Our Mission The mission of the California Department of Parks and Recreation is to provide for The Donner Party the health, inspiration and education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state’s extraordinary biological diversity, he United States of America was grow protecting its most valued natural and cultural Ting rapidly during the 1830s, when resources, and creating opportunities for American frontiersmen and sailors began to high-quality outdoor recreation. bring back stories about the wonders of Alta California. The political situation was uncer- ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER tain. Mexico still held the area, but it was Governor widely believed that she was losing control of MIKE CHRISMAN her northernmost province. It seemed inevi- Secretary for Resources table that, sooner or later, the U.S.A. would step in. It was “manifest destiny,” they said, RUTH COLEMAN that the United States of America should Director, California State Parks stretch across the continent from sea to shining sea. Interest in California was further heightened in 1841, when word reached the eastern settlements that it was possible to travel directly overland to the West Coast and California State Parks does not discriminate thus avoid an expensive sea voyage. against individuals with disabilities. Prior to Two prosperous Illinois farmers, George arrival, visitors with disabilities who need Donner and his brother Jacob, were among the assistance should contact the park at the phone many who listened to the fabulous stories of number below. To receive this publication in an fine soil, gentle climate and virtually unlim- alternate format, write to the Communications ited opportunity in California. Both men were Office at the following address. in their 60s, but California truly fascinated CALIFORNIA For information call: them, and in April 1846, they took their STATE PARKS (800) 777-0369 families and as many of their possessions as P. O. Box 942896 (916) 653-6995, outside the U.S. they could fit into six wagons and headed Sacramento, CA 711, TTY relay service west. They were accompanied by their good 94296-0001 friend, James Reed, a well-to-do cabinet- www.parks.ca.gov maker, and his family. Together they joined a Donner Memorial State Park stream of people of all sorts, rich and poor, bound for California. 12593 Donner Pass Road Truckee, CA 96161 (530) 582-7892 © 2003 California State Parks (Rev. 8/2004) Printed on Recycled Paper By early summer, this stream had mules loaded with beef and flour. He also reached the plains west of the Mississippi brought news of a very difficult mountain River. Tamsen Donner, George’s wife, wrote crossing up ahead, so the group rested for to a friend that the journey up to that point nearly a week to gather strength. The delay had been both beautiful and pleasant. But proved fatal. at a fork in the trail beyond South Pass, in Winter came early to the Sierra Nevada what is now Wyoming, the stream of emi- that year. By the time the party reached grants divided. Lansford Hastings, an Donner Lake, there was snow on the ground. eloquent spokesman for westward migra- The Donner families became snowbound at tion, was recommending a shortcut via Fort Alder Creek, Bridger that he said would save 200 miles. six miles from Several families decided to take the new the lake. The The Donner Lake encampment, “Hastings Cutoff,” and soon 23 wagons and rest of the November 1846 a total of 89 people were committed to the party tried to route. George Donner was elected cross Donner wagonmaster, and the group therefore came to bickering families. Pass three be known as the Donner Party, though it also James Reed knifed a times but included the Reeds, the Breens, the Murphys, man during a heated finally gave up. the Eddys, the Graves’ and the family of Lewis argument, and though THE CAMP Keseberg, a well-educated German who spoke he claimed to have Still hoping four languages. acted in self-defense, that a thaw As it turned out, the “shortcut” was no sentiment ran high would open timesaver. The group wore itself out hacking a against him. In the end, Arrival of the first relief party, February 1847 the pass, the 36-mile road through the Wasatch Mountains he was banished from group at the lake settled in for the winter. and then lost most of their oxen and cattle the party and traveled on to California alone, The Murphys built a cabin against a large while crossing the desolate, completely while his wife and children stayed with the boulder, while the Breens and Kesebergs waterless, 80-mile-wide Great Salt Lake main party. partitioned an existing cabin into two rooms, Desert. As a result, several wagons and many Late October found the Donner Party in one