The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 2 The Hastings Cutoff

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gaskell, and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and program. I didn't give you many
names and joy a blunder. Look, I'm raveling. I'm got

(00:23):
the bar a long struggle for freedom. It really is
a revolution. Last time, I started telling you the tragic
tale of the Donner Party. In doing so, I touched
upon the concept of manifest destiny that not only encouraged

(00:46):
settlers like the Donners and many others who had west
seeking noonlands and opportunities, but it also sparked the Mexican
American War, which was actually kicking off during the time
that the Donners and their companions were on the trail.
I then talked about their motivation or in some cases
they lack there well, for leaving their homes and undertaking
this dangerous journey, as well as what life was like
on the road. When last we left the Dinner Party,

(01:09):
they were telling as a part of a larger caravan
known as the Russell Party, thanks to its leader, the
flamboyt William Henry Russell, who had earned the nickname Owl
for one night answering the nocturnal birds, questioning whot by
giving his name and his prominent connections during these travels together.
So far, the group had faced and overcome a few
obstacles without any serious incident as such, while the group

(01:30):
had experienced its first death and wasn't exactly an unexpected one,
as Margaret Read's seven year old mother, Sarah, died after
a long battle with consumption to berculosis. Really, then, the
main concern among these some traveling within this group was
that they might be taking things too easy and weren't
in enough of a hurry to reach the safety of
their destination before winter. But before we go any further

(01:53):
with this tale, first, like always, I want to acknowledge
my sources for this series, which primarily are Michael wallace
Is The Best Land under Heaven, The Donner Party in
the Age of manifest Destiny, Daniel James Brown's The Indifferent
Stars Above, the Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party, and
Dee Brown's Wondrous Times in the Frontier America during the
eighteen hundreds, And like always, a full list of these

(02:15):
and any other sources like websites that I used will
be available on this podcast Bluesky and Kofee pages plus
for anyone who doesn't want to be bothered skipping through commercials.
There is always an ad free feed available to subscribers
at patreon dot com slash Distorted History. And with all
of that being said, let's begin now. As I said,
so far, things have been going pretty good for the
Donner read party and their companions in the larger Russell caravan. Indeed,

(02:39):
as they neared Fort Laramie alone the Platte River, Tamsen
Donner would write about how well things were going and
how they didn't even have any fear of Native Americas
attacking them, as Instead, she noted how quote Indians frequently
come to see us, and the chiefs of a try
and breakfast at our tent this morning, all are so
friendly that I cannot help feeling sympathy and friendship for them. Really,
her the main focus was on how the land they

(03:01):
were now in was quote beautiful beyond description, adding that
quote indeed, if I do not experience something far worse
than I have yet done, I shall say the troubles
all in getting started. Indeed, Tamsen's confidence seemed well earned,
as after all, so far they had not had much
issue when it came to their wagons, and they were
currently quite well supplied with meat thanks to the ready

(03:23):
supply of buffalo in the region, or only were at
this point then, was that they might run short on bread.
Tamsen then would faithfully write quote, I never could have
believed we could have traveled so far with so little difficulty,
which feels like a cue for ominous foreboding music to
start playing now. Not all were so well off, as
William al Russell would resign as leader of the caravan

(03:44):
on the eighteenth of June, claiming poor health. Some though
suspected that this was actually due to the ongoing dissatisfaction
with his leadership, largely due to the overall slow pace
of their progress. Regardless of the cause, though Lilburn Bogsy
form of Missouri governor, who had famously clashed with the Moreans,
was now unanimously elike to the new leader of the caravan.
Speaking of their so pays and the frustration among some,

(04:07):
a group consisting of Edwin Bryant and several other single
men broke away from the main group, leaving behind their
ox and their wagons and everything not absolutely necessary in
the process, as he instead made use of meals to
set off at a significantly faster pace as it would
cover eighty miles and two days, easily outdistancing their former
companions as a head for Fort Laramie, which, sitting in

(04:28):
what would eventually become Wyoming, represented what was generally considered
to be the point of no return for those heading
west for Oregon in California. Now, at this time, the
so called fort was not yet a military garrison, but
a training post that was operated by the American Fur Company.
It was in a place for travelers to pause and
purchase any additional goods and supplies for the road ahead.

