However, the desert soon came to an end and the party found the Truckee River in beautiful lush country.

They had precious little time to rest, and the company pressed on despite all hardship to cross the mountains before the snows came. Spitzer and Reinhardt found the party to report that they and Wolfinger, who had stopped to "dig a cache", or bury his wagon to keep it from being vandalized by animals or Indians, had been attacked by the Paiutes, and Wolfinger had been killed. To counter this bad news, Stanton, one of the two members of the party who had left a month before to ask John Sutter for assistance in California, found the company, bringing mules, food, and two vaqueros—Luís and Salvador, converted Indians hired by Sutter. Stanton brought news that Reed and Herron, though haggard and starving, had made their way to Sutter's Fort in California, and made it his duty to watch over the Reed family, although he had none of his own. By this point, according to author Ethan Rarick, "To the bedraggled, half-starved members of the Donner Party, it must have seemed that the worst of their problems had passed. They had already endured more than many emigrants ever did."

Snowbound

Frémont Pass, 7,088 feet (2,160 m) high, became blocked in the early days of November 1846. It is now called Donner Pass, here photographed in the 1870s.

The ragtag company faced a decision between resting their cattle for one last push over the mountains that were described as much worse than the Wasatch, or forging ahead. They had been told that the pass would not be snowed in until the middle of November, and on October 20, they sat and pondered what they should do. They waited a few days to consider their decision. In the meantime, William Pike, a married father, was killed when a gun being loaded by William Foster discharged accidentally. Pike's death seemed to make the decision for them, and family by family, they began to go, first the Breens, then Kesebergs, Stanton with the Reeds, Graves, and Murphys. The Donners waited and traveled last. After a few miles of rough terrain, an axle broke on one of the Donners' wagons. Jacob and George went into the woods to fashion a replacement, but while chiseling the wood, the instrument slipped and sliced George Donner's hand open, but it seemed a superficial wound.

Snow began to fall. The Breens made it up the "massive, nearly vertical slope" 1,000 feet (300 m) to Truckee Lake, 3 miles (4.8 km) from the summit, and camped near a cabin that had been built two years before by another group of pioneers. The Eddys and Kesebergs joined the Breens, attempting to make it over the pass, but they found 5–10-foot (1.5–3.0 m) drifts of snow, and were unable to locate the trail. They turned back for Truckee Lake and within a day all the families camped there except for the Donners, who were located 5 miles (8.0 km)—half a day's journey—below them. One last time they mustered the strength to cross over the pass, but the snow was too high, the animals and people too exhausted and they simply laid down and decided to rest on November 4. That evening it began to snow again. The next morning they found the summit impassable, and were therefore forced to spend all day returning to Truckee Lake and the pioneer cabin.

Winter camp

Reed attempts a rescue

Map showing proximity of Truckee Lake and Alder Creek sites

Although James Reed was safe and recovering in Sutter's Fort, he grew more concerned every day with the fate of his family and friends. He pleaded with Colonel John C. Frémont to gather a team of men to go over the pass and help the company, even the ones who had exiled him. In return, Reed promised he would join Frémont's forces fighting in the Mexican-American War. McCutcheon, who had gone with Stanton but fell ill and was unable to return with him, joined Reed in hopes of finding out how his wife and child were faring. The party of some 30 horses and a dozen men carried food stores expecting to find the Donner Party near Bear Valley, starving but alive. When they arrived in Bear Valley, they found nothing but snow, to their surprise. They, however, met a pioneer couple, emigrants who had been separated from their company trying to make their way to Sutter's Fort. The couple offered Reed and McCutcheon their roast dog, and because a storm had made it impossible to cook for themselves, Reed and McCutcheon had not eaten for 24 hours. After a moment of hesitation, they accepted and found that they liked it very much.

Two guides deserted Reed and McCutcheon with some of their horses, but they pressed on to Yuba Bottoms, walking the last mile on foot. On possibly the same day that the Breens attempted to lead one last effort to crest the pass, Reed and McCutcheon stood looking at the other side only 12 miles (19 km) from the top, blocked by snow. Despondent, they turned back to Sutter's Fort.

On the other side of the pass at Truckee Lake, 60 members and associates of the Breen, Graves, Reed, Murphy, Keseberg, and Eddy families set up for the winter. There were three cabins of pine logs built far apart, with poorly constructed flat roofs allowing in the rain. The Breens, who had lost the least amount of cattle, inhabited one cabin, the Eddys and Murphys another, and Reeds and Graves the third. Keseberg built a lean-to next to the Breen cabin for his family. Where little care was taken during the original construction of the cabins two years earlier, the families used canvas or oxhide to cover the roofs. There were no doors, only holes and no windows. Nineteen of the sixty at Truckee Lake were males older than eighteen years. Twelve were women and twenty-nine were children, six of whom were toddlers or younger. Farther down the trail, close to Alder Creek, the Donner families hastily constructed tents to house twenty-one people, including Mrs. Wolfinger, her child, and the Donners' drivers: six men, three women, and twelve children in all.

