Donner Lake,named for the party, is today a popular mountain resort near Truckee,Californiaand the Donner Camp has been designated as a National Historic Landmark. Animals could panic when wading through deep, swift water, causing wagons to overturn. Santana had his headquarters in what is now known as the Cheyenne Bottoms, eight miles from the Great Bend of the Arkansas Riverand about the same distance from old Fort Zarah,Kansas. Hide hunters, hunters who kill buffalo for their hides only, have temporarily joined up with the wagon train. The group preferring the Hastings route elected George Donner as their captain and soon began the southerly route, reaching Fort Bridger on July 28th. When he sees an opportunity at the bank, it leads to tragedy. 1. Eight of the men died, and the bodies of some of these were eaten by the others. The researchers themselves clarified, however, that the absence of archaeological evidence did not rule out the possibility that cannibalism had occurred, especially given the extensive contemporary accounts by members of the rescue parties and the survivors themselves. Ironically, on the very day that theIllinoisparty headed west from Springfield, Lansford Hastings prepared to head east from California, to see what the shortcut he had written about was really like. The letter successfully allayed any fears that the party might have had regarding the Hastings cutoff. The party lost dozens of cattle in the desert, and several wagons had to be abandoned. It is easy to conceive the danger which night and day pursued those men who were then employed upon the Overland Trail. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Donner-party, Legends of America - The Tragic Story of the Donner Party, EyeWitness to History.com - The Tragic Fate of the Donner Party, 1847, Online Nevada Encyclopedia - Donner Party, Donner party - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). The route lying along the North Platte River became so dangerous that it was almost impossible to secure drivers even at the highest wages. The Tragic Fate of the Donner Party, 1847 - EyeWitness to History When they finally reached the end of the grueling desert five days later on September 4th, the emigrants rested near the base of Pilot Peak for several days. It was a horrific road trip. Nice work, doc. As early as 1860, trouble began after the beginning of emigration to Colorado and the discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains. As a protection for both lines, the Government later erected Fort Sedgwick on the South Fork of the Platte River. Swollen rivers could tip over and drown both people and oxen. That young man was 23-year-old Levi Sheets, riding along with his grandfather, . The village head, Conquering Bear, also died, and it only escalated from there. Clyman advised Reed not to take the Hastings Route, stating that the road was barely passable on foot and would be impossible with wagons; also warning him of the great desert and the Sierra Nevadas. when it came to something like this. A large, well equipped wagon train rolled toward California in 1846. On May 25ththe train was held for several days by high water at the Big Blue River near present-day Marysville,Kansas. The dead of those awful years lies numberless and nameless in their unknown, scattered graves. Firearms were the second leading cause of emigrant injury and death and a surprisingly large number of pioneers were injured by accidental firearm discharges. Imagine taking your entire family across the country with only what you can pack into a minivan, and no rest stops or Taco Bells along the way. Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated April 2023. You don't have anything on the seven Sager orphans. Even as they started ferrying wagons across, they found they couldn't keep up dozens of wagons were lined up waiting for their turn to cross. 10 Things You Should Know About the Donner Party - History The fertile farmlands of central California drew a steady stream of settlers in the 1840s, and in the spring of 1846 several families from Springfield, Illinois, joined the westward migration. But once settlers started heading West and claiming land for themselves all willy-nilly, not everyone was pleased. The originator of this group was a man named James Frasier Reed, an Illinois businessman, eager to build a greater fortune in the rich land of California. The next day, they arrived at Alder Creek to find that the Donners had also resorted to cannibalism. No wonder he was so badass, just look what his parents went through. When she came down with cholera, he just gave her a cup of camphor, because that's what you do, right? In nine brand new wagons, the group estimated the trip would take four months to cross the plains, deserts, mountain ranges and rivers in their quest for California. Granny medicine, essentially home remedies passed down from mother to daughter, was common, according to Historic Oregon City. When it was obvious a person wouldnt last the day, the train would often hold up moving in order to wait for the end. They killed and ate the cow, and the officer in charge was actually pretty diplomatic about the whole thing. Katharine Ross whose stardom still awaited gives a stunning performance in the Everything was made ready for a charge when Major Greer suddenly decided to talk with the Indians before commencing to fight. With John McIntire, Robert Fuller, Frank McGrath, Terry Wilson. The accusations got so bad he even sued for slander and won $1, but when Keseberg died in 1895, even his obituary reminded everyone he was a cannibal. His wife Tamzene, though in comparatively good health, refused to leave him; sending her three little