Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blopost #5

     So now there were three places where the survivors were: Alder Creek, the cabins, and the rescue party, or "Starved Camp". The recent blizzard had forced the people in Starved Camps to stay put and rendered them to be immobile. A person or two died over the next two nights and when the sun came out for a little bit, the group was weak. More than half of the group were too weak to make the journey down and some decided to stay there while the stronger ones travel ahead. Only three people rescued from the camps were in the rescue party now with the rescuers and thirteen people stayed behind. At the same time, the other rescue party that had Woodworth and two or three other men were starting their journey. Back to the cabins and Alder Creek, there were three rescuers that stayed behind to care for the survivors. Charles Cady and Charles Stone, two out of the three, wanted to flee the camps and head back to civilization. Even though the camps had enough food, they still decided to leave. They had wanted to rescue the survivors at first but now their intentions grew cloudy. They made a deal with Tamzene Donner that they would bring her three young daughters with them for money; they took the girls to the camps but a snowfall stalled them for the night The next morning they revealed a shocking truth; they didn't plan to bring the Donner girls with them and decided to flee and not rescue anyone. At all. They met the Starved Camp along the way but avoided it, not even making their presence known; they didn't even offer to carry a child with them. Woodworth and his men heard noises one night and decided to investigate; they found the rescue group that was coming down. The Woodworth group shared provisions and warmth and for the night the rescue group slept with a full belly. Two men from the Forlorn Hope, the group that first made it to safety, had wanted to go back to rescue their family. William Eddy and William Foster wanted to save their own child that was still stuck in the mountains, so they supplied themselves and headed into the mountains. They ran into the Woodworth's group just as they bumped into the Reed group, which brought news that their children may still be alive on the mountain top. The men talked about what to do next and everyone urged Woodworth to go back and mount another rescue party. He didn't budged and kept making excuses for not going; the men thought he was a coward. He finally agreed and  Reed and 6 other men decided to return back to the survivors while everyone else went back to form another party, maybe the last. Back at Starved Camp, the people had agreed to butched the corpses and eat them; it was a gruesome sight. Eleven people cramped in a hole would eat the flesh of their dead companions, some relatives to those people. By the time the Reed party came, they found around 4 cut-up corpses above the snow. Though the seven-man party had come back, it doesn't mean much when most of the people from Starved Camp couldn't walk. Eddy and Foster decided to go ahead to search for their children with two other men. The three others couldn't possibly aid all eleven people down a mountain. Charles Stone, who came back to redeem himself, and Howard Oakley argued that they should carry who they can and abandon the rest; John Stark didn't think that way. He was a hefty built man and he started a miraculous feat. He would carried two small children on his shoulders, drop them off, and then went back to do the same process for everyone else. He kept doing this and evenually the survivors from Starved Camp were rescued. Back at Alder Creek, healthy Tamzene Donner was caring for her husband George Donner, who was drifting in and out of death. The last rescuer who had stayed there was deciding to leave, since, according to him, the people in this area were almost dead. When Tamzene heard that her daughters were at the cabins, she decided to check on them and went there. The Eddy-Foster party had made it to the cabins and they wanted to know whether or not their sons were alive. Sadly, their sons died and were even cannibalised by the survivors. But they found four children alive at the cabins and vowed to save them. They didn't want to make the extra journey to Alder Creek but Donner was adamant; she marched back to where her husband was, leaving her daughters to watch her leaving figure. They made it back to civilization and there was one last rescue party that was preparing to leave. They left late March but when they reached the snow, they headed back; their reasons were unknown. But this left a horrible realization: that no help would be coming to anyone left on the mountains until spring. When William Fallon returned with one survivor from the camps in mid-April, everyone was wondering what had happen. Fallon traveled up there to see flesh, butched corpses, and organs lying around; Lewis Keseberg was the only survivor rescued in April. By April 1874, only 45 out of the 81 that first started in the Doner Party survived, and 36 died. That summer, researchers and people began the travel up the Donner pass to survey the destruction. Mummified human remains laid about skeletons were everywhere. They gathered the bones in a cabin and burned it down to laid the dead to rest. By 1891, the Truckee Lake had become Donner Lake  and other locations such as the notch between the mountain peaks was called Donner Pass, while the nearby summit was Donner Peak. After the remaining Donner party was rescued, everyone thought that they were people that betray and don't care for each other. This view ended when a society built a monument of the Donner's conquerage of the mountains. They were then known in a better light.