All the food stores were gone in both camps. Most of what Stanton had brought was also used. The oxen began dying naturally of starvation and their carcasses were frozen and stacked. Truckee Lake was not frozen over, but the snowbound pioneers were unfamiliar with catching lake trout. Eddy, the most experienced hunter, did not find much success at first but was able to kill a bear. Following that, however, he found nothing. The Reed and Eddy families had lost almost everything and Margaret Reed promised to pay double when they got to California for the use of three oxen from the Graves and Breen families. The bitter divides between the members only became worse in camp; Graves had an ox that starved to death and he charged Eddy $25 ($607 in 2010) for it.

The Forlorn Hope

Desperation grew in camp and some of the members reasoned if the wagons could not make it out, individuals might be able to. In small groups they made several attempts, but each time turned back, defeated. They planned to go again within days, but another severe storm arose lasting more than a week, covering the area so deeply that the cattle and horses—their only remaining food—laid down, died, and were buried in the snow, lost.

The mountain party at Truckee Lake began to fall. Spitzer, then Baylis Williams, a driver for the Reeds, died, more from malnutrition than starvation. William "Uncle Billy" Graves, convinced he was being punished by God for not returning to find Hardkoop, fashioned fourteen pairs of snowshoes out of oxbows and hide. Ten men and five women, the most able-bodied, volunteered to go. As evidence of how grim their choices were, four of the men were fathers, and three of the women mothers who gave their young children to other women. They packed lightly, taking what had become six days' rations, a rifle, a blanket each, a hatchet, and some pistols, and they hoped to make their way to Bear Valley. Historian Charles McGlashan later called this snowshoe party "The Forlorn Hope".

The snowshoes proved in turn, awkward and effective. The climb over the pass was arduous, and none of the members of the volunteer snowshoe party were well-nourished. None of them were accustomed to camping in snow 12 feet (3.7 m) deep, either. By the third day most of them were snowblind. On the sixth day, Eddy discovered his wife had snuck a half-pound of bear meat in his pack for him. The group set out on the morning of the sixth day, December 21, leaving Stanton, who had been straggling behind several days in a row, smoking his pipe sitting on a stump, saying he would be following them shortly. He never did.

The group got lost and confused. A storm came upon them and they huddled together, trying to figure out what to do. After two more days of not eating, Patrick Dolan finally suggested that one of them should volunteer to die, to feed the others. A discussion ensued about how it might be done, with a suggestion that two people with pistols could square off and whoever lost would be eaten. Another account states that they attempted to create a lottery, where the loser would be killed by someone else in the group. Eddy suggested they continue to move until someone simply fell. Antonio, the animal handler, was the first to die the next morning. A vicious storm arose and they were running out of firewood. While someone went to cut more, the hatchet head flew off into the snow, lost. The fire they built was sinking into the snow making a hole, creating chilly water that crept into their clothes. "Uncle Billy" Graves died next, but Eddy managed to get the rest of the surviving members out of the hole, and they sat on a blanket in a tight circle and covered themselves with more blankets.

The next morning was Christmas Day. Patrick Dolan began mumbling incoherently, stripped off his clothes, and went running into the woods. He returned shortly, quieter, and died in a few hours. Finally, facing the death of 13-year-old Lemuel Murphy, they cut into Patrick Dolan's body, turned away from each other, cried, and ate his flesh. Eddy held out and refused. So did Salvador and Luís, who built a fire apart from the others and watched. The next morning they were able to strip the remaining muscle and organs from the the bodies and dried the tissue to store for the days ahead, taking care to ensure that no family member had to eat their relations.

They recuperated for three days, and set off again trying to find the trail. The oxhide straps and webbing in the snowshoes, from the constant moisture and drying, caused them to be brittle. Most of them were frost-bitten, and their feet left a trail of blood in the snow. After four days, Eddy succumbed to his hunger and ate human flesh. Soon that was gone, too. They began to take apart their snowshoes and eat the oxhide webbing. They seriously discussed killing Luís and Salvador to eat them, but Eddy protested and told the Indians. Following an initial look of astonishment, Luís and Salvador quietly left. Eddy decided to leave the group with the rifle to hunt, although the other members were sure it would cause them all to die. Mary Graves went with him. They walked for 2 miles (3.2 km), but out of exhaustion and emotion, both burst into tears and decided to pray. A deer appeared, but Eddy was so weak he was unable to hit it. After taking two shots, with Mary Graves behind him weeping, he was forced to raise the gun higher than his target and try to hit the deer on the way down. His third shot was successful.