(04:49):
It was studably during this time at Fort Laramie and
its nearby raval outposts, Fort Benard, which looped to undercut
the Laramie traders by offering better deals that the members
of the Donner Reed party happened to encounter a familiar face,
James Cleman. Manning would serve with James Read in Abraham
Lincoln Dorley Blackhawk War before going on to become a
mountain man and trail guide. Of some note, Cleman, who

(05:10):
was a veteran of the War of eighteen twelve, was
a fairly unique specimen among his fellow mountain men, as
he could read. Indeed, it said that Climan particularly enjoyed
Shakespeare and Byron's poetry most importantly for the travelers and
or Tail. Though Clemen had recently traveled in the company
of none other than Lanceford W. Hastings, the man who
had authored The Immigrants Guide to Oregon in California, one

(05:31):
of the main sources of inspiration and advice for travelers
heading west, including the Donner Reid Party, indeed read in
both The Donner brothers had read the book cover to
cover before ever leaving, and they regularly consulted the tomb
along their journey, oftentimes discussing and referencing in over their
nightly campfires. The thing was, Clemen had a much different
opinion of Hastings, and the members of the Donner Reid

(05:52):
Party did as Cleman, after spending time with the man,
saw Hastings as a schemer who was looking to encourage
immigrants to travel to California for us own benefit. Indeed,
Hastings had worked at a deal with John Sutter were
in exchange for sending travelers to join his settlement, Hastings
would get his own special parcel of land to set
up shop and profit off of all the newer rivals.
What was worse, though, was Hastings, perhaps in an attempt

(06:14):
to creating a larger legend about himself for a potential
future in politics, was trying to promote a quote unquote
shortcut that he himself had never taken. As you see,
the so called Hastings cut off was a deviation from
the trail primarily used to reach California, a path that
promised to shave some two hundred miles off the journey,
as the main trail deviated a ways off to the
north as a wave of avoiding the base of the

(06:35):
round the Great Salt Lake. The thing was Climen and
others who knew the area, likely including those who had
selected the main trail in the first place, thought this
was a terrible idea. And to be clear, Climan knew
what he was talking about, as he was considered to
be among the greatest mountain men who traveled the American
West from the eighteen twenties to the eighteen fifties, a
man who knew these lands as well, if not better,

(06:56):
than any other white man of that era. Plus, through
his reason encouna with Lansford, Hastings himself, climbing against his
better judgment, had accompanied Hastings on just part of his
planned shortcut. As you see, after leaving California via the
normal trail, upon reaching the spot where his proposed cutoff started,
the Ohio lore and wannabee mountain man had convinced the
actual mountain man to accompany him in checking out his

(07:19):
brilliant shortcut. Now, to be clear, Climate had warned Hastings
that this probably wasn't a great idea. In fact, he
didn't even see much point in the shortcut, as it
didn't actually cut all that much distance off the journey,
and he suspected that traveling along this proposed route would
likely be much more difficult. Hastings, though, would not be deterred,
and so after arguing through the night and throughout the

(07:40):
following morning, Hastings insisted that they set off utilizing his
wholly unproven and likely more difficult and dangerous route. The
pair then using mules and non wagons traversity salt flats
of Utah and the narrow canyons of the Wahsatch Mountains
before finally arriving at Fort Bridger. Was there then that
Climate had split company with Hastings for good, now more
convinced than ever of how bad an idea this so

(08:03):
called cutoff was. Meanwhile, Hastings, despite the difficulties they had
experience taking just a part of his cutoff using mules
and not fully laiden wagons, still remained inexplicably wedded to
his shortcut idea. Cleman then set off, determined to warrant
any and all that he came across against trusting Hastings
and his shortcut, which is exactly what Clemen did upon
encountering the Donna Reed party and all their other various

