Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Donner Party For Western Wednesday...!

Hopefully none of us will ever have to undergo the trials and hardships suffered by the Donner party in their effort to reach California. Just shows how adventurous some folks can be, I reckon

Donner Party rescued from the Sierra Nevada Mountains

In the summer of 1846, in the midst of a Western-bound fever sweeping the United States, 89 people–including 31 members of the Donner and Reed families–set out in a wagon train from Springfield, Illinois. After arriving at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, the emigrants decided to avoid the usual route and try a new trail recently blazed by California promoter Lansford Hastings, the so-called “Hastings Cutoff.” After electing George Donner as their captain, the party departed Fort Bridger in mid-July. The shortcut was nothing of the sort: It set the Donner Party back nearly three weeks and cost them much-needed supplies. After suffering great hardships in the Wasatch Mountains, the Great Salt Lake Desert and along the Humboldt River, they finally reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains in early October. Despite the lateness of the season, the emigrants continued to press on, and on October 28 they camped at Truckee Lake, located in the high mountains 21 kilometers northwest of Lake Tahoe. Overnight, an early winter storm blanketed the ground with snow, blocking the mountain pass and trapping the Donner Party.

Most of the group stayed near the lake–now known as Donner Lake–while the Donner family and others made camp six miles away at Alder Creek. Building makeshift tents out of their wagons and killing their oxen for food, they hoped for a thaw that never came. Fifteen of the stronger emigrants, later known as the Forlorn Hope, set out west on snowshoes for Sutter’s Fort near San Francisco on December 16. Three weeks later, after harsh weather and lack of supplies killed several of the expedition and forced the others to resort to cannibalism, seven survivors reached a Native American village.

News of the stranded Donner Party traveled fast to Sutter’s Fort, and a rescue party set out on January 31. Arriving at Donner Lake 20 days later, they found the camp completely snowbound and the surviving emigrants delirious with relief at their arrival. Rescuers fed the starving group as well as they could and then began evacuating them. Three more rescue parties arrived to help, but the return to Sutter’s Fort proved equally harrowing, and the last survivors didn’t reach safety until late April. Of the 89 original members of the Donner Party, only 45 reached California.

I can only imagine the joy felt when the rescue party showed up! Not something that I would ever want to experience first hand...the despair, not the rescue.

Coffee in the kitchen this morning. Peach cobbler if anyone wants a taste.

6 comments:

Mamahen said...

I had read stories about this before...it must have been horrible. I bant e en imagine what they went through...Hope you are feeling better! The kichen sounds lovely, and peach cobbler, yum:))

linda m said...

What a horrible thing to happen to these people. I read their story and it made me cry. I can't even begin to imagine what they went thru. Peach cobbler sounds wonderful. Snowing again here.

Rob said...

That's a famous story in our history, who in reader land hadn't heard of it before this? With poor decisions and cannibalism it's a"good story".

But because I've "Always" know about it doesn't mean that everyone knows about it. So many stories I hear here (on your blog) are things I'm hearing for the first time... this story is one I thought everyone knew about... I'm realized making an assumption.

Peach cobbler? I'm on the way!

(I'm in mid Florida, I'm going to figure you're in Houston [everyone has to be somewhere, why not there?] Google maps... Orange City to Houston.... 84 hr by bicycle!)

HermitJim said...

Hey Mamahen...
I hope that none of us ever have to experience something like that! Terrible.
Thanks for stopping by this morning!


Hey Linda...
It seems to me that this was caused in part to bad decisions on their part, but inexperience had to play a big role also.
Thanks for coming over today!


Hey Rob...
I figured that nearly everyone had heard at least a part of the story, but you just never know.
Thanks for the visit today!

JO said...

These folks endured so much and unfortunetly they had to do horrible things to survive.

Down to 27 again but heat wave this afternoon of 54 degrees. Much rather be at you place on the patio and bonus you must be feeling better.

Dizzy-Dick said...

My family, including me, was snowed in for quite awhile. It started snowing on Thanksgiving eve and didn't quite until we had over four feet of snow. Because our outside doors opened outward, we had to crawl out windows but couldn't go anywhere. That snow shut down everything. That was when I was growing up in western Pennsylvania.