During the night Jay Fosdick, who was with the rest of the snowshoe party, died, leaving only a total of seven. Eddy and Mary Graves returned with the deer meat, but Fosdick's body was cut apart for food. The effects of starvation and hypothermia began to take their toll emotionally. They were unable to walk steadily and sometimes the women fell and would sob uncontrollably. They were listless and sometimes apathetic. Foster and Eddy began to fight with each other until the women intervened. Again they ventured forth to try to find the trail, still hopelessly lost. After several more days—25 since they had left Truckee Lake—they came across Salvador and Luís, who had not eaten anything for about nine days, and were hours from death. William Foster, who had recently suggested killing Amanda McCutcheon for lagging behind, took a pistol and shot the Indians, allowing Salvador to say a final prayer, before stripping the bodies of muscle and organs. On January 12, they stumbled into a Miwok camp looking so deteriorated the Indians fled at the sight of them. After a brief return, the Miwoks gave them what they had to eat: acorns, grass, and pine nuts. Eddy was revived after a few days and propelled them forward with the help of a Miwok, although the other six simply laid down in the snow, too far gone to care. Eddy and the Indian walked 5 miles (8.0 km), met another Indian who, with the lure of tobacco, half-carried Eddy to a ranch at the edge of the Sacramento Valley. A rancher's daughter named Harriet Ritchie opened the door to find Eddy, supported by two Indians, and let out a sob at his condition.

The small community, themselves emigrants from the eastern U.S., assembled quickly and found the other six members of the snowshoe party who had laid down, all still alive. They were allowed to eat as much as they wanted, and all of them vomited from gorging. It was January 17 and they had been gone 33 days from Truckee Lake.

Truckee Lake

Artist's rendering of the Truckee Lake camp based on descriptions by William Graves.

Patrick Breen began keeping a diary in November, a few days before the snowshoe party left. He primarily concerned himself with the weather, marking the storms and how much snow had fallen, but gradually references to God and religion began to be included in his entries. Life at Truckee Lake was miserable. The cabins were cramped and it snowed so much that people were unable to leave them for days. Conditions were filthy. Diets soon consisted of oxhide tallow, made from boiling strips of hide into a nauseating gelatin. Ox and horse bones were boiled repeatedly to make soup, and became so brittle they would crumble upon chewing. Sometimes they were softened by being charred and eaten. A rug of oxhide lay in front of the fireplace in the Murphy cabin, and bit by bit, the children picked apart the hide, roasted it in the fire and ate it, and after a while the rug was gone. With the departure of the snowshoe party, two-thirds of the emigrants at Truckee Lake were children. Mrs. Graves was in charge of eight, and Levinah Murphy and Eleanor Eddy together took care of nine. Mice that strayed into the cabins became food when the emigrants were able to catch them. Many of the people at Truckee Lake were soon weakened and spent most of their time in bed. Occasionally one would be able to make the trek to see the Donners, an all-day journey. News came that Jacob Donner and three hired men died. One of them, Reinhardt, confessed upon his death bed that he had murdered Wolfinger. George Donner's hand became infected, leaving only four men to do the work there.

Mrs. Reed had managed to save enough food for a Christmas pot of soup, to the delight of her children, but by January, they were facing starvation, considering having to eat the oxhides that served as their roof. Mrs. Reed, Virginia, Milt Elliott and the servant girl Eliza attempted to walk out, reasoning that they could do better to bring food back than sit and watch the children starve. They were gone four days in the snow before they had to turn back. They moved in with the Breens. One day the Graves came by to claim their payment of the oxhides Mrs. Reed had, which was all the Reed family had to eat.

Rescue

Most of the military in California, and with them the able-bodied men, were engaged in the Mexican-American War. Reed kept his promise to Frémont and fought in the Battle of Santa Clara. All through the region roads were blocked, communications compromised, and supplies unavailable. When volunteers were called to rescue the Donner Party, only three men responded. Reed was laid over in San Jose until February because of regional uprisings and general confusion. He spent that time, however, speaking with other pioneers and acquaintances, and the people of San Jose responded by creating a petition to appeal to the U.S. Navy to assist the people at Truckee Lake. Two local newspapers reported that members of the snowshoe party had resorted to cannibalism, helping to foster sympathy for those still trapped. In Yerba Buena, about 200 men, most of them emigrants themselves, attended a meeting where Reed was overcome with his fears and, unable to speak, sat down and cried. The men raised $1,300 ($30,425 in 2010) and relief efforts were organized to build two camps to supply a rescue party and the refugees.

A rescue party of fourteen men, including William Eddy, started on February 4 from the Sacramento Valley but were overwhelmed with rain for two days. After drying everything for a day, they were held up again by a swollen river. Eddy stationed himself at Bear Valley and steadily, the others made progress through the snow and storms to make it over the pass to Truckee Lake, caching their food at stations so they did not have to carry all of it, and suspending it from trees to keep it out of the way of bears. Three of the rescue party turned back, and seven forged on while Breen recorded in his journal the deaths of those in camp every day, including Eleanor Eddy, her infant daughter, and Milt Elliott.

First relief

"Are you men from California, or do you come from heaven?"

