The Donner Party

The third episode of the Spooktacuar is about The Donner Party! This was a group of American pioneers who left for California in 1846. They took a shortcut known as the Hastings Cutoff, which turned out to be much longer and more treacherous than expected. The group would then get delayed by harsh weather and become trapped by snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter. As their supplies dwindled, they were forced to make desperate choices to survive, including cannibalism. Only a fraction of the group would survive.

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Transcript

The Donner Party

Hello everyone! 

It’s October, which means Door Key is focusing on history that has a spooky theme to it all month. I call it The Spooktacular, because I love a good pun!

This week, I’m going to be talking about The Donner Party. This is a horrible, gruesome topic, but that makes it absolutely perfect for The Spooktacular. The Donner Party would end up stuck in the Sierra Neveda mountains during the winter of 1846 to 1847. Things got so bad for them, that they would end up having to resort to cannibalism to survive. Now I realize that I also talk about cannibalism in this year’s Spooktacular during the Jamestown episode. I swear, this wasn’t on purpose, it’s just a coincidence. So don’t worry, I’m not in my Cannibalism Era or anything like that! Having said that, I’m going to start the story and explain how things got to the point they did with the Donner Party.

During the 1840s, many people in North America started moving west to settle in the Oregon Territory or California.

A man named Lansford Hastings made this move, and then published a book called The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California. Hastings suggested what he said was a more direct route to California across the Great Basin, which would take travelers through the Wasatch Range and across the Great Salt Lake Desert. The route he described as a shortcut actually increased the trip by 125 miles, which is just over 201 km, but I’m getting ahead of myself now ...

In the spring of 1846, a large group of wagons headed west from Independence, Missouri.  At the back of this train was a group of nine wagons that contained 32 members of the Reed and Donner families and their employees. In this group was George Donner, his wife Tamsen and their five children. George’s brother Jacob, his wife Elizabeth and their 7 children were there also. One of the employees traveling with the Donner family was named Augustus Spitzer. James Reed and his family was also part of this group. With Reed was his wife Margret and their 4 children, Margret’s mother Sarah, and several employees. One of these employees was Milford Elliott, another was named Walter Herron, and there was also an employee named Baylis Williams. I realize that there are a lot of people in this story, and I’m throwing a lot of names at you. I’m trying to keep things as easy to follow as possible, so believe it or not, I’m leaving a lot of names out. But the people that I do name come up again in this story, so please bear with me.

Just over two weeks after they left, Margret Reed’s mother Sarah died of consumption. This is sad, but spoiler for history: honestly, I kind of feel like all things considered, poor Sarah got lucky by dying so early into this trip. 

Along the way, the wagon train would be joined by other families. There was the widow Levinah Murphy, who brought a group of 13 people. Among that group was her daughter Harriet Murphy Pike, her husband William Pike and their children. A man named William Eddy, his wife Eleanor and their two children also joined the wagon train. The Breen family was there too. This was Patrick Breen, his wife Margaret and their seven children. Lewis Keseberg and his wife Elizabeth and their two children joined. A man named Patrick Dolan joined as well. A couple named the Wolfingers joined the party with their driver Burger and two single men named Spitzer and Reinhardt. There was an older man named Hardkoop who joined as well.

Lansford Hastings sent riders out to these wagon trains to deliver letters to them letting them know about the Hastings Cutoff. The Donners and Reeds were each given one of these letters. The letters said that Hastings would be waiting at Fort Bridger in southwest Wyoming to guide the travelers along the new cutoff. When they got to the Little Sandy River, most of the wagon train decided to follow the trail that had already been established to Fort Hall, while a smaller group wanted to go to Fort Bridger. This smaller group included the Donner family and Reed family. They elected George Donner as their leader.

Meanwhile, a journalist named Edwin Bryant reached Blacks Fork Wyoming a week ahead of the Donner Party. Edwin saw the first part of the Hastings Cutoff, and didn’t think the Donner group’s wagons could make it. He actually returned to Blacks Fork and left letters at the trading post warning the group not to take the Hastings shortcut.

The Donner Party reached Blacks Fork on July 27. Hastings had already left, leading a different group, the Harlan–Young group. There was a trading post close to the Hastings Cutoff. The trading post was owned by a man named Jim Bridger. He knew that it would be good for his business if more people used the Hastings Cutoff. He told the Donner Party that the cutoff was a smooth trip that didn’t have any rugged country, and would shorten their journey by 350 miles – that’s 560 km. Bridger also told them that water would be easy to find along the way.