 

"For the Donner Party, the journey was finished" (Rarick 227).

 

     I chose this quote because this quote signified the ending of their journey to the west. They had looked forward to a better life in the west but were caught up in bad timing and choices. This led to their downfall that gradually affected everyone in this group. They survived through starvation, cannibalism, harsh weather, and misfortune. All of this ended with about half of the party dead and with life-remembering memories that scarred the survivors. This short quote just wrapped thier journey to a close.

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blogpost #4

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blogpost #4
          Reed made use of his time by joining the war between Mexico and America over Mexican territory. He became an officer in the small battle and once in a while he would ted to his land for his family when they arrive. During this time, the Donner party were suffering. Lice appeared and one year old Harriet McCutchan was the most affected. She would scratch until she bled so the adults tied her arms to her sides; they had to block out her screams from their ears. The whole party were starving from lack of food and people began to died every 2 or 3 days. The survivors didn’t have enough strength to bury them in the ground, which was under a few feet of snow, so they covered them with the snow. Out of the five dogs the Reeds had, only one lived so they killed it and ate it  for temporary food. Starvation was getting to the party now and they wished that hope came soon. By mid- January, the Forlorn Hope party had arrived at Johnson’s Ranch; the place was too small to mount a rescue team so they had people from Sutter’s Fort to assembly it. About three weeks after the Forlorn Hope arrived, the rescue team left to the peaks. In about two weeks, they arrived at the cabins to find that no one greeted them. They called out and were confronted with the emaciated emigrants. This was only the rescuers’ first stop because they had to travel to Alder Creek where the rest of the group was staying. The returned trip was tomorrow and about half of the party was unable to travel. Before when the Forlorn Hope was created, it consisted of young adults while the other adults stayed to watch over the children; now it’s the opposite because this group was mostly made up of children and teens. The rescue group left the sick and the weak at the cabins. The rescue group was also struggling as they descended because they began to run out of food. A few more people died while they were walking down and even their situation was becoming desperate. When the rescuers left, the remaining group left behind began talking about eating the dead, though they didn’t do it yet, as if saving this opinion as their last resort. While the rescue group was heading back down, Reed was assembling his own rescue team. Selim Woodworth volunteered for the job of making another rescue group after Reed and they began to plan. On February 23rd, Reed’s group mounted up the mountain. They met up with the returning group and shared food. Once hearin that there were more people at the cabins, Reed urged his men to save the rest and the survivors to continue down. At the camps, the remainers were going crazy. Their last source of food was lying out in the snow and it was unknown on who took a knife, but they took the knife and went out into the snow. Meanwhile, the survivors heading down made it to Johnson's Ranch on March 7th and were treated. Back to the camps, what the remainers didn't know was that Indians were watching them since their climb up the mountains. They thoguht that the emigrants were inhuman but their fear turnned into sympathy and they left 5-6 roots as food; they didn't appear in front of the party again. The Reed rescue party were desperate to arrive at the camps as soon as possible because their quickness could save a few more lives; even though they were exhausted, they didn't want to waste time. When they arrived at the camps, they also thought that everyone was dead since no one greeted them. They saw a guresome sight; butcher corpses, bones, and skulls laid around. Well, this was the sorry according to Reed and his men nine months after the rescue. So the rescue went around and gathered people who were strong enough that could travel down the mountain. The next morning they led down seventeen people, most who were children. Reed left three men with the remaining fourteen people at the camps. Even though Reed's group left with some of the survivors, they were low on food quickly. To make matters worse, a blizzard appeared and they had to camp. The storm disabled them from hunting and staying out for more than ten minutes so the only thing they could do outside was to gather wood for their fire.

"Margret Reed told her children that when she and Levinah Murphy removed Milt Elliott's body from the cabin, they were so weak they had to drag it by the hair" (Rarick 158).