Levinah Murphy, February 18, 1847

Members rescued by First relief Name Age Elitha Donner 14 Leanna Donner 12 George Donner, Jr. 9 Solomon Hook 14 William Hook* 12 Margaret Reed 32 Virginia Reed 12 James Reed, Jr. 6 Edward Breen 13 Simon Breen 8 William Graves 17 Eleanor Graves 14 Lovina Graves 12 Mary Murphy 14 William Murphy 10 Naomi Pike 2 Philippine Keseberg 23 Ada Keseberg* 3 Doris Wolfinger 20 John Denton* 28 Noah James 20 James Smith 25 Eliza Williams 31 * died en route

On February 18, the seven in the rescue party scaled Frémont Pass, and tentatively crossed over Truckee Lake, now frozen, and as they neared where Eddy told them the cabins would be, began to shout. Mrs. Murphy appeared from a hole in the snow, stared at them and asked, "Are you men from California, or do you come from heaven?" All the emigrants were emaciated; the relief party doled out food in small portions, concerned that if the emigrants overate it would kill them. The living conditions were astonishing. All the cabins were buried in snow. Oxhide roofs wet with moisture had begun to rot and the smell was overpowering. Too weakened to bury or remove the bodies of the dead, the emigrants fastened ropes to them and hauled them to the top of the snowdrifts above the cabin roofs. From the effects of prolonged starvation, some of the emigrants seemed emotionally unstable and many of them spoke incessantly in religious fervor while others expressed extreme anger at God. Three of the rescue party trekked to the Donners and brought back four gaunt children and two adults. Leanna Donner had particular difficulty walking up the steep incline from Alder Creek to Truckee Lake, later saying "Such pain and misery as I endured that day is beyond description." George Donner's arm was so gangrened he could not move, but no one at Alder Creek had died since the last visit. The rescue party thus decided who would be evacuated first; it would take several trips to get them all. Twenty-three people, including the Reeds, three adolescent Graves children, two older Murphy children, and Mrs. Keseberg and her 3-year-old daughter Ada, were chosen to go with the rescue party. This left seventeen in the cabins at Truckee Lake and twelve at Alder Creek.

The rescuers made a conscious decision to conceal the fates of what happened to the Snowshoe Party, merely telling the rescued emigrants they did not return because they were frostbitten. Patty and 3-year-old Tommy Reed were soon too weak to make it through the snowdrifts, and the rest of the rescued emigrants walking for the pass were being slowed; no one was strong enough to carry them. Margaret Reed faced an agonizing scenario of going with the rescued with her two other children and watching her two frailest be taken back to Truckee Lake without a parent. She made one of the rescuers, Aquilla Glover, swear on his honor as a Mason that he would return for her children. Patty Reed told her resolutely, "Well, mother, if you never see me again, do the best you can." Upon their return to the lake, the Breens flatly refused them entry to their cabin, but Glover left more food for them, and they were grudgingly admitted. The entire rescue party was dismayed to find the first cache station had been mauled by animals and they had no food for four days. Englishman John Denton and young Ada Keseberg had much difficulty on the the walk over the pass; Denton slipped into a coma, was brought round again, but died the next day wrapped in a blanket by a fire. Ada died soon after and her mother was inconsolable, refusing to let her body go. Following several days' more travel through difficult country, the rescuers grew very concerned that the children would not survive. Some of them ate the buckskin fringe from one of the rescuer's pants and the shoelaces of another, to the relief party's surprise. On their way down from the mountains they met the next rescue party containing James Reed. Upon hearing his voice, Margaret sank into the snow, overwhelmed.

Although the rest of the rescued emigrants made it safely into Bear Valley, William Hook, a stepson of Jacob Donner, broke into food stores, and fatally gorged himself. They continued to Mule Springs then to Sutter's Fort, where Virginia Reed wrote "I really thought I had stepped over into paradise". She was very amused to note that despite her age at twelve years and that she was slowly recovering from starvation, one of the young men asked her to marry him.

Second relief

Members rescued by Second relief Name Age Isaac Donner* 5 Patty Reed 9 Thomas Reed 4 Patrick Breen† 51 Margaret Breen† 40 John Breen† 14 Patrick Breen, Jr.† 9 James Breen† 5 Peter Breen† 3 Margaret Breen† 1 Elizabeth Graves* 45 Nancy Graves† 9 Jonathan Graves† 7 Franklin Ward Graves, Jr.* 5 Elizabeth Graves† 1 Mary Donner† 7 *died en route †came out with John Stark

On March 1, the second relief party, consisting mostly of experienced mountaineers, arrived at Truckee Lake with McCutcheon and Reed, who was reunited with Patty and his weakened son Tommy. An inspection of the Breen cabin found them relatively well, but the Murphy cabin was indescribable. It was crawling with lice. Levinah Murphy had been charged with taking care of the two young children of William Eddy and Foster, but Mrs. Murphy herself had deteriorated mentally and was nearly blind. She had her eight-year-old son Simon with her, but the young children were listless and had not been cleaned in days. Lewis Keseberg had moved into the cabin and been complaining for months of an injured leg; he could barely move. Reed and McCutcheon set to bathing and dressing the children, and then to Keseberg, who, remembering that he had wanted Reed hanged for John Snyder's death, feebly asked that someone else bathe him.