girls on without her. The Western Wagon Train: Part-Two, Life on the Trail - Frontier American The group now numbered 74 people in twenty wagons and for the first week made good progress at 10-12 miles per day. Indian Attack on a Wagon Train by Charles Marion Russell The first notable tragedy on the Santa Fe Trail connected to stage coaching occurred almost with the first effort to establish the line. Though Sarah Keyes was so sick with consumption that she could barely walk, she was unwilling to be separated from her only daughter. During 1863-65 the Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne were all upon the warpath. They traveled on with the wagon train and ended up in the care of missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The rest of the pioneers stayed at what would become known as Starved Camp.. title role in this Wagon Train story. During their first week in the Cutoff, the Donner party made good progress. The surviving members had differing viewpoints, biases and recollections so what actually happened was never extremely clear. Keseberg had sent his wife and a child on ahead, and said, "For their sakes I must live. This food was never otherwise than loathsome, insipid, and disgusting. Hastings, who had promised to lead migrants along the trail, left Fort Bridger with a different company of wagons, and it fell to Reed to act as the companys guide. Having traveled an extra 125 miles through strenuous mountain terrain and dry desert, the disillusioned partys resentment of Hastings, and ultimately, Reed, was increased tremendously. George P. Belden, well known in those days as The White Chief, thus describes the disagreeable duties: Troops were stationed in small squads at every station, about ten miles apart, and they rode from station to station on the top of all coaches, holding their guns ever ready for action. It was a west-bound Concord, containing a full complement of passengers, including a Mr. White, his wife, child, and colored nurse. Never for a moment could they feel secure; every trip promised to be their last, and many a time, the coach dashed up to a station only to find it in ruins and surrounded by dead. We join his story about three weeks after the Donner Party arrived at the blocked pass: Invariably such a storm meant a stampede of the mules, nor would a man dare to desert his shelter to seek them. Indian peril on the northern Overland route, while never wholly absent, grew most serious during the Civil War, when the Plains tribes became largely hostile. More than 40 whites were killed, and the destruction of property was extensive. There was one major problem, thoug. Ominously, snow powdered the mountain peaks that very night. Once everyone had been accounted for, they found only 15 people survived. The Hastings Cutoff and Highway 80 Tragedy of the Donner Party Two days after the Snyder killing, on October 7th, Lewis Keseberg turned out a Belgian man named Hardcoop, who had been traveling with him. Other causes of injury or death included attacks by emigrants on other emigrants, lightning, hailstorms, grass fires, gunpowder explosions, snakebite and suicide. In later years Kicking Bird, also a Kiowa, became the terror of the Plains. From the earliest attempts, accidents were frequent, and suffering from exposure to the elements was common. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846-1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. I use these web pages to make available the sources of information that I run across - wagon . There, on May 12, they became a part of a main wagon train headed west. At Fort Laramie, James Reed ran into an old friend fromIllinoisby the name of James Clyman, who had just traveled the new route eastwardly with Lansford Hastings. All the other stations were guarded in like manner, so it happened that every coach carried some soldiers.. The breaking out of the Civil War required the withdrawal of many of the regulars from the Plains, and the Indians, quick to perceive their opportunity, began wholesale depredations. Keseberg was the last member of the Donner Party to arrive at Sutters Fort on April 29th. The first relief party soon left with 23 refugees, but during the partys travels back to Sutters Fort, two more children died. For 15 years, he was the terror of the Trail, and his acts of atrocity were incessant. Instantly they were fiercely attacked by an ambushed party of Apache under White Wolf. On July 31 the Donner party entered Hastings Cutoff, which would take the group south of the Great Salt Lake in what is now Utah. There were no supply stations, carts broke down better than they rolled, Salt Lake City officials had no idea who was coming, and travelers weren't prepared for doing the work of hunters, pioneers, and oxen all at the same time. The party elected George Donner to serve as its leader, and at its peak the Donner party would number some 87 people29 men, 15 women, and 43 childrenin a column of 23 ox-drawn wagons. In less than 15 minutes, 21 of the 46 actors in this strange combat were slain or disabled. On August 11th, the wagon train began the arduous journey through the Wasatch Mountains, clearing trees and other obstructions along the new path of their journey. He was a member of the Donner Party, and according to Sierra College, he paid horribly for his survival. The history of his bloody deeds will never be told, for dead men tell no tales, and seldom did Bent leave any alive after a raid. It was also the headquarters of the telegraph on the Plains, which had been inaugurated in 1861. Corrections? Colonel George Wright, who was in charge of the military presence and rescue mission, said they likely would have survived if it wasn't for the cowards. Burials often were done right in the middle of the trail, where wagons could roll over and animals trample it down in order to erase the scent so wolves could not pick up the scent. Sure, there are a lot of ways to go on the trail, but no one wants to be remembered like that (and he definitely wasn't the only one). 