           I chose this quote because it struck me as odd and a bit harsh. Milt Elliott was an employee of the Reeds family and he was so close to Margret that he would called her "Ma". Now after his death, the person he called Ma is dragging his corpse by his hair. That was the harsh part but when I read over the part "drag it by the hair", I had to read it over. Reed had just described Elliott not by "him", but by "it" instead. It made me think for a while about it this was a typo or just on purpose. Just this one word made Elliott seemed like a thing instead of a human, and maybe it was a sort of foreshadowing for the future because when the Donner party does eat their dead companions, they probably forced themselves to think that they were gnawing on the flesh of something and not someone

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blogpost #3

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West- Blogpost #3

            Stanton, one of the men who went ahead for supplies weeks before, was returning back to the camp. After parting ways with Reed, he and two accompanying Indians appeared before the group. The materials he brought were low, but the group was relieved and thought that their hardships had pasted; they now have food and guides to lead them back into civilization. They thought wrong. Winter approached the party and their traveling pace slowed down by the soft snow that was piling up. Near the top of the mountain is a small passage that families traveled through to get to the other side. It was nighttime by the time the Donner party arrived there and it was snowing really hard; tired and exhausted, the team decided to past through in the morning and camped at their current place. During the night, the snow piled up so much that passing through was impossible and the party, discouraged, descended down the mountain to a lake below. All of their travels were meant to pass that point before winter came and they failed; now they have to stay there for the winter. While the team was climbing the mountains, Reed reached Sutter’s Fort and found McCutchan, the man that was too sick to travel back to the party before. They traveled back to the group but the snow and current conditions made it impossible; they reassured themselves that the group had enough cattle and food to provide them until the spring. Somehow, the families within the Donner Party separated into two; one stayed at the cabins while another at Alder Creek. At first, someone with enough strength would go out to hunt, giving them a bit more food, but not enough. The families soon became desperate and they sent out a team of people strong enough to travel ahead for rescue. The rescue failed and the group returned, sulking. One person who wrote a diary during the ordeal at the site was Patrick Breen, who wrote small notes about each day. He mentioned the snow falling for days, where they couldn’t even go out. This snowfall caused a decrease in the food stock and the cattle and mules were buried under the snow, making it impossible to find the frozen corpses. One day in December, Franklin Graves noted that they would have to try for a rescue attempt again. This group was called the “Forlorn Hope” and Graves created weaved snowshoes that they could use. Everyone knew that if this party didn’t go receive aid, then they would all die.  Then Rarick talked about cannibalism and how even before the Donner party, other people were doing it too. They had their own reasons; either for their religion of sacrificing or for the sake of their survival. In the Forlorn Hope’s situation, the second reason would be the case. Their food supply soon depleted and half of the members died as they made their way to help. Starving, the remaining group began ravishing their dead companions’ decaying flesh. They had the difficult decision on who to eat first, and this stalled any killings before someone recently died and that person became their sacrifice. The problem soon popped up; they ran out of food. This kept going until they made it back to civilization on January 17 with only seven members; they started out with seventeen, two returned to the camps, and eight died. Back at the camps, the emancipated families were starving. A few people died and they had to lock themselves in their dark makeshift holes where they live. The Forlorn Hope group was mostly made out of young adults, so about half the camp was filled with young children and teens. The Margaret Reed had an idea; she and her children would set out for help like the Forlorn group. She took her two oldest children with her and left her other children with the Breens. The attempt failed and when they returned to the camps, their home was not suitable for living since the roof was gone. They roomed with the Breens and they had a little meat left, which they gave small nibbles to the children.

“Now the emigrants had proven it was possible to break free” (Rarick 143).

            I chose this quote because it signified that there was hope for the remaining Donner party after all. The party started out as a group that was behind on the trail and in a series of unfortunate events, they are in this hopeless, jail-like situation with no food and trapped in cramp holes in the snow. In many failed attempts to get in touch with help, this group went into extremes and took up cannibalism between those who they spent their travels with recently. They started with inexperience emigrants that wanted a better life for themselves and their families in the west, but their journey took a wrong turn. They were trapped in an isolated part of the mountains were no one was around and taking a risk, part of the Donner party finally arrived at their goal.