In the interim between the departure of the first relief and the second, no one at Truckee Lake had died. Patrick Breen recorded that an Indian had silently approached the cabins, warned the emigrants to stay away, but placed several soaproots on the snow and left. He also documented a disturbing visit in the last week of February from Mrs. Murphy, who said they were considering eating Milt Elliott. Reed and McCutcheon found Elliott's body at the doorway of the Murphy cabin with most of the tissue and organs missing, but the head and face intact. Some of his bones were scattered about. The Alder Creek camp fared no better. When two of the relief party came upon it, they saw Jean Baptiste carrying a human leg. When they made their presence known, he threw it into a hole in the snow that contained the mostly dismembered body of Jacob Donner. Inside the tent, Elizabeth Donner refused to eat, although her children were being nourished by the organs of their father. Reed arrived, and he and the other two in the relief party exited the tent immediately to collect themselves and discovered that three other bodies had already been consumed. In the other tent, Tamsen Donner was well, but George was very ill; the infection had reached into his shoulder.

View of Truckee Lake from the pass

Seventeen from Truckee Lake were evacuated in the second relief, which was everyone who was able to walk alone or be carried, only three of whom were adults. Both the Breen and Graves families prepared to go. All had been encamped at Truckee Lake for more than four months. Only five were left at Truckee Lake: Keseburg, Mrs. Murphy, Simon, and the young Eddy and Foster children. Tamsen Donner elected to stay with her ailing husband, taking into account Reed telling her that the third relief would come soon. She elected to keep her youngest daughters Eliza, Georgia, and Leanna with her. The walk back to Bear Valley was very slow; at one point Reed sent ahead two of the men to retrieve the first cache of food, expecting that the third relief, a small party led by Selim E. Woodworth, was to come at any moment. A violent blizzard arose after they scaled the pass, cowing some of the more experienced mountaineers and sending the children into hysterics for two nights. Reed nearly froze to death, and five-year-old Isaac Donner did. Mary Donner's feet were so frostbitten that she did not realize she was sleeping with her feet in the fire and they became badly burned. When the storm passed, not having anything to eat for days, the Breen and Graves families were too apathetic and exhausted to get up and move, choosing to wait for Woodworth. The relief party had no choice but to leave without them.

Three members of the relief party stayed, one at Truckee Lake and two at Alder Creek. When one, a man named Clark, went hunting, an arrangement was made between Tamsen Donner and the other two, named Cady and Stone, to carry three of her children to California, perhaps, according to author George Stewart, for $500 cash ($11,702 in 2010). Cady and Stone took the three children and placed them on a blanket while they walked away and had a long discussion in the distance. When they came back, they took the children and deposited them in the Murphy cabin at Truckee Lake just before the same furious storm that trapped Reed and the relief party over the pass struck. As soon as it was over, Cady and Stone left, alone, as quickly as they could, overtaking Reed and the others within days.

William Foster and William Eddy, both survivors of the snowshoe party, started from Bear Valley to intercept Reed, taking with them a man named John Stark. In a day, they met Reed and three children, frostbitten and bleeding, but alive. Foster and Eddy persuaded four men, with pleading and money, to go with them back over the pass, and halfway there they found the Breen and Graves families around a fire that had sunk down into a hole. Nearby were the crudely mutilated and eaten remains of two children and Mrs. Graves. Eleven others were in the pit, barely able to move. The relief party split, with Foster and Eddy headed toward Truckee Lake. Two rescuers argued that they should take a child each and leave the rest, hoping to save who they could. John Stark refused, and with the other two rescuers carrying a child each, Stark picked up two children, all the provisions, and assisted the nine remaining Breens and Graves to Bear Valley.

Third relief

Stumps of trees cut at the Alder Creek site by members of the Donner Party, photograph taken 40 years later.

Members rescued by Third relief Name Age Eliza Donner 3 Georgia Donner 4 Frances Donner 6 Simon Murphy 8 Jean Baptiste Trudeau 16

Foster and Eddy finally arrived at Truckee Lake on March 14, but what met them was a scene of horror. Both of their children were dead, and Keseberg was under suspicion from everyone in the cabin for causing it. Keseberg boldly told Eddy that he had eaten his son's remains, and Eddy swore to murder him if they ever met in California. Tamsen Donner was also in the Murphy cabin after going there to check on her three children after the storm. George Donner and one of her children were still alive at Alder Creek, and she could walk out alone, but chose instead to return to her husband although she was told that another relief party was not likely to be coming soon. Jean Baptiste and Clark decided to go with the third relief, taking what material possessions of the Donners' they could carry. Foster and Eddy and the rest of the third relief left with four children to go over the pass one more time.

Two more relief parties were mustered to evacuate Mrs. Murphy, Tamsen, and George Donner if he was still alive. No one really cared about Keseberg. But both parties turned back before getting to Bear Valley. No more attempts were made. On April 10, however, a party left Sutter's Fort to salvage what they could of the Donner Party's belongings, hoping to give what they could find to the survivors, who had nothing. They found Alder Creek tents abandoned, but the the body of George Donner who had died only days earlier. On their way back to Truckee Lake, they found Keseberg, alive. He told them Mrs. Murphy lived one more week after the departure of the third relief. Some weeks later in the middle of the night, Tamsen Donner reported at Keseberg's cabin, wanting to make the trek over the pass. She was grieved, soaked, and visibly upset. Keseberg said he put a blanket around her and told her to start out in the morning, but when it came, she was dead. The salvage party, however, did not believe him. They found in the cabin a full pot of human flesh. They furthermore found George Donner's pistols, jewelry, and $250 in gold. They threatened to lynch Keseberg, who finally revealed he had cached $273 of the Donners' money.