1866 photo of Alder Creek stumps cut by Donner party. Seriously, you don't have it that bad, and if there's one consolation it's the surviving girls' memoirs that talk about the kindness they experienced along the way. Patriarch Henry Sager took ill by the time they reached the Rockies, and they buried him alongside Green River. Hide hunters, hunters who kill buffalo for their hides only, have temporarily joined up with the wagon train. With James and Margaret Reed were their four children, Virginia, Patty, James, and Thomas, as well as Margarets 70-year-old mother, Sarah Keyes, and two hired servants. I remember the days traveling in a Connastoga Wagon and nites sleeping under the . With the train desperately needing fresh meat, Cooper Smith, along with Barnaby, sets off . On March 3rd, Reed left the camp with 17 of the starving emigrants but just two days later they are caught in another blizzard. Surviving the Oregon Trail was just the beginning for some people just ask Lewis Keseberg. The last survivor, Lewis Keseberg, who had supported himself during the last weeks by cannibalism, did not leave camp until April 21. Not knowing how many cattle the emigrants had lost, the men believed the party would have enough meat to last them several months. At the bottom of JacobDonnerssaddlebag was a copy of Lansford Hastingss Emigrants Guide, with its tantalizing talk of a faster route to the garden of the earth. Tragedy was no stranger to western trails, but the sad experience of this ill-fated group has come to symbolize the hardships of all. There was just as much dysentery and cholera as your MS-DOS family faced, but there was another huge problem, too a lack of gun safety classes. His name was John Lawrence Grattan, and he was a second lieutenant in the Army stationed at Fort Laramie. Finding the party at the south shore of the Great Salt Lake, Hastings accompanied Reed partway back to point out the new route, which he said would take them about one week to travel. The Donners, whose progress was delayed by a wagon accident, made a similar camp a few miles farther east on the trail near Alder Creek. Such accidents could cause the loss of life and most or all of valuable supplies. Julesburg was attacked on several occasions, and in February 1864, was burned to the ground. Soldiers were used to guarding the stagecoaches, yet attacks were frequent, and the loss in property and lives was large. tragedy while the Wagon Train stops for supplies. The two-day encounter resulted in the deaths of eleven emigrants by an estimated twenty-five to thirty Indians. The Hastings Cutoff was a fairly untried shortcut, and Fort Bridger (pictured) sat at the trailhead. On August 11th, the wagon train began the arduous journey through the Wasatch Mountains, clearing trees and other obstructions along the new path of their journey. On November 20 Patrick Breen, whose family had joined the party in Independence, Missouri, began a diary which he continued until March 1. This decision to delay their departure was yet one more of many that would lead to their tragedy. On July 19ththe wagon train arrived at the Little Sandy River in present-day Wyoming, where the trail parted into two routes the northerly known route and the untested Hastings Cutoff. As was their custom, the Indians attacked at dawn, and the whites were compelled to run their coaches alongside each other, pile mail-sacks between the wheels, and throw sand over them for breastworks. The Survivors of the Donner Party - History in Charts The migrants began the ascent of the Sierra foothills low on food, and Paiute warriors killed several of the remaining oxen. The real Oregon Trail was filled with about as many accidents and illnesses, and the National Oregon/California Trail Center says more than 300,000 Americans actually did travel along it at the end of the 19th century. Don Brooke is desperate for money for his pregnant wife Bonnie, whose condition is too delicate for the long trip without more medical care so he seeks a bank loan. Newspapers printed letters and diaries and accused the travelers of bad conduct, cannibalism, and even murder. It took him an hour to die, "in full possession of his senses." He had shot White Wolf several times.. Reed had recently read the bookTheEmigrants Guide to Oregon and California, by Landsford W. Hastings, who advertised a new shortcut across the Great Basin. Adventures and Tragedies on the Overland Trail - Legends of America Naomi Sager descended into a sort of grief-stricken illness, and her daughter Catherine wrote she was, "at times perfectly insane." Diseases and serious illnesses caused the deaths of nine out of ten pioneers. Donner Lake and Donner Pass, California, are named for the party. The first notable tragedy on the Santa Fe Trail connected to stage coaching occurred almost with the first effort to establish the line. The very next day, five more feet of snow fell, and they knew that any plans for a departure were dashed. The Wagon Box Grave headstone marks the burial site of the emigrant family. About the Author: Adventures and Tragedies on the Overland Trail was written by Randall Parrish as a chapter of his book, The Great Plains: The Romance of Western American Exploration, Warfare, and Settlement, 1527-1870; published by A.C. McClurg & Co. in Chicago, 1907.
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