(08:25):
traveling companions in the larger caravan at Fort Barnard. As
while he offered up his vast amounts of experience giving
general advice for the remainder of their journey, he also
made a point of warning them against trusting Hastings and
a supposed cutoff. Not all would listen to the experienced
mountain man's advice, though, as they just assumed him to
be some random Western character. James Read, however, did not

(08:46):
have that excuse. As we've established he did know Cleman
and so he should have trusted him. However, he instead
of listening to the advice of this man that he
knew personally, decided to put his trust in hastings book
and its advice on the best path to California, as
he was convinced that the best way to make up
for any time they had lost on their journey so
far was to take Hasting a shortcut. Climban though, and

(09:06):
not let up as he tried his best to make
the dander inherent and Hastings cut off unmistakably clear to
his old acquaintance quote, I told him to take the
regular wagon track and never leave it. It is barely
possible to get through if you follow it, and it
may be impossible if you don't. He then went on
the towel read in the others all about the journey
he had taken with Hastings along just a portion of

(09:28):
his supposed shortcut. He warned them of the Washsatch Mountains,
They're confusing maze of canyons, and their nearly impenetrable brush.
Climan also warned them of the Great Salt Desert, which
very much lived up to its name in terms of
both the lack of water and the punishing heat. Yet
Stone read was insistent as he ignored the advice of
this man who had been living in these lands for
some time insisting that quote there is a nigher route

(09:51):
meaning Hastings cut off, and so quote it is of
no use to take so much of a roundabout course,
referring to the traditional trail which looped a waste in
the north, a deviation that Reid saw is unnecessary per
Hastings Book and ignoring the warnings of Climen. The experienced
mountain man, though knowing the dangers of such a path,
persisted on as he tried to make his old acquaintance

(10:11):
see some sense. As he warned read of the quote
great desert in the roughness of the Sierras, and that
a straight route might turn out to be impracticable. Read, though,
was determined and convinced that he vi the wisdom of
Hastings Book was right and would not be deterred mean
Maisy caravan pressed on, passed Fort Bernard and Laramie. There
was a growing tension among the various travelers as they

(10:33):
grew increasingly worried about their relatively slow pays. The various
delacey had suffered the at times almost leisurely pays, and
just the nature of traveling with heavily loaded wagons pulled
by slow moving oxen was becoming a point of worry.
After all, no one wanted to get caught in the
early mountain stoves before reaching their destination in California. Yet,
despite this pressing need to make good time in the

(10:55):
looming fear that they were taking too long, the caravan
still stopped to celebrate the Fourth of Jel at Beaver Creek,
which was about a week's travel away from Independence Rock,
a granite outcropping in modern day Wyoming that was so
named for the time in eighteen thirty when a party
of fur trappers apadue camp there and celebrate America's Independence Day,
a location which the commonly held belief was that wagon

(11:17):
trains had to reach that site by the fourth of
July if they wanted to arrive in Oregon or California
before winter set in. Yet, despite being about a week
behind the commonly accepted schedule, the caravan still stopped and
held the somewhat elaborate Fourth of July celebrations common among
travelers and Americans in general at this time. As the
various members of the caravan fired off their guns in

(11:38):
a salute as he took part in a little parade
march around the camp before the ceremonial ridding of the
Declaration of Independence, which was in turn followed by a
light meal and extensive toasting, likely following the tradition of
toast in the day itself, followed by toasty constitution and
the declaration, before moving on to toast to George Washington,
the land they were crossing, the current president, the people

(11:59):
they had left behind, and whatever else might have crossed
their minds. James Read in particular, would as a part
of these festivities, break at a special bottle of brandy
with which he made a toast at a pre arranged time,
so as to sync up with friends back in Springfield
who would make a toast with a companion bottle of brandy.
Music was then played, Patriotic songs were a song and
more guns were fired before everyone had a meal consisting

(12:21):
of roastpic and bread and beans. The travelers then spent
the remainder of the day making repairs to their wagons,
while the women washed the clothes and bedding. The caravan
would then finally reach Independence Rock on the eleventh of July,
a week behind the commonly accepted safe pace to reach
their destination before winter. Yet still they opted to spend
two days camping there. During much time, some of the