Response

"A more revolting or appalling spectacle I never witnessed. The remains here, by order of Gen. Kearny collected and buried under the superintendence of Major Swords. They were interred in a pit which had been dug in the centre of one of the cabins for a cache. These melancholy duties to the dead being performed, the cabins, by order of Major Swords, were fired, and with every thing surrounded them connected with this horrid and melancholy tragedy, were consumed. The body of George Donner was found at his camp, about eight or ten miles distant, wrapped in a sheet. He was buried by a party of men detailed for that purpose."

Member of General Stephen W. Kearny's company, June 22, 1847

Sam Brannan, an elder in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, met the salvage party coming down from the pass with Keseberg on his way to greet Mormon settlers coming in from the east. They told him of what occurred at Truckee Lake, and it was he who carried the news east, but through trails and wagon trains, it was slow-moving. It did not reach New York City until July 1847, in accounts sent by sea. In late June 1847, a military detail belonging to General Steven Kearny buried the human remains and reported to have burned the cabins. However, this detail burned only two cabins, and not very well.

Emigration to the west decreased following news of the Donner Party, although a more likely cause may have been the ongoing Mexican-American War. Several newspapers printed graphic and exaggerated accounts of cannibalism and stories about what occurred became more embellished. After gold was discovered in California, emigration by land and sea increased dramatically in the California Gold Rush. Most of the overland emigration to California went by the Carson River, but a few forty-niners used the same route as the Donner Party, and gave some descriptions about the site. So notorious were these areas, that they came to be called names for the party who suffered there: Donner Pass, Donner Lake, and Donner Peak.

The few who ventured over the pass in the next few years found bones, other artifacts, and the cabin that the Reed and Graves families stayed in during the winter. A cache of money was found buried next to the lake in 1891, probably put there by Mrs. Graves, who, when confronted with the fact that she must go on the second relief and leave everything, hastily hid what she had to come back for it later.

Survivors

Of the 87 who entered the Wasatch Mountains, the only families who came out intact were the Reeds and Breens. The children of Jacob and George Donner, and William Graves were orphaned. William Eddy was alone, and the Murphy family had lost nearly everyone. Forty-five people survived, and forty-two died. Only three mules survived to California. All the other cattle, horses, mules, and dogs did not. The majority of the Donner Party members' possessions were discarded.

"I have not wrote to you half the trouble we have had but I have wrote enough to let you know that you don't know what trouble is. But thank God we have all got through and the only family that did not eat human flesh. We have everything but I don't care for that. We have got through with our lives but Don't let this letter dishearten anybody. Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can."

Virginia Reed to cousin Mary Keyes, May 16, 1847

A few of the women widowed by their experiences were married within months; wives were rare commodities in California. The Reeds settled in San Jose. Two of the Donner children lived with them. Reed did well in the Gold Rush and became prosperous in California. Virginia wrote an extensive letter to her cousin in Illinois about "our trubels getting to Callifornia" [sic], which was heavily edited and rewritten somewhat by James Reed. Journalist Edwin Bryant carried it back in June 1847, and it was printed in its entirety, with some editorial alterations, in the Illinois Journal on December 16, 1847. Keeping a promise to herself while watching Patrick Breen pray in his cabin, Virginia converted to Catholicism. The Murphy survivors lived in Marysville. The Breens made their way to San Juan Bautista. They ran an inn in California, and became the anonymous subjects of one writer's story about his severe discomfort upon learning he was staying with professed cannibals, printed in Harper's Magazine in 1862. Many of the survivors encountered similar reactions. The Breen's youngest daughter Isabella, who was one year old during the winter of 1846–1847, became the last remaining surviving member of the Donner Party. She died in 1935. George and Tamsen Donner's children were taken in by an older couple near Sutter's Fort. The youngest, Eliza, who was three years old during the winter of 1846 and 1847, published an account of the Donner Party in 1911, based on printed accounts, but also those of her sisters.

"I will now give you some good and friendly advice. Stay at home,—you are in a good place, where, if sick, you are not in danger of starving to death."

Mary Graves to Levi Fosdick (her sister Sarah Fosdick's father-in-law), 1847

The Graves children lived varied lives. Mary Graves married early, but her first husband was murdered; she cooked his killer's food while he was in prison to ensure he did not starve himself before his hanging. One of her grandchildren noted she was very serious, once saying, "I wish I could cry but I cannot. If I could forget the tragedy, perhaps I would now how to cry again." Her brother William did not settle down for any significant time. Nancy Graves, who was nine during the winter of 1846–1847, refused to acknowledge her involvement even when contacted by historians interested in recording the most accurate versions of the episode; Nancy was reportedly unable to recover from her role in the cannibalism of her brother and mother.

