Donner Party
The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the "westering fever" of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–1847, some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism, although as to how exaggerated this claim is has been highly debated.[1]
The nucleus of the party consisted of the Donner and Reed families, some 33 people in all, who departed from Springfield, Illinois in mid-April, 1846, for California. The emigrants arrived at Independence, Missouri, on May 11, 1846, and left the following day. They joined a larger wagon train, with which they traveled until they reached the Little Sandy River, in what is now Wyoming, where they camped alongside several other emigrant parties. There, those emigrants who had decided to take a new route ("Hastings Cutoff", named after its promoter, Lansford Hastings) formed a new wagon train. They elected George Donner their captain, creating the Donner Party, on July 19.[2]
The party continued westward, enduring great hardship while crossing the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert. When they finally rejoined the California Trail, near modern Elko, Nevada, they had lost three weeks' time on the "shortcut". They met further setbacks and delays while traveling along Nevada's Humboldt River.[2]
When they reached the Sierra Nevada, a snow storm blocked the pass. Demoralized and low on supplies, about two thirds of the emigrants camped at a lake (now called Donner Lake), while the Donner families and a few others camped about six miles (ten kilometers) away, at Alder Creek.[2]
The emigrants slaughtered their oxen, but there was not enough meat to feed so many for long. In mid-December, fifteen of the trapped emigrants, later known as the Forlorn Hope, set out on snowshoes for Sutter's Fort, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away, to seek help. When one man gave out and had to be left behind the others continued, but soon became lost and ran out of food. Caught without shelter in a raging blizzard, four more of the party died. The survivors resorted to cannibalism. Three more died and were eaten before finally, nearly naked and close to death, seven of the original fifteen snowshoers reached safety on the western side of the mountains on January 18, 1847.[2]
Californians rallied to save the Donner Party and equipped a total of four rescue parties, or "reliefs." When the First Relief arrived, they found that 14 of the emigrants had died and the rest were extremely weak. Most had no meat left and had been surviving on boiled ox hide, but there had been no cannibalism. The First Relief set out with 21 refugees on February 22. By the time the Second Relief arrived a week later, they found that some of the 31 emigrants left behind at the camps had begun to eat the dead. The Second Relief took 17 emigrants with them, the Third Relief 4. By the time the Fourth Relief arrived, only one man was found alive. The last member of the Donner Party arrived at Sutter's Fort on April 29.[2]
Of the original 87 pioneers, 41 died and 46 survived.[3]
Donner Memorial State Park, near the eastern shore of Donner Lake, commemorates the disaster; the area where the Donner families camped at Alder Creek has been designated a National Historic Landmark.
Recent research
In August 2003 and July 2004 archaeological digs were conducted at a site in the Alder Creek Valley near Truckee, California, where the two Donner families camped in the winter of 1846-47. On January 12, 2006, the co-directors of the Donner Party Archaeology Project, Drs. Kelly Dixon and Julie Schablitsky, released an overview of their findings to the media. While the resulting Associated Press article was accurate, the headlines accompanying it were not, giving the false impression that the archaeologists had determined that no cannibalism had occurred in the Donner Party. Two days later, on January 14, some dozen members of the archaeology team clarified the situation when they presented "The Donner Party: A Collaborative Approach" at the Society for Historical Archaeology national conference in Sacramento, California. A book detailing the archaeology team's findings will be published in 2007 or 2008.
See also
References
Notes
- ^ "Cannibalism: Did they really eat each other?". Retrieved 2006-05-03.
- ^ a b c d e "Donner Party Chronology". Retrieved 2006-05-04.
- ^ "Donner Party Statistics". Retrieved 2006-05-04.
External links
- New Light on the Donner Party, by Donner Party historian Kristin Johnson, features biographical information, a chronology, primary documents, and more.
- The Donner Party, a website by Dan Rosen, features a comprehensive chronology of the disaster and much additional material.
- The diary kept during the period November 20, 1846 – March 1, 1847, by Patrick Breen, one of the travelers, is available in hypertext as well as color scans of the pages, at the Online Archive of California website and at New Light on the Donner Party.
- The trail diary kept by Hiram O. Miller and James F. Reed between April and October 1846 is available online, as are the diaries kept by members of the First Relief (rescue party), Second Relief, and Fourth Relief.
- Donner Party Bulletin No. 15 (January 2006) is a first-person report on the presentation at the Society for Historical Archaeology Conference and rebuts media distortions about cannibalism at Alder Creek.
- Free digitally-voiced audiobook of History Of The Donner Party by C. F. McGlashan at Babblebooks.com