Reed heard this, and wanted to take the Hastings Cutoff. To be fair, none of the party received the warning letters Edwin Bryant had written. In his diary account, Edwin says that he believed that Jim Bridger deliberately hid the letters. Reed would agree with this belief in his later testimony.

The Donner Party left Blacks Fork on July 31, 1846. They were eleven days behind the group ahead of them, the Harlan-Young group. The Donner Party was joined by more people: the McCutchen family, which was William McCutchen, his wife Amanda and their daughter. The group was also joined by a 16-year-old named Jean Baptiste Trudeau who was from New Mexico and said he knew the area’s terrain.

Within days, the group found the terrain of the Hastings Cutoff to be much more difficult than they’d been told. This new trail was also difficult to find, while the main trail, the Oregon Trail, was easy and obvious after years of traffic.

Hastings communicated with the Donner Party by writing directions and leaving letters stuck to trees. On August 6, they found a letter from Hastings telling them to stop until he could show them a different route than the one that the Harlan–Young Party had taken. Reed rode ahead with Charles Stanton and William Pike to get Hastings. On their way, they came across really difficult canyons where boulders had to be moved - a route that was likely to break the Donner Party’s wagons. In his letter, Hastings had offered to guide the Donner Party around these more difficult areas, but instead he only rode back only part way, and gave general directions for the party to follow.

Stanton and Pike stopped to rest, so Reed returned alone to the group after four days. It was clear by this point that Hastings wasn’t going to guide the group like they’d expected. They had to make a decision, and they had three options: they could 1. turn back and rejoin the established trail 2. follow the tracks left by the Harlan–Young Party through the difficult terrain or 3. forge their own trail in the direction that Hastings had recommended. I personally am extremely risk-adverse, so I’d have voted for option one. However, at Reed’s urging, the group chose option 3, forging their own trail in the direction that Hastings had recommended. Their progress slowed to about one and a half miles, which is 2.4 km a day. All able-bodied men were required to clear brush, fell trees and move rocks to make room for the wagons.

As the Donner party made their way across the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains, they were joined by more people: The Graves family, Franklin Graves, his wife Elizabeth, and their nine children. Their oldest daughter Sarah and her husband Jay Fosdick was there too, along with a teamster named John Snyder. They all traveled together in three wagons. So all together, this would bring the Donner Party to 87 members with 60–80 wagons. 

By August 20, the group could see the Great Salt Lake. It took them almost another two weeks to travel out of the Wasatch Range. 

The men began arguing, and began to express doubts about the wisdom of those who had chosen this route, especially Reed. Food and supplies began to run out for some of the less wealthy families. Stanton and Pike, the men who had ridden out with Reed had gotten lost on their way back. By the time the party found them, they were a day away from eating their horses.

One of the group died of tuberculosis on August 25. A few days later, the party came across a letter from Hastings that said there were two days and nights of difficult travel ahead without grass or water. The party rested their oxen and prepared for the trip. Then they had to travel up a 1,000-foot mountain in their path – that’s 300 meters. Once they got to the top of the mountain, all they saw ahead was dry, barren plain that was flat and covered with white salt, larger than the one they had just crossed. Their oxen were already fatigued, and their water was nearly gone. 

The Donner Party pressed onward, having no other choice. During the day, the heat was so bad that the moisture underneath the salt crust rose to the surface and turned it into a gummy mass. The wagon wheels sank into it, in some cases up to the hubs. The days were really hot, and the nights were really cold. This sounds miserable.

After three days, their water was gone. Some of the animals were so weakened that they were left yoked to the wagons and abandoned. 

Most of Reed’s oxen broke free and ran off into the desert. Many other families' cattle and horses also went missing. The journey also really damaged some of the wagons, but thankfully no human lives were lost during this portion of the journey. However, instead of the 40 mile (which is 64 kilometers), two-day journey they were promised, the journey across the Great Salt Lake Desert was 80 miles (which is 130 kilometers) and took six days. 

The group recovered at the springs on the other side of the desert. None of them had any faith left in the Hastings Cutoff. They spent several days trying to recover cattle and retrieve wagons they’d left in the desert.

Reed's family had lost the most, and he suggested that two men should go to Sutter's Fort in California. John Sutter was known to help travelers, and they hoped that he could assist them with extra provisions. Charles Stanton and William McCutchen volunteered to go on this dangerous trip. The wagons that the group had left were now being pulled by teams of cows, oxen, and mules. 

It was the middle of September, and men who went searching for missing oxen reported that there was another 40 miles (which is 64 km) of desert ahead. 