Eddy remarried and started a family in California. He attempted to make good on his promise to murder Lewis Keseburg, but was precipitously met by James Reed and Edwin Bryant, who persuaded him to return to his family. Eddy did, and in a year told his recollections of his experiences to J. Quinn Thornton, who, also using Reed's memories of his experiences, wrote the earliest comprehensive documentation of the episode. Eddy died in 1859.

Keseberg brought a defamation suit against several members of the relief party who accused him of murdering Tamsen Donner. The court awarded him $1 in damages, but made him also pay court costs. An 1847 story printed in the California Star described Keseberg's near-lynching by the salvage party, and his actions in ghoulish terms, intoning that he preferred eating human flesh to the cattle and horses that had become exposed in the spring thaw. A historian by the name of Charles McGlashan amassed enough material to indict him on the murder of Tamsen Donner, but Eliza Donner Houghton did not believe he did it. Neither did McGlashan after two interviews with Keseberg. As Keseberg grew older, he did not venture outside, for he had become a pariah and was often threatened. He told McGlashan, "I often think that the Almighty has singled me out, among all the men on the face of the earth, in order to see how much hardship, suffering, and misery a human being can bear!"

Lansford Hastings received death threats, but started a law practice in California. An emigrant who crossed before the Donner Party confronted Hastings about the difficulties they had encountered, reporting "Of course he could say nothing but that he was very sorry, and that he meant well." A Confederate sympathizer, he dreamed a plan to make Arizona and California a part of the Confederacy, but nothing came of it. He died in Brazil, trying to establish a colony for Confederates there.

Legacy

Statue at Donner Memorial State Park, marking the top of the pedestal, 22 feet (6.7 m), indicating how deep the snow was during the winter of 1846–1847.

Hundreds of thousands of emigrants came through overland trails to populate Oregon and California. Historian Kristin Johnson writes that the episode itself is minor, and in light of the California Gold Rush, its impact was insignificant. However, the Donner Party has served as the basis for numerous works of history, fiction, drama, poetry, and film. The attention directed to the 87 members of the Donner Party is made possible by reliable accounts of what occurred, according to author George Stewart, and the fact that "the cannibalism, although it might almost be called a minor episode, has become in the popular mind the chief fact to be remembered about the Donner Party. For a taboo always allures with as great strength as it repels." Charles McGlashan, whose history of the Donner Party precedes Stewart's, wrote that the story is "more thrilling than romance, more terrible than fiction". The appeal according to Johnson, writing in 1996, is that the events focused on families and ordinary people instead of rare individuals, and that the events are "a dreadful irony that hopes of prosperity, health, and a new life in California's fertile valleys led many only to misery, hunger, and death on her stony threshold".

Mortality

Several historians and other authorities have studied the mortality of the members of the Donner Party to determine what factors may affect survival in nutritionally deprived individuals. A professor at the University of Washington stated that the Donner Party episode is a "case study of mediated natural selection in action". Although most historians count 87 members of the party, Stephen McCurdy in the Western Journal of Medicine includes Sarah Keyes—Margaret Reed's mother—and Luís and Salvador members of the party, bringing the total number to 90. Before the party reached Truckee Lake, six already died: two of tuberculosis (Keyes, Halloran), three of trauma (Snyder, Wolfinger, Pike), and one from exposure (Hardkoop). In the snowshoe party, fifteen originally set out. Eight men died (Stanton, Dolan, Graves, Murphy, Antonio, Fosdick, Luís, Salvador), but none of the women did. J. Quinn Thornton, writing in 1864 described it more in terms of temperament: "The difficulties, dangers, and misfortunes, which frequently seemed to prostrate the men, called forth the energies of the gentler sex, and gave them elevation of character, which enabled them to abide the most withering blasts of adversity with unshaken firmness." Eliza Farnham published an account of the Donner Party in 1856 in a book titled California, In-doors and Out, in which the entire premise of the story was based upon the roles women played in the events.

The deaths at Truckee Lake, Alder Creek, and in the snowshoe party were probably caused by a combination of extended malnutrition, overwork, and exposure to cold. Several members, such as George Donner, became more susceptible to infection due to starvation. The three most significant factors in survival were age, sex, and the size of family group each member traveled with. Overall to the entire group, age was the most significant factor in survival. Children aged 6 to 14 had a high survival rate, while children younger than 6 and adults older than 35 did not. Another study extends the age to 49 years, highlighting that in the 20–39 age group, males had a very high death rate. Women survived more than men by a two to one margin. Among those who died, women survived longer than men. Men have been found to metabolize protein faster, and women do not require as high a caloric intake. Women also store more body fat, which prolongs the effects of physical degradation associated with starvation and overwork. Men also tend to take on more dangerous tasks, increasing their mortality; in this particular instance, the men were required before reaching Truckee Lake to clear brush and engage in heavy labor, adding to their physical debilitation. People traveling with family members survived more than the bachelor men, possibly because family members more readily gave each other food. Those traveling alone, however, may have been less psychologically or physically fit than those with families.