(12:43):
travelers took the opportunity to carve their names and the
dat into the granite outcropping, and doing so they joined
the thousands to ten the thousands of others who had
either carved or painted their names on the rocky surface
with axle grease. Meanwhile, the leaders of several of the
families in the caravan took this time to pour over
their maps as he canser did the best path forward,
at which point it became obvious that a divide it

(13:04):
formed on what the best path forward was, as someone
listened to James Klama's advice while others had stubborn and
refused to change their minds, instead clinging to Lanceford Hastings
book and his claims of a shortcut to California, a
shortcut that promised to save travelers some several hundred miles
of travel and a discovery that promised to cement Hasting's
reputation as a trailblazer while also potentially setting them up

(13:26):
to be a future leader in a California that was
no longer controlled by Mexico. Now, the way that this
shortcutter cut off as was commonly known Weren't was based
upon the fact that the main route to Oregon in
California took sellers to the northwest before heading in a
southwesterly direction to cross the Sierra Nevadas, a deviation that
on paper seemed unnecessary, as one could theoretically simply travel

(13:49):
southwest and loop around the southern end of the Great
Salt Lake and end up in the same spot via
a much straighter line. Hastings, and upon seeing this inefficiency
in the commonly taken route, suggested that travel could take
the southern path, which would then save them from heading
some two hundred miles out of their way, and in
doing so, save them time as well. The thing that
Hastings never made clear in his book or anyone else, though,

(14:10):
was the fact that he was basing this completely onlooking
at a map, and not by you know, actually trying
the route to see if it was viable or if
there was a reason why the improven route avoided this area.
Not knowing this, the feeling among those who wanted to
follow Hasting's book was that since they were behind schedule
and made sense to make up for that lost time
and avoid the winter stows by taking the shortcut. Others, however,

(14:32):
including the prominent and influential Lilla Burne Boggs, listened to
James Clement's advice, specifically his wanting to not leave the
main trail for the Hastings cutoff. Furthermore, Bogs, along with
several others, were now rethinking their plans of going to
California as they were instead of choosing the head for Oregon,
a decision that for a Box at least was likely
motivated by a word that Mormons were also on the

(14:53):
trail and likely headed for California. This was because, while
governor of Missouri, Box had waged war against them more
and they had attempted to assassinate him in turn. Box
and in addition to his determination to stay on the
proven trail and not take unknown shortcuts, was also thinking
it best to avoid any potential encounters with Mormons altogether. Notably,
it was also during this time at Independence Rock that

(15:16):
the westward bound travelers encountered some who were heading back east.
They were returning from Oregon and carrying letters with them,
letters not only from people in Oregon, but also from
people they met along the road, who, upon encountering them,
took the opportunity to send messages back detailing their progress
to those they had left behind. Among these misses was
one from none other than Lanceford Hastings himself that was

(15:37):
written to quote all California immigrants now on the road.
Hastings and his letter would warn the war that was
currently taking place between the US and Mexico, a conflict
which had officially begun after the Donner Reed party had
sent off one that likely would not have surprised them
given the state of things at the time. Hastings then
encouraged the travelers to concentrate their numbers to protect against

(15:59):
Mexican retelli, as, after all, California wast only Mexican territory,
which for me seems like a reason to not go
to California at this time. Regardless, Hastings letter further advised
the travelers on the road to take his new route
around the south end of the Great Salt Lake, which
he assured them would shortly path at California, buy some
two hundred miles in fact, Hastings promised to meet the

(16:22):
emigrants at Fort Bridger, where this new route diverged from
the old, so he could personally guide them across the
deserts and mountains that were a part of his shortcut.
This letter then only further in bonding the likes of
read the donners and their companions of a similar mindset,
as they had already put so much faith in hastings
writings and his promise cut off, and now the man
himself was going to be waiting for them so as

(16:43):
to guide them along his promised path. What more assurance
could one need that his shortcut was the better path
than the established route. Sure, thousands had taken the established
trail and arrived safely, but Hastings himself was all but
promising to take them along as cutoff with the gun
as all the men who wrote the book, whose advice
they had been relying upon all this time. There was
surely nothing that could go wrong, after all, he surely

