Cowboy Kisses: The Tragedy of the Ill-Fated Donner Party

The Donner Party was named for a group of American pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed. Setting out from Illinois to California on May 1846, they were forced to spend the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

The Hasting’s Cut Off

To promote his new route, Lansford W. Hastings sent riders to deliver letters to emigrants traveling on wagon trains that told them of a new and better road to California. He said he’d be waiting at Fort Bridger to guide them through the other side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Lansford Hastings

Most of the wagon train chose to follow the established trail via Fort Hall. A smaller group decided to head for Fort Bridger and needed a leader. George Donner was the group's first choice. They had no idea at the time but following the Hasting’s Cutoff was a tragic mistake for the Donner Party.

They soon found the terrain much more difficult than described. Hastings didn’t guide the party like he said he would, he only rode part way, indicating the general direction to follow. The group had to decide whether to turn back or forge their own trail and at Reed's urging the group chose the new Hastings route. They faced great hardships in crossing several steep rugged mountains and several burning deserts.

Rejoining the Traditional Trail

On September 26, two months after embarking on the cutoff, the Donner Party rejoined the traditional trail along a stream now known as the Humboldt River.

James and Margaret Reed

Two wagons became tangled, and John Snyder angrily beat the ox of Reed's hired teamster Milt Elliott. When Reed intervened, Snyder turned the whip on him. Reed retaliated by fatally plunging a knife under Snyder's collarbone. That evening it was decided that Reed had to leave the camp but his family would stay and the others would take care of them.

The company had lost nearly 100 oxen and cattle, and their rations were almost completely depleted. They had to cross one more stretch of desert but then they came to the beautiful lush country of Truckee River.

The company pressed on to cross the mountains before the snows came. Stanton, one of a two-man party who’d left a month earlier to seek assistance in California, found the company, and he’d brought mules, food, and two Miwok Native Americans named Luis and Salvador.

William Pike was killed when a gun being loaded by William Foster was negligently discharged. They resumed their journey, with one last push over the mountains. An axle broke on one of the Donner wagons and as George Donner was making a new one he accidentally sliced his hand open. At the time, it seemed a superficial wound.

George Donner

Snow Bound

Snow began to fall but all the families made it up the vertical, 1,000 feet slope to Truckee Lake except for the Donners, who camped five miles below them, half a day's journey away. Of the 60 at Truckee Lake, 19 were men over 18, 12 were women, and 29 were children. Close to Alder Creek, the Donner families constructed tents to house 21 people, 6 men, 3 women, and 12 children in all.

Hardly any food was left from the supplies Stanton had brought back from Sutter's Fort. Spitzer died, then Baylis Williams.

News came from the Donner camp that Jacob Donner and three hired men had died. One of them, Joseph Reinhardt, confessed on his deathbed that he had murdered Wolfinger. At about the same time, George Donner's hand became infected, which left only four men to work at the Donner camp.

Forlong Hope

Franklin Graves made 14 pairs of snowshoes out of oxbows and hide. When completed, a party of 17 men, women, and children set out on foot to cross the mountain pass. This snowshoe party was known as the Forlorn Hope.

Vintage Trapper Snowshoe

Stanton straggled behind for several days, then remained behind, saying he’d follow shortly. His remains were found in that location the following year. The next people who died were Antonio the animal handler, Franklin Graves, and Patrick Dolan. Then, possibly because 12-year-old Lemuel Murphy was near death, some of the group resorted to eating Dolan's body. Even so, Lemuel's brother still died of starvation. Eddy, Salvador, and Luis refused to resort to cannibalism. Then, Jay Fosdick died. Only seven members of the party were left.

Those seven members came across Salvador and Luis, who were close to death since they hadn’t eaten for nine days. William Foster thought the only way the group could avoid starving to death was to eat the two Miwoks, so he killed them.

The group stumbled into a Miwok camp, and the Native Americans shared their food, acorns, grass, and pine nuts, with them. After a few days, Eddy continued on with the help of a Miwok Indian and made it to a ranch at the edge of the Sacramento Valley. A rescue party was quickly assembled and they found the other six survivors on January 17.