Claims of cannibalism

The taboo of cannibalism has been disputed by some of the survivors, and inconsistently documented by historians. Charles McGlashan entered correspondences with many of the survivors, collecting perhaps a thousand letters over a 40-year period. Each correspondent told him, sometimes in small steps, their recollections of what occurred, some approaching their participation of cannibalism with shame and not forthcoming, while others spoke about it freely after a while. McGlashan in his 1879 book History of the Donner Party declined to include, although documentation by survivors was sent to him in letters, some of the more morbid details about suffering—such as what was endured by children and infants before dying, or how Mrs. Murphy, in the memories of Georgia Donner, gave up, laid down on her bed and faced the wall when the last of the children were leaving in the third relief. He also neglected to mention any of the cannibalism at Alder Creek. The same year McGlashan's book was published, Georgia Donner wrote to him to clarify some points, saying that human flesh was prepared for people in both tents at Alder Creek, but to her recollection (she was four years old during the winter of 1846–1847) it was given only to the youngest children: "Father was crying and did not look at us the entire time, and we little ones felt we could not help it. There was nothing else." She furthermore remembered that Elizabeth Donner, Jacob's wife, announced one morning that she had cooked the arm of Samuel Shoemaker, a 25-year-old teamster. Eliza Donner Houghton, in her 1911 account of the ordeal, did not mention any cannibalism at Alder Creek. Further archeological evidence of the Alder Creek camp attesting to cannibalism is inconclusive.

Eliza Farnham's account of the Donner Party was based largely on an interview with Margaret Breen. This version details the ordeals of the Graves and Breen families after James Reed and the second relief left them in the snow pit. According to Farnham, seven-year-old Mary Donner suggested to the others that they should eat Isaac Donner, Franklin Graves, Jr., and Elizabeth Graves, because the Donners had already begun eating the others at Alder Creek, including Mary's father Jacob. Margaret Breen remained steadfast that the Graves family members in the snow pit with them cannibalized the others, but the Breens did not. Kristin Johnson, Ethan Rarick, and Joseph King—whose account is sympathetic to the Breen family—do not consider it credible that the Breens, who had been without food for nine days, would have been able to survive this time without eating human flesh. King suggests Farnham included this into her account independently of Margaret Breen.

Jean Baptiste Trudeau, a hired driver of George Donner, told an embellished story to a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy named H. A. Wise in 1847. Trudeau boasted somewhat of his own heroism, but also spoke in lurid detail of eating Jacob Donner, what he tasted like, and incredibly, that he had eaten a baby raw. This account, however, was inaccurate in several respects. Wise alluded to the emigrants' laziness as the cause of their delays and that the cannibalism was commonly practiced and enjoyed by many members of the party. Many years later, however, Trudeau met Eliza Donner Houghton and denied ever cannibalizing anyone. He furthermore reiterated that no one had been cannibalized at Alder Creek in an interview with a St. Louis newspaper in 1891, when he was 60 years old. Houghton and the other Donner children were fond of Trudeau, and he of them, in spite of their circumstances and the fact that he eventually left Tamsen Donner alone. Author George Stewart considers Trudeau's accounting to Wise more accurate than what he told Houghton in 1884, and asserted that he deserted the Donners. Kristin Johnson, however, attributes Trudeau's interview with Wise to be a result of "common adolescent desires to be the center of attention and to shock one's elders"; after he had lived many more years he reconsidered his statements so as not to upset Houghton. Historians Joseph King and Jack Steed call Stewart's characterization of Trudeau's actions as desertion "extravagant moralism", particularly because all members of the party were forced to make difficult choices. Ethan Rarick echoed this by writing, "... more than the gleaming heroism or sullied villainy, the Donner Party is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous".

Bibliography

• Hardesty, Donald (1997). The Archaeology of the Donner Party, University of Nevada Press. ISBN 087417290X
• Johnson, Kristin (ed.)(1996). Unfortunate Emigrants: Narratives of the Donner Party, Utah State University Press, 1996. ISBN 0874212049
• King, Joseph (1992). Winter of Entrapment: A New Look at the Donner Party, P. D. Meany Company. ISBN 0888350325
• McGlashan, Charles (1879). History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra Nevada: 11th edition (1918), A Carlisle & Company, San Francisco
• Rarick, Ethan (2008), Desparate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195305027
• Stewart, George R. (1936). Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party: supplemented edition (1988), Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0395611598

External links/ Further reading

• The Donner Party chronicles : a day-by-day account of a doomed wagon train, 1846-1847 by Frank Mullen Jr. ; photos by Marilyn Newton ; foreword by Will Bagley. Author: Mullen, Frank

• The expedition of the Donner Party and its tragic fate by Eliza P. Donner Houghton ; introduction to the Bison books edition by Kristin Johnson. Author: Houghton, Eliza Poor Donner

• Excavation of the Donner-Reed wagons : historic archaeology along the Hastings Cutoff by Bruce R. Hawkins and David B. Madsen, with contributions by Ann Hanniball ... [et al.] ; illustrations by Bruce R. Hawkins. Author: Hawkins, Bruce R.

• American Experience: Donner Party (video)