(17:06):
knew this path he talked so much about like the
back of his hand. There was no way this was
just a route he had drawn on a map without
traveling aid himself, and then told countless people do take
and dangering their lives in the process, without knowing if
it was at all feasible. For now, though, despite their disagreements,
the two groups, those who trusted the proven trailer were
heading for Oregon, and those who were choosing to go

(17:28):
to California and were putting their trust in the Ohio
lawyer turned self style mountain men with limited experience travers
in the West, we're still traveling the same road. That
being said, it seems that their disagreements had left some
bruises and scars, and so their encounters were a bit contentious,
with the Donna re contingent ultimately seeking to make sure
that they passed and kept about a mile ahead of

(17:48):
the Box group. Now, to be clear, these issues were
basically just an extension of the tensions that had already
been present among the group for some time due to
their slow pace and the general difficulties of life on
the trail. Basically, everyone's nurves were freed due to this situation,
and this had led to arguments and fights, with some
being more contentious than others. This clash over the path forward,

(18:09):
then had simply been the final straw that split their
already factored group for good, a moment which was seemingly
marked by an ominously cool breeze coming down from the
snowy peaks of the nearby wind River Range. Despite it
being July. Meanwhile, it has to be said that separating
the two groups was easier said than done, as noted
by thirty five year old Charles stand from Chicago, who

(18:29):
had decided to stick with the California bound Donna Reed party.
As he would write in a letter to his brother quote,
in their party were many young ladies and norris, mostly
young men. Friendships and attachments had been formed which were
hard to break for ever since our company is nearly
deserted by young men running out riding on horseback, pretending
to hunt, but instead of pursuing bounding deerer fleet antelope,

(18:51):
they are generally found among the fair Oregon girls. Thus
they go every day making love by the roadside in
the mest of the wildest and most beautiful scenery. Meanwhile,
in their determination to stay ahead of bogs, Reading the
Donners would make a decision that surely none of them
would come to regret, as when some of their company
wanted to take a day to give their cattle some
badly needed rest, and so they could take the time

(19:13):
to haunt and stock up on fresh meat before leaving
Buffalo Country, Reading the Donner's insisted on pressing on to
stay ahead of the box contingent. As they pressed on,
the Donner Reed party would reach the Continental Divide on
the eighteenth of July. This is a location which, as
the name suggest, is a novining line, where on the
eastern side of this line, the rivers flowed eastward the Mississippi,

(19:33):
while those in the west flowed westward the Pacific. Yet,
shortly after reaching this notable milestone on their journey, several
of the groups oxen happened to drink from some puddles
of standing water at the Dry Sandy Creek when they
made camp that night, water which sense it was tainted
with alkali, poising the poor ox and making them sick
and killing three the following day. The group, though, could
not let the slow them down, and so they pressed

(19:55):
on until they eventually ride at the Big Sandy River
in Wyoming, where they caught up with some of the
four members of their caravan, who were now bound for Oregon.
This then represented the last time these two groups would
see one another on the trail, as here their past diverged,
as those bound for Oregon and those who had taken
the improven route to California would take the path to
the right, heading for Fort Hall, while the others would

(20:17):
take the left path that took them onto Fort Bridger
and the so called Hastings cutoff. This then was the
last chance for all involved to reconsider their course. Now
it seems that James Reed had gone back and forth
a bit in his mind as they had traveled, but
by this point he was firm in his determination to
trust his own untested and unpriven instincts over the established

(20:38):
and well traveled route. Therefore, they were going to take
the supposedly shorter path, a decision that both the Donner
brothers were fully behind, a decision made in part because
Reid was getting worried about how late in the year
it was, and how so at times their pace had been.
So the prospect of a short cut was appealing, especially
since Lanceford Hastings himself was reportedly waiting at Fort Bridge

(21:00):
to personally guide them along his shortcut. That being said,
George Donner's wife, Tamsen, according to one of their traveling companions,
who opted to go to California via the traditional route,
was far less confident in their chosen path than her
husband was, as she was quote gloomy, sad, and a
spirit in view of the fact that her husband and
others could think for a moment of leaving the own

(21:20):
road and confide in these statements of a man of
whom they knew nothing, but who was probably some selfish adventurer,
which is one heck of an accurate read on Hastings
without ever meeting the man, as it was the assessment
of the people of Oregon who had spent time with
Hastings before he spent time in California and began dreaming
up as plan. Indeed, he had initially told the people

(21:41):
of Oregon that he intended to aid them in drawing
sellers to their lands, only to turn around once he
had his deal with Sutter and start actively trying to
divert sellers on the road to Oregon to head to
California and Sutterville instead, as such wants. The people of
Oregon learned of Hasting's duplicity, they sent out messengers of
their own to warn against trusting a self proclaimed mountain

(22:01):
man and trailblazer. Meanwhile, The Spectator in Oregonian newspaper would
print up the testimony of some of the individuals who
had encountered Hastings and now word of his scheming nature.
For example, one seller would be quoted as saying he
told us publicly that he and Captain Sutter intended to
revolutionize the country as soon as they could get sufficient
emigrants to California to fight these Spaniards. This plan was

(22:23):
laid between Captain Sutter and al W. Hastings before said
Hastings published his book of Lies, basically saying that everything
he sent to Lord travelers to California were simply falsehoods
designed to accomplish a scheme of taking over the territory
from Mexico. Those on the trail that were unaware of
these revelations, and so despite Tamson's misgivings, they were determined

(22:44):
to take Hastings shortcut first, though, before they sent off,
those in the group taking the Hastings cut off selected
George Donner to be the leader of their company, as
he was considered to be hard working and reliable in
contrast to Reid, who while seen as being headstrong and arrogance.
This despite the fact that his voice had been a
powerful determining factor in choosing their path forward. The place

(23:33):
where the newly dubbed Donner Parties split with the others
who had taken the northerly route to Fort Hall and
the proven road to California, Oregon came to be known
as the parting of the ways. Now to be clearly
Donners and the Reeds were now alone in taking this
unproven track as a war joined by collection of people
both born and raised in America, as well as a
number of Irish, German and Belgian immigrants, a diverse party

(23:54):
of rich and poor, Protestant and Catholic. Among this motley
group was a German immigrant, Johann lude Christian Keysburg, who
was mostly known as Lewis Keyesburg while still residing in Germany,
Kesburg and married one Elizabeth Philippine, and together they had
a pair of twin daughters, Julianne Caroline who was typically
called Ada, and Mathilda Elise. Tragically, though Mathilda would die

(24:15):
within two months of their arrival in America. The Naminish
family then settled near Cincinnati, where Keyesberg worked in a
brewery before opt into Trislock in California. Accompanying the Keysburg's
on this journey in helping drive their wagons, where he
beunche an immigrant with the last name hard Group, and
a potentially German immigrant named Charles Berger aka Dutch Charlie,
although other sources suggested Dutch Charlie actually worked for the Donners. Regardless,

(24:39):
the fact of the matter was Keesberg wasn't exactly a
popular figure among his fellow travelers. As an addition to
the stigma of being an immigrant, It said that Louis
was kind of hard to get along with. Indeed, one
of his friends would note that quote. Keyesburg's greatest weakness
was his unbridled temper, and one day he confessed that
it was a source of considerable embarrassment to him, anger

(25:00):
that he often seemed to turn on his way Philippine,
who was noted as being both pretty and quite batite
when compared to her husband. As such, he at the
very least came off as being abusive towards her. And
keep in mind this was by their standards, not ours,
as this was very much the time when a woman
was expected to more or less be completely subservient to
her husband, which is all to say that whatever he

(25:22):
was doing was likely pretty bad to stir the ire
of the people living in such a society. Keyesberg's anger
in the way that he treated his wife and only
made him even more unpopular than he already was, as
did the talk that he had he found an Adian
gravesite and act that the others feared would bring down
the wrath of the local jobs upon them should his
desecration be discovered. On the other end of the spectrum

(25:44):
in terms of popularity within the party was one William h. Edy,
a twenty eight year old carriage maker out of Belleville, Illinois,
who was married to Eleanor Priscilla Edie, and who was
traveling with their newborn son James and their toddler daughter Margaret,
which again just goes to show you how many child
and young children in particular were on this journey. Meanwhile,
Edie's reputation among his fellow travelers would be partially cemented

(26:07):
during their crossing of Kansas in June, as that was
when the axle tree in one of Edwin's Bryan's wagons broke.
Upon seeing this, some of the others in the caravan
just kept on going, not even bothering to pause, much
less offered to help. Eddie, though, upon seeing the trouble,
immediately set to work repairing the wagon, work which wasn't
easy in Witch took some time, but Edie stayed with

(26:29):
Brian for the duration, and so while the rest of
the caravan had gone to main camp, the Edie and
Brian contigue were left to travel together on their own,
only reaching the camp with the rest late in the night.
Also joining the Donners and the others had taken this
unproven route was a group with three wagons led by
one eleven Nyah Jackson Murphy, a widow with seven children
at the age of thirty six. Accompanying Levin Naya and

(26:52):
a younger children were two of our older daughters, Sarah
and Harriet, who were married with husbands and children of
their own. Then there were Patrick and Margaret Breen. Patrick,
a fifty one year old Irish immigrant, had first arrived
in Canada, where he resided for several years. It was
there then that he met and married Margaret before they
decided to move with their two infant sons to Springfield, Illinois.
During their stay in Illinois, the couple had met and

(27:13):
gotten to know the Donners and James Reed before they
eventually departed for Iowa, where they tried their luck and
had several more children before ultimately deciding to pull up
stakes and head for California, a decision in which They
were joined by their neighbor and fellow Irishman, the thirty
five year old Patrick Dolan, who was described as being
quote red faced, light haired, handsome, well built, honest, very religious. Now.

(27:36):
The Breen and Dolan group would form their own smaller
caravan for much of the journey, as they preferred to
go at their own pace and did not want to
compete with others for water or grass when they camped.
That being said, when they did end up camping with
other larger groups, they seemed to make a good impression,
thanks in no small part to Patrick Breen, who made
sure to plays fiddle to entertain the others and to

(27:56):
give them music to dance to. Also taking the Haste
shortcut along with the rest was one William McCutchen out
of Jackson County, Missouri, who was known as Big Bill
because he stood six foot six inches tall. Traveling alongside
Big Bill was his wife Amanda and their infant daughter Harriet. Meanwhile,
as he set off on their supposedly shorter route, the
Donners took on twenty five year old Irish immigrant Louke Caleran,

(28:19):
who had been abandoned by the family he had been
traveling with as they could no longer care for him
due to his weakness as Hallaran, you see, had consumption
aka to burking loss. Now you may be wondering why
someone's so sick was undertaking such a taxing and potentially
harrowing journey. Well, Halloran was heading for California in the
hope that they climate there would be good for his condition. Unfortunately,

(28:41):
though the TiAl had proved to be not good for
his health. Indeed, things had gotten so bad that he
no longer even had the strength to continued running on horseback.
The Donners, however, could not just leave this poor soul
to his feet. Indeed, tams and mature, they found room
in their wagon for both Hallaran and his belongings. In fact,
she personally saw to it that he was cared for,

(29:01):
which was just another case of the Donners taking in
people who were in need who were otherwise alone on
the trail. Charles Stanton, for example, was a bachelor from
Chicago heading to California by himself. The Donners, though, had
given him a place with their company as one of
their drivers. The same was true of a young man
known as Antonio, who they had brought in and given
him the responsibility of caring for their cattle. Together, then

(29:23):
this newly formed Donner party would part ways with their
former traveling companions who were heading north to Fort Hall
and the proven route, while they turned to the south
to Fort Bridger and they supposedly a shorter and straighter
path to their destination. They would though, have to wait
another day before setting off, as he continued to lose
ox and thanks to the poison water that happened consumed
that the dry Sandy Creek. Yet once they got going,