Every person and animal of the group was exhausted, but the Donner Party managed to cross this next stretch of desert relatively unscathed. The journey seemed to get easier, especially through the valley next to the Ruby Mountains. By this point, everyone in the group pretty much hated Hastings, but they had no choice but to follow his tracks, which were weeks old.

Then, on September 26, two months after they took the cutoff, the party rejoined the traditional trail. The shortcut had delayed them by a month. 

By now, it was well into October, and the families of The Donner Party split up to make better time. Two wagons in one group got tangled, and John Snyder angrily beat Reed’s ox. When Reed tried to stop this, Snyder hit Reed on his head with a whip handle. Reed’s wife Sarah tried to stop this, but she was hit too. Reed responded to all of this by stabbing Snyder, which killed him.

That evening, everyone gathered to discuss what they were going to do about this. They were west of the Continental Divide, so US laws didn’t apply, as this was then Mexico territory. Wagon trains often dispensed their own justice. George Donner was the party's leader, but he and his family was a full day ahead of the party. People had seen Snyder hit Reed, and some even saw him hit Sarah, but Snyder had been more liked than Reed. One man in the group, Keseberg, even suggested that Reed should be hanged. A compromise was reached where Reed would be exiled from the camp. His family would stay and be taken care of by the others. Reed left the next morning, alone and unarmed. His stepdaughter Virginia rode ahead and secretly gave him a rifle and food.

Everything that the Donner Party had been through so far splintered the party into groups. Each of these groups looked out for themselves and were distrustful of the others. Grass was becoming scarce, and the animals were getting weaker. To lighten the animals' load, everyone was expected to walk. Keseberg kicked the elderly man Hardkoop out of his wagon, telling Hardkoop that he had to walk or die. A few days later, Hardkoop sat down next to a stream – his feet were so swollen that they had split open. Hardkoop wasn’t seen again. William Eddy pleaded with the others to help him find Hardkoop, but everyone refused, saying they wouldn’t waste any more resources on a man who was almost 70 years old. 

Meanwhile, Reed caught up with the Donners and went ahead of them with one of his teamsters, Walter Herron. The two shared a horse and were able to cover 25–40 miles (which is 40–64 km) per day. The rest of the party rejoined the Donners, so they were all together again, but things were rough. All of Graves’ horses were chased away by Native Americans, and so they had to leave another wagon behind. They lost more of their animals. So far, they had lost nearly 100 oxen and cattle, and their rations were almost completely depleted by this point.

With almost all of his cattle gone, Wolfinger stopped to bury his wagon, and Reinhardt and Spitzer stayed behind to help. They returned to the group without Wolfinger, saying they had been attacked by Native Americans and that Wolfinger had been killed.

One more stretch of desert lay ahead. The Eddy family’s oxen had been killed by Native Americans, and they had to abandon their wagon. The family had also eaten all their supplies, but the other families refused to help their children. The Eddys were forced to walk, carrying their children. Margret Reed and her children were also without a wagon now. But the desert soon came to an end, and the party found the Truckee River and were in beautiful lush country. 

This is good news for the group, but they didn’t have much time to rest. They wanted to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains before the snow came. Stanton, one of the two men who had left a month earlier to get help in California, found the group. He brought mules and food from Sutter's Fort, and had two guides with him that had been hired by John Sutter named Luis and Salvador. Stanton told them that Reed and Herron had made it to Sutter’s Fort. Barely, but they’d made it.

I imagine that after this bright spot, that The Donner Party must have thought that the worst was behind them ... right?

They had one last push over mountains left. This one was described as much worse than Wasatch, and the group had to decide whether to keep going or rest their cattle. It was October 20, and they had been told the pass (which is now known as Donner Pass) wouldn’t be snowed in until the middle of November. Then, William Pike was killed when a gun being loaded by William Foster was accidently fired, and one by one, the families resumed the journey. The Breens went first, and the Donners left last. 

After a few miles of rough terrain, an axle broke on one of their wagons. Jacob and George Donner went into the woods to make a replacement. George sliced his hand open while chiseling the wood. 

Then it started to snow. 

The Breens made it up a slope that was 1,000 feet (300 m) to Truckee Lake (which is now known as Donner Lake), which is 3 miles (4.8 km) from the pass summit.  The Eddy family and the Kesebergs joined the Breens. They tried to make it the rest of the way over the pass, but they weren’t able to find the trail because of snowdrifts that were 5–10-foot (which is 1.5–3.0 m) high. They turned back for Truckee Lake, and within a day all the families were camped there except for the Donners, who were 5 miles (which is 8.0 km) — half a day's journey — below them near Alder Creek .