Reed’s Rescue Attempt

Reed made it out of the Sierra Nevada to Rancho Johnson in late October. He pleaded with Colonel John C. Frémont to gather a team of men to cross the pass and help the Donner Party, but they didn’t find anyone in the river valley, so they had to turn back.

First Relief

On February 18, a seven-man rescue party scaled what is now called Donner Pass. Three of the rescue party went to the Donners’ camp and brought back four children and three adults. The gangrene was so bad in George Donner's arm that he couldn’t move. Twenty-three people were chosen to go with the rescue party, leaving twenty-one in the cabins at Truckee Lake and twelve at Alder Creek.

Donner Pass

Second Relief

When the second rescue party arrived at Truckee Lake, they found that the survivors had resorted to cannibalism, eating the remains of the dead. The second relief evacuated 17 survivors from Truckee Lake, only three of were adults.

Only five people were left at Truckee Lake: Keseberg, Mrs. Murphy and her son Simon, and the young Eddy and Foster children. Tamsen Donner chose to stay with her ailing husband after Reed informed her that a third relief party would arrive soon. She also kept her daughters Eliza, Georgia, and Frances with her.

Tragically, on the way back to Bear Valley a violent blizzard arose and five-year-old Isaac Donner froze to death. When the storm passed, the Breen and Graves families were too exhausted to move, so the relief party had to leave without them. Three members of the relief party stayed, one at Truckee Lake and two at Alder Creek.

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. They met Reed helping his children, all frostbitten and bleeding but alive. Desperate to rescue their own children, Foster and Eddy persuaded four men to return to Truckee Lake with them. Halfway there they found the crudely mutilated and eaten remains of two children and Mrs. Graves, with one-year-old Elizabeth Graves crying beside her mother's body. Eleven survivors were there. Two rescuers, hoping to save the healthiest, each took a child and left. John Stark refused to leave the others and led the nine remaining Breens and Graves to Bear Valley.

Third Relief

Foster and Eddy reached Truckee Lake on March 14, but their children were dead. Keseberg told Eddy that he’d eaten the remains of Eddy's son. George Donner and one of Jacob Donner's children were still alive at Alder Creek. Tamsen Donner had just arrived at the Murphy cabin, and she could have walked out alone, but she chose to return to her husband. Foster and Eddy and the rest of the third relief left with four children, Trudeau, and Clark.

Salvage Party

About a month after the third relief left Truckee Lake, a salvage party went to the Donner camp and found that George Donner had died only days earlier. On their way back to Truckee Lake, they found Lewis Keseberg alive. He told them Mrs. Murphy died a week after the departure of the third relief, and a few weeks later Tamsen Donner stopped at his cabin on her way over the pass and died during the night. Keseberg was the last member of the Donner Party to arrive at Sutter's Fort on April 29, 1847.

What Happened to the Survivors

Marry Murphy - Donner Party Survivor

Mary Murphy was the daughter of Levinah Jackson Murphy, a widow traveling with her family. Levinah died at the lake camp in March 1847, but Mary survived. She was 13 when she was rescued by the First Relief. She’d lost her mother and five other family members, but just months after her rescue, she married William Johnson, co-owner of Johnson's Ranch. He treated her badly, but as a poor orphan she felt she had little choice. She soon divorced Johnson, and married Charles Covillaud. He founded a town on his land, and named it Marysville for her.

Marysville Hotel

All of the members of the Breen family survived and settled in San Juan Bautista, California. William Eddy, lost his wife and his two children, but he settled in Gilroy, California, where he remarried and had three children. Jacob and George Donner and their wives died but their surviving orphaned children reached Sutter's Fort and they they all found good homes. All of the Reed family members survived and settled in San Jose where James Reed became a miner, rancher, and land developer. He made a fortune in real estate speculation. Franklin and Elizabeth Graves died in the mountains, but six of their eight children survived. They married and had children of their own. William Foster and his wife Sarah settled along the Yuba River and the village of Foster's Bar is named for him.