for each family. The Reed and Graves possessions had to be abandoned. By the Truckee Meadows, near present-day Reno, families built a two-room log cabin further time the party returned to the main California Nevada. The local Paiute Indians were harass- downstream, and with snow swirling about Trail in eastern Nevada, they were a full three ing them, and they were exhausted, demoral- them, the Donners built two teepee-style, weeks behind those who had not chosen to ized, bitter and completely out of food. Then hide-covered brush shelters against trees. take the Hastings Cutoff. Tired, frustrated, Charles Stanton, a bachelor who had gone Food was soon scarce once again, and hungry and disillusioned, the party turned ahead to obtain provisions, returned from efforts at hunting and fishing in the snowy from a cooperative group into a cluster of Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento with seven pack mountains were had survived on one deer and the husband. Reduced to starvation, Reed’s unsuccessful. bodies of their dead companions. party was forced to wait out another three- Individual day blizzard at a spot later known as THE RESCUERS survival instincts Starved Camp, the scene of more deaths Relief was slow in coming for the were already and cannibalism. Donner Party. There was a war going on, showing, as After the blizzard, Reed and the strongest and finding men to take food into the families with the members of the group pressed on and met a snowy mountains was difficult. Finally, most provisions third relief party of four men at Emigrant in late February, seven men reached could not be Gap. These men, among them the two male the cabins buried in the snow at induced to share survivors of the December “snowshoe Donner Lake. Several half-starved with the less party,” continued on to Donner Lake to people emerged as the rescuers ap- fortunate. bring out the last able survivors. Of those proached, and one woman asked, “Are In December, who were still able to move about, only two you men from California, or do you with snow remained behind––Lewis Keseberg, who come from Heaven?” They had been continuing to was suffering from a bad foot, and Tamsen reduced to eating the last of their pile up, ten men Donner, who still refused to leave her oxhides and ox bones. Several deaths and five women Patty Reed’s doll. A replica can be husband. from starvation had already occurred. decided to make seen at Donner Memorial State Park. In April 1847, only a year after the Donners Gathering 21 able-bodied survivors, a desperate The original is on exhibit at Sutter’s had started out from Illinois with such high including some children, the rescue attempt to get to Fort State Historic Park in hopes, one last party of rescuers came to party started back across the mountains Sutter’s Fort. Sacramento, California. salvage the immigrants’ belongings. to the west. Having eaten all its food, They left camp Keseberg alone was still alive. this group was fortunate to meet a on crude snowshoes made from oxbows and The Donner story is a tragic page in the second party led by the once-banished rawhide strips, carrying only six days’ saga of westward migration. Poor judgment, James Reed. After a brief reunion with his skimpy rations. Five days out, Stanton, the heroic sacrifice, struggle for survival and wife, Reed pressed on to the cabins, and on only one who knew the route, became plain bad luck all played their part. Though March 1 was reunited with his young chil- exhausted and snowblind. To avoid delaying other parties had made it through Donner dren. At the Donner tents, Reed saw his old the group, he stayed behind to die. The Pass intact, the winter of 1846-1847 was one friend, George Donner, dying from a badly others quickly became lost and had to sit of the worst ever recorded in the Sierra. The infected cut on his hand. He also saw evi- out a three-day Christmas storm huddled base of the monument at Donner Memorial dence of cannibalism at both the cabins and under blankets to keep from freezing. Four State Park stands 22 feet high, the depth of the Donner camp. Leaving five survivors at of them died, and with no other food, the the snow that trapped the travelers. Only 49 the cabins and six at the Donner camp, rest ate their bodies. One month later, two of the 91 members of the party, including Reed started back with the rest. Tamsen men and all five of the women, all extremely the entire Breen and Reed families, sur- Donner insisted on remaining with her ailing emaciated, arrived at the settlement. They vived the terrible ordeal. Most of the survivors carried out their original intention of settling in California, but their lives were WASHINGTON indelibly marked by the events of that winter.