All together, sixty members of the group set up camp at Truckee Lake. They were members and associates of the Breen, Graves, Reed, Murphy, Keseberg and Eddy families. They lived in three separate cabins that were made of pine logs. They had dirt floors, and flat roofs that leaked when it rained. They didn’t have windows or doors, those areas were only open spaces. The families used ox hide or canvas to fix the roofs. The Breens lived in one cabin, the Eddys and the Murphys lived in another, and the Reeds and the Graves lived in the third. Keseberg built a lean-to for his family against the side of the Breen cabin.

Farther down the trail, at what I’m going to call the Alder Creek camp, the Donner families made tents to house 21 people. This group included Mrs. Wolfinger, her child and the Donners' drivers.

It began to snow again on the evening of November 4. This would be the beginning of an eight-day storm.

By this time, there wasn’t much food left from the supplies that Stanton had brought back from Sutter's Fort. The oxen began to die, and bodies were frozen and stacked. Truckee Lake wasn’t frozen yet, but the group didn’t know how to catch lake trout. William Eddy was the most experienced hunter. He did manage to kill a bear, but didn’t have much luck after that. The Reed and Eddy families had lost almost everything. Margret Reed promised the Graves and Breen families she’d pay double when they got to California if they’d let her use three oxen. 

The group became desperate, and some of them thought that they might be able to navigate the pass without the wagons. In small groups they made several attempts, but had to return each time.

Another severe storm came. This one lasted more than a week, and covered the area so deeply in snow that the cattle and horses died and were lost. This was their only remaining food.

Patrick Breen began keeping a diary on November 20. In the beginning it mostly talked about the weather, marking the storms and how much snow had fallen, but then the tone changed, and the entries gradually began to include religious references.

To put it plainly, life at Truckee Lake was miserable. The cabins were cramped and dirty, and it snowed so much that people were stuck inside for days. They soon started eating ox hide. They would boil strips of it to make a sort of glue-like jelly. Ox and horse bones were boiled repeatedly to make soup. The bones would became so brittle that they would crumble when chewed. Bit by bit, the Murphy children picked apart the ox hide rug that lay in front of their fireplace, roasted it in the fire, and ate it.

The camp at Truckee Lake was failing. Augustus Spitzer and Baylis Williams (who was a driver for the Reeds) died. And they felt like they had to do something. Franklin Graves made 14 pairs of snowshoes out of oxbows and hide. On December 16, 17 of the group set out on foot in an attempt to cross the mountain pass. This was a grim and desperate move, three of the women who went on this snowshoe trek gave their young children to the women who stayed. They packed lightly, taking six days' rations, a rifle, a blanket each, a hatchet and some pistols, hoping to make their way to Bear Valley. This group would later come to be known as the ‘Forlorn Hope’.  

The snowshoes were awkward but effective on the climb. However, the members of the party weren’t well-nourished or used to camping in snow that was so deep. By the third day, most were snow-blind. The group set out again the morning of December 21. Stanton remained behind, saying he would follow shortly. His remains were would be found in that spot the following year. 

The group became lost and confused. After two more days without food, Patrick Dolan proposed one of them should volunteer to die in order to feed the others. Some suggested a duel, and there was also the thought of an attempt at a lottery. William Eddy suggested that they keep moving until someone simply fell. I can’t imagine how bad things would have to be to even think these sort of things, much less say them out loud. And then a blizzard forced the group to stop. Antonio, the animal handler, was the first to die. Franklin Graves would be the next casualty. 

As the blizzard progressed, Dolan became delirious and ran into the woods. He returned, but then died a few hours later. Not long after, some of the group began to eat flesh from Dolan's body. William Eddy, Salvador and Luis refused to eat. The group stripped the muscle and organs from the bodies of those that had died and dried them to store for the days ahead. They made sure that nobody would have to eat a relative. I know … this is terrible.

After resting, they set off again looking for the trail. William Eddy eventually gave in to his hunger and ate human flesh, but even that was soon gone. The group began taking apart their snowshoes to eat the oxhide webbing. The even discussed murdering the guides Luis and Salvador for food. William Eddy warned the two men, who quietly left. Jay Fosdick died during the night, leaving only seven members of the party. 

William Eddy and Mary Graves went to hunt. They returned with deer meat, but Fosdick's body had already been cut apart for food. After several days they came across Salvador and Luis, who hadn’t eaten for about nine days and were close to death. William Foster shot both men, and their bodies were butchered and dried for consumption. It had been 25 days since they had left the camp at Truckee Lake.

A few days later, the group stumbled into a Native American settlement. They looked so terrible that the Native Americans nearly ran away. They gave the group food. After a few days, William Eddy continued on to a ranch in a small farming community at the edge of the Sacramento Valley. A rescue party found the other six survivors on January 17. Their journey from Truckee Lake had taken 33 days.

As terrible as that all is, things weren’t any better for the people who had been left behind at the camp at Truckee Lake. After the people had left on snowshoes, two-thirds of those remaining at Truckee Lake camp were children. Mrs. Graves was in charge of eight, and Levinah Murphy and Eleanor Eddy together took care of nine children. They caught and ate mice that came into their cabins. Many were soon weakened and spent most of their time in bed. Occasionally one would be able to make the trek down to Alder Creek camp to see the Donners, but things were bad there too. Jacob Donner and three hired men died. One of those hired men, Joseph Reinhardt, confessed on his deathbed that he had lied about being attacked by Native Americans, and that he had actually murdered Wolfinger. George Donner's hand was infected. 

By January, they were facing starvation and considered eating the ox hides that was their roof. Margret Reed, Virginia Reed, Milt Elliott and Eliza Williams attempted to walk. They were gone for four days in the snow before they had to turn back. They decided to go ahead and eat the ox hide roof, but now they couldn’t live in their cabin. The family moved in with the Breens.

So the Donner party was scattered, and they needed help, badly. James Reed had made it to Sutter’s Fort in late October. He was safe and recovering, but worried about his family and the others at camp. Reed was able to convince a colonel at Fort Sutter to gather a team of men to cross the pass to rescue those at the camp. Reed, several men, and about 30 horses went to find the Donner party, carrying food and supplies. They didn’t find the Donner party on this try though. Heartbroken, they went back to Sutter’s Fort.

Then, another rescue party, which included William Eddy, attempted to rescue the Donner Party on February 4. They went through snow and storms across the pass to Truckee Lake, burying their food at stations along the way. On February 18, they scaled the pass, and began to shout. A haggard 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?’ Things were bad. The rescue party gave food out in small portions, worried that it might kill them if the emaciated survivors overate. 

All the cabins were buried in snow. The ox hide roofs had begun to rot, and the smell was overpowering. Thirteen people at the camps were dead, and their bodies had been loosely buried in snow near the cabin roofs. Some of the survivors seemed emotionally unstable. George Donner's arm was so gangrenous he couldn’t move. Twenty-three people left with the rescue party, which still left 21 in the cabins at Truckee Lake and twelve at Alder Creek. 

The rescuers hid the fate of the group who had left on snowshoes, telling the survivors that they didn’t return because they had been frostbitten. The youngest Reed children, Patty and Tommy were too weak to cross the snowdrifts, and no one was strong enough to carry them. They had to be taken back to Truckee Lake. Margaret made a rescuer swear on his honor as a Mason that he would return for her children. In a quote that I think shows just how hopeless they all felt, Patty told her mother: ‘Well, mother, if you never see me again, do the best you can.’ When they got back to the camp, the Breens refused to let them into their cabin. The children would only be grudgingly allowed in after the rescuers left more food.

The walk back over the pass was a struggle. John Denton and Ada Keseberg died. Some of the children ate the buckskin fringe from one of the rescuer's pants, and the shoelaces of another. On their way down from the mountains, they met the next rescue party, which included James Reed. Hearing his voice, Margret sank into the snow, overwhelmed. 

Things were still touch-and-go for the survivors after they were rescued. After they made it to Bear Valley, Jacob Donner's stepson William broke into food storage and fatally gorged himself. The others continued to Sutter's Fort.

On March 1, the second relief party arrived at Truckee Lake. Those rescuers included Reed and McCutchen. Reed was reunited with his daughter Patty and his son Tommy. The Breen cabin’s occupants were doing relatively well, but the Murphy cabin quote ‘passed the limits of description and almost of imagination’. Levinah Murphy was caring for her young son and the two young children of William Eddy and Foster and had mentally deteriorated, and was nearly blind. The children were listless and very dirty. Lewis Keseberg had moved in and could barely move due to an injured leg. 

The good news is that no one at Truckee Lake seems to have died between the leaving of the first rescue party and the arrival of the second. However, Patrick Breen told of a disturbing visit from Mrs. Murphy a few weeks earlier, who said her family was considering eating Milt Elliott. Reed and McCutchen would go on to find Milt's mutilated body. 

Things weren’t any better at the Alder Creek camp. The first members of the rescue party to reach it saw Trudeau carrying a human leg. When he saw them, he threw it into a hole in the snow that turned out to hold the dismembered remains of Jacob Donner. The rescuers discovered three other bodies had already been consumed. In the other tent, Tamsen Donner was well, but George was very ill because the infection had reached his shoulder.

This second rescue got 17 survivors out, only three of whom were adults. 

So now only five people remained at Truckee Lake: Keseberg, Mrs. Murphy and her son, and the young Eddy and Foster children. At Alder Creek, Tamsen Donner chose to stay with her sick husband after Reed told her that a third relief party would arrive soon. She kept her daughters with her. 

For the rescue party, the walk back to Bear Valley was very slow. A terrible blizzard came after they scaled the pass. When the storm passed, the Breen and Graves families, who hadn’t eaten for days, were too exhausted to move. The rescue party had no choice but to leave without them. The site where the Breens and Graves had been left became known as 'Starved Camp'. Margaret Breen tried to keep the members of the camp alive after the others left. However, Elizabeth Graves and her son Franklin died before the next rescue party could reach them. The people that remained had to eat the flesh of their dead bodies to survive. 

On their way to Truckee Lake, William Foster and William Eddy ran into Reed helping his children. They were all frostbitten and bleeding, but they were alive. Desperate to rescue their own children, Foster and Eddy went to Truckee Lake. On the way there, they found the eleven survivors at Starved Camp. The rescue party split, some staying to help the survivors at Starved Camp. Foster, Eddy, and the others headed toward Truckee Lake.

They arrived at Truckee Lake on March 14, but sadly found that their children had died. George Donner and one of Jacob Donner's children were still alive at Alder Creek. Tamsen Donner was at the Murphy cabin, and she chose to return to her husband, even though she was informed that no other relief party was likely to be coming soon. This third rescue party left with the Donner girls, young Simon Murphy, Trudeau and Clark. Levinah Murphy was too weak to leave, and Keseberg refused to go.

Two more rescue parties tried to get to Truckee Lake, but had to turn back.

Then, on April 10, what was now considered a salvage party would go to the camps. They found the Alder Creek tents empty except for the body of George Donner, who had died only days earlier. On their way back to Truckee Lake, they found Lewis Keseberg alive. According to him, Mrs. Murphy had died a week after the departure of the third rescue. Keseberg told them that Tamsen Donner had arrived at his cabin on her way over the pass, soaked and visibly upset, and that he’d put a blanket around her and told her to leave in the morning, but that she had died during the night. The salvage party was suspicious of Keseberg's story and would later find human remains in the cabin along with George Donner's pistols, jewelry and gold. Believing that Keseberg had murdered Tamsen, the salvage party threatened to lynch him.

News of the Donner Party spread all over the country.

In June 1847, members of the Mormon Battalion would go to the site of the Donner party camp. There, they buried the human remains, and partially burned two of the cabins.

Of the 87 members of the Donner party who entered the Mountains, only 48 survived. 

Lansford Hastings received death threats for his role in the disaster. 

Several of the widowed women remarried. 

The Reeds would settle in San Jose and two of the Donner children lived with them. Reed fared well in the California Gold Rush and was prosperous. 

The Breens settled in San Juan Bautista.

George and Tamsen Donner's children were taken in by an older couple near Sutter's Fort. 

William Eddy remarried and started a family in California. 

Keseberg would bring a defamation suit against several members of the salvage party who accused him of murdering Tamsen Donner. The court awarded him $1 in damages, but made him pay court costs. Keseberg didn’t go outside much, as he had become a pariah and was often threatened.

The site of the cabins became a tourist attraction as early as 1854. In June 1918 a statue dedicated to the Donner Party was placed on the spot where the Breen-Keseberg cabin was thought to have stood. The site was made a California Historical Landmark in 1934. 

The State of California created the Donner Memorial State Park in 1927. The park receives over 200,000 visitors a year.

And that’s the story of the Donner Party. It’s a long, detailed, horrible and grisly story, which is why I chose to tell it for the Spooktacular. There are still two more episodes of the Spooktacular coming up, and I promise that neither of them will have any cannibalism in them! Until then, Stay Spooky everyone!

Production and Marketing assistance provided by Stephanie Fuccio of Coffeelike Media.

History.com / NPS.gov / Brittanica / Wikipedia