(29:45):
the group did make good time, as by the twenty
sixth of July they were covering some thirty six miles
in a day. When the group reached Fort Bridger, they
found a location that was much like Fort Laramie, and
that it was less a fort and more of a
trading post. Edwin Brian, who departed from the caravan some
time ago as he and several other single men rode
ahead on mules, would describe the location he came to

(30:07):
and departed before the Donners ever arrived. Quote the buildings
are two or three visible lock cabins, rudely constructed and
bearing a faint resemblance to habitable houses. Yet while the
fort itself was nothing special, it did have one attractive quality,
and that it featured several streams of fresh, clean water
and ample grass for the oxen and various livestock to
feast upon so as to regain their strength. Meanwhile, the

(30:30):
members of the party could take this time to visit
the trading post to purchase some extra supplies for the
journey ahead, while also seeking to potentially trade some of
their more worn out animals for some fresh ones, all
of which could be accomplished at exorbitantly high prices as
there wouldn't be another outpost until they reached California. Now,
of course, to charge such prices, Jim Bridger and his

(30:50):
partner in this venture, Pierre Louis Vasquez, needed people to
actually pass by their fort, something which wasn't happening as
much lately since the main trail of shifted a bit
and now Fort Hall was the primary beneficiary of Western travelers,
which was why Bridger and Vasquez were so excited to
learn about Hastings and his shortcut, as they needed something
to drive traffic to their little fort. Indeed, according to

(31:13):
a letter that James Reed sent back to Illinois, Jim
Bridger himself had assured him that quote the route we
designed to take is a fine level road with pney
of water and grass. As the members of the Donner
party reached the fort, however, they were met with disappointment
as Fame Path founder Lanceford Hastings wasn't actually there like
they've been told and anticipated. Now he had been there

(31:33):
as to host the quote unquote King of the mountain Men,
Jim Bridger and his partner, the Fir Trepper Vasquez explained
the thing was another party of immigrants heading for California
had a ride at the fort before them and had
been impatient to get under way, so Hastings had departed
with them so as to guide this other group along
as famed shortcut. Now, Hastings had been intending to wait

(31:55):
for stragglers like the Donners to catch up so he
could guide them all together in one large caravan, but
possibly because some of their impatients were talking of leaving
to head north to Fort Hall on the proven trail,
Hastings decided to take those who were already there on
a shortcut. Notably, among the members of this group who
had set off along the cutoff already were some of
the Donner's former traveling companions like Edwin Bryant and the

(32:16):
other single men who had abandoned their wagons and sent
off on mules instead. Now, Bryan, it should be noted,
opted to take the Hastings cut off despite his own
misgivings about the route, concerns that had only been amplified
after speaking with an actual mountain man and knowledgeable trailblazer
named Joseph Walker, who, according to Bryant quote spoke discouragingly
of the new route via the south end of the

(32:37):
Salt Lake. So while Brian and his companions ultimately opted
to take the southerly route, he also made a point
of sending a letter back along the trail to warn
those he had been traveling with, like the Donners, to
not follow his example. As again, Brian and his companions
were all single men traveling by themselves on mules. As such,
they could quote Ford to hazard experiments and make exports,

(33:00):
while those with families could, or at least should not
do the same. Sill, Despite his own misgivings, Brian and
some others who were a part of four families would
depart from Fort Bridger under the guidance of Lanceford Hastings Beman.
During their own stay at the fort, members of the
Donner party would also speak with Joseph Walker, who gave
them the same morning he had given to Brian and
the others, which was to not follow Hastings in the

(33:23):
path South, a warning that they might have paid more
he to had they been given the letter that Edwin
Bryan had left for them, also warning against taking the
Hastings cut off. Unfortunately, Brian had left the letter in
the care Bridger's partner Vasquez, and so likely because Vasquez
and Bridger did not want to dissuade travelers from following
the Hastings cut off for their own selfish reasons, they

(33:44):
did not pass along the letter. In fact, both Bridger
and Vasquez, when consulted by James reading George's daughter, would
encourage the party to follow those who had already left
under the guidance of Lanceford Hastings, as they