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West Blogpost #2

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West Blogpost #2

            The group had no objections James Reed’s opinion to follow the new route and they began to separate from the main trail. The only one skeptical was Tamzene Donner, who noted that they never met Hastings and all of a sudden they decided to go along on his trail that could decide their fate. They still went on their journey to California, heading towards Fort Bridger to meet with Hastings and follow his group on the trail. Newspaperman Edwin Bryant traveled with the Donner Party and decided to gallop ahead from the main group. His concern was that the wagons’ pace was too slow. He met Hastings and Joseph Walker, an experience mountain man, there at the fort; Walker spoke disapprovingly about the new trail. Nevertheless, Bryant and a few other men decided to take the risk and went along on the new trail. Bryant’s new worry was that his condition and the Donner’s condition were different since single men can avoid hazards while wagons and families cannot. He left a letter with the fort operator with messages and left. The Donner party came nine days later at the fort to find that their promising man had deserted them. Upset, they looked for other routes and found one that would lead them back to the main route with everyone else. There’s some dramatic irony in here because historians founded out that the fort was losing business because the main trail was far off. To keep business coming, they didn’t deliver Bryant’s warning and told the Donner party that Hastings’s trail was perfect to travel on. The Donner party decided to follow the Hastings path again; they had two chances to decide whether or not to follow the main route or Hastings trail, and twice they chose Hastings’s path. Six days after leaving the fort, they found a note from Hastings telling them to find him so he can lead them to a safer path since the one ahead goes through a canyon. Three people, James Reed, Charles Stanton, and William Pike, left to go ahead to scout for Hastings. They found him and leaving Stanton and Pike with Hastings’s current group to recover, Reed and Hastings went back; Hastings broke his word again and instead of leading the Donner party himself, he pointed out a path to Reed with the point of his finger and returned to his previous party. Reed joined back with his party and they began to follow Hastings’s poorly pointed out map. They couldn’t go back and retrace their steps since it would be too time-consuming so they decided to follow Hastings’s new, and barely existed, path. They travel through the canyon, crossed a river many times, and hacked their way through a jungle-like forest. Moving ahead took days and their crossing took two weeks off their precious time. The Donner party knew that they were far behind the main group of emigrants that were heading west but a few parties were even behind them. Two smaller parties joined with the Donner party, which completed all the members in the tragic to come. The party was heading towards the Great Salt Lake Desert, where water was non-drinkable, grass was scarce, and resources were low. In the desert, the rich Reed family that had the most cattle and materials lost it and were lower to a poor family that had to be supported by another. After spending so much time in the wilderness or with each other, the tensions within the party were increasing. Stress sky-rocketed and it burst out into a fight between Reed and Snyder, a person in the party. In a flash of chaos and confusion, Reed stabbed him and Snyder used his ox whip to gash Reed’s head. They were both bleeding but by the end, Snyder died. The party buried him and in a court-like case, the party banished their leader from the party. Reed decided to rode out ahead to return with food for his family and left, accompanied by Walter Herron. They rode out to the point where they ran out of food and became delirious until they met Stanton with another party. He was returning back to the Donner party with provisions, saying that Pike was too sick to make the journey back. Stanton traveled back to the Donner party while Reed went to a fort to bring back more supplies. Along the way, the Donner party had encounters with Indians. Unlike before, when the Indians would have dinner with them, they began to steal cattle and provisions and in a week or so, the Donner party had lost half of their food source. After making it through the desert, they encounter an oasis with much joy.

“They had six hundred more miles to go” (Rarick 66).

            I chose this quote because this was right after the Donner party had passed through the canyon. In this canyon, they spent much time to pass through it. They had to upload and reload their wagons so they could be transported across and cut through the thick forest with families. Single men could quickly go through these obstacles but it would take time for families, wagons, and children to pass through them. Even though the Donner party had only passed this trial, they still had a desert and other unforeseen dangers that lurk ahead.