*Author’s Note: This is a very complex event spanning many months. I have not included every single event that happened. This is a simple recount of the most important/interesting events. In addition, my sources are the journals and interviews from the people involved, and they aren’t 100% clear all the time. Some encounters may be exaggerated. This article mentions acts of cannibalism.*
In the Beginning
One of the most well-known survivalist cases within the mountains was the Donner Party. The case is most well-known for the cannibalistic acts that took place to allow others to survive, and the poor timing for travel. During the Westward Expansion, many people traveled in wagon trains consisting of different families to ensure safe travel.
In between the West Coast and the Midwest is the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which requires careful passage on specific paths with the right timing and proper resources. The most common paths to take were the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the Santa Fe Trail. These trails allowed for relatively easy passage over the Sierra Nevada mountains, granting the wagons left at the right time in spring or summer to avoid getting caught in the mountains over the winter months.
The Donner Party initially started in April of 1846 in Springfield, Illinois. The wagon train consisted of the Donner family and the Reed family. Later along the California Trail, the Donners and Reeds picked up the Been, Murphy, Foster, Eddy, and Grave families, plus maids and drivers, and some other single men. The entire wagon trail consisted of up to 87 individuals, ages spanning from a newborn baby to a 70-year-old woman.
Hastings Cutoff
The wagon trains’ last stops in October were in Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger to gather supplies, when they met a faithful traveler: Lansford W. Hastings, who claimed he designed a shortcut through the mountains called Hastings Cutoff. The group was desperate to get over the mountains at this point, and they had around 500 miles left to travel and just three months to do so. So, with seemingly no other options–other than to stay at one of the forts for the winter–they decided to venture on the Hastings Cutoff.
They reached the start of the cutoff on July 31st with just 3 months remaining–if winter came early this year–and 500 miles to cover at wagon pace (10-15 miles per day). At this point in time, the wagon train certainly should have returned to the forts, as the first snowfall is typically expected for early December, and getting trapped by snow wasn’t ideal. However, Lansford W. Hastings promised the trail was easy terrain and was wagon safe, in addition to the fact that he had travelled it and promised to escort people through if they reached Sutter’s fort in time.
Unfortunately, the Donner Party did not arrive in time to leave with Hastings, and could only rely on his guidebook, which was published about a year earlier, and some pieces of paper with instructions nailed to trees by the earlier wagon train. On August 10th, two outriders from the wagon train encounter Lansford Hastings himself. He warns them of the potential dangers on the route they were going to initially take and proposes they literally blaze a new trail to avoid these complications; the only obstacle Hastings mentions is a 40-mile desert where they need to carry water.
However, it turns out yet again that Hastings is a lying man, and there are two deserts. One being 40 miles, another being 80 miles. These deserts within the Sierra Nevada take them an entire month, the journey beginning on September 3rd and ending on October 7th. Deaths and losses of oxen were estimated at over 30. It was very slow going, and they were constantly having to abandon wagons and supplies. During this month, two people died; one of those deaths occurred from an unfortunate driving accident. You see, one driver had gotten their wagon entangled with another driver’s wagon. Accounts differ as to exactly what happened.
Even then, what is known is that the drivers were a part of the Reed and Graves families. When they began to fight, the father of the Reed family, James Reed, attempted to intervene and stop the fight. The Graves driver then hit him on the head with a whip handle, and James Reed fatally stabbed the Graves driver. Due to the fact that the Donner Party was in Mexican territory, they had to govern themselves. The debate went around for a while before the majority of the wagon train decided to cast him out with a horse, food, and a rifle with the intention to send him to a fort just outside of the Sierra Nevada mountains; Sutter’s Fort that is.
Long story short, by early November, an estimated 50 oxen were killed, abandoned, or stolen as the Donner Party reached Truckee Lake and Alder Creek, where they became snowed in and stuck for the foreseeable future.
The Forlorn Hope
The Donner Party was stuck for months. These months were spent miserably with no food, small, dirty cabins, and not a lot of hope. At this point, not much is happening within the camps. This is when the Forlorn Hope is formed and sent out. The Forlorn Hope was a group sent out on December 16th that consisted of 15 individuals who were deemed the strongest. They had three guides, two of whom were Native American. Lewis, Salvador, and Charles Stanton, who had travelled the route with Hastings before. The Forlorn Hope packed about 6 days of food. They initially planned on reaching the fort by day 8, but they missed their turnaround on day 6.
You see, Charles Stanton had died of hypothermia on December 21st, five days after the Forlorn Hope had set off, so one of their guides who had known the route wasn’t there to correct them. Regardless, they missed the turn and became lost. The Forlorn Hope was going more and more days with no food, and disaster struck on December 22nd. The group came to a halt because of a snowstorm that lasted until December 26th. On December 24th, somebody in the group suggested cannibalism. Accounts differ; however, it is generally agreed upon that Patrick Dolan was the one to initially suggest it.
At this point of being stuck in the camp, 11 of the 15 travelers had died, and three of the bodies were in the vicinity. After some discussion, the Forlorn Hope resorted to cannibalism. While the storm was still raging, the two Native American guides sensed the danger they might be in and left the group at night. You see, at this time in history, Native American lives were less valued than white lives. Considering the Forlorn Hope had already eaten people and may resort to killing people, they suspected they may be the next victims. In addition to this, the Native American guides refused to eat human flesh, rendering them weaker than the rest of the group; they departed in the night, leaving the Forlorn Hope without any guides.
After a while, more of the Forlorn Hope group were able to leave the camp and move on. Several days later, they encountered Lewis and Salvador once again. The two were frail and weak from weeks without proper food. Accounts differ, but, allegedly, either William Foster or Patrick Breen shot Lewis and Salvador on January 9th, roughly 24 days after the group had set off for their journey. The Forlorn Hope was once again desperate and resorted to cannibalism. When the Forlorn Hope finally escaped the mountains, only 7 of the original 15 travelers survived the entire journey. They found themselves at Johnson’s Ranch in late January, almost two months after they first left the Truckee Lake camp, where James Reed had heard about the camp stuck in the mountains. As it turns out, James Reed had actually been saved from the grisly fate of the rest of the wagon train. Note: at the Truckee Lake camp and Alder Creek camp, many had died, and everyone had resorted to cannibalism by January 1st.
The Rescue
James Reed joined the effort, encouraging more people to join the rescue parties and informing a General from the Navy of the predicament the Donner Party was in. On February 5th, 1847, the very first relief team set out from Sutter’s Fort to retrieve members of the Donner Party. In February, the first rescue party arrived at the Truckee Lake Camp. However, to them, it seemed as if no one was there. When they called out, a woman appeared, several others following. One of the rescuers wrote in their journal, “They were gaunt with famine, and I never can forget the horrible, ghastly sight they presented. The first woman spoke in a hollow voice, very much agitated, and said, ‘Are you men from California or do you come from heaven?’”
These survivors of the Donner Party had gone several months without food and had to resort to cannibalism for survival, with dozens of them dying from starvation, hypothermia, and frostbite. Although they cannibalized people, they made sure no one consumed the flesh of their own kin, and no child was consumed. The first relief party left as many provisions as they could without jeopardizing their own safety and gathered 23 people, leaving on February 22nd. On the way back down the mountain, the first relief party encountered the second relief party. On this fateful day, February 28th, James Reed is united with his entire family, miraculously, all still alive with little to no injuries; the relief parties exchange information and continue on their separate ways.
The second relief party arrives at the lake on March 1st, where they can see the evidence of cannibalism. The second relief party leaves three of their own men behind to help prepare the weaker people for the third relief party, while the second relief takes 17 people from the Alder Creek and Truckee Lake camps. Later, around March 3rd, two of the rescuers take three Donner children, promising their mother the rescuers will keep them safe and escort them out. Instead, they dropped the Donner girls off at Truckee Lake and left. At this point in time, the journals do not mention anything about the third rescuer and never do again.
As the second relief team is approaching the peak of the mountain that takes them down to Johnson’s ranch they get caught in a snowstorm, they make camp and light a fire however due to the fact they are on a peak, snow is actively falling, and the fire they created is melting the snow beneath them, they sink into a sort of bowl on top of the mountain, for two days they are stuck waiting for the storm to end. By March 7th, most of the refugees cannot move, and the rescuers don’t have the manpower to carry them, so they gather 3 children of the 17 individuals and leave the rest, telling them the third relief is on its way.
The third relief is in fact on its way, but doesn’t get there in time, three of the refugees at the peak die of hypothermia and are consumed by the others. On March 12th, the third rescue party finds them on their way to Truckee Lake and Alder Creek camp. One of the rescuers stays behind and escorts the peak survivors down. When the third relief party reaches the Truckee and Alder Creek camps, only four people are healthy enough to walk, leaving five people back at the camps.
These five people include Lewis Keseburg. Now the fourth relief party arrives at the Truckee Lake camp on April 17th, assuming there would be no survivors are surprised and horrified by what they find. That one remains: Lewis Keseburg, the fourth relief team encountered Keseburg, reportedly lying on top of a pile of human bodies and bones with a frying pan of human organs. Take this with a grain of salt, though, due to the fact that the other rescuers never mentioned this encounter. Regardless, Lewis Keseburg did admit to killing the other four survivors left and consuming them, but the fourth relief party reluctantly escorted him out of the Truckee Lake camp as the last survivor.
The End
After all of the relief parties were concluded, 47 of the original 87 survived, with causes of death being all over the board and spanning almost five months (not including the journey to Hastings cutoff). After everyone was united again or taken in by other survivors, they all went off to live fairly normal pioneer lives, with the exception of Keseburg. He opened businesses while being public about his acts of cannibalism. This is a harrowing tale of what people would do to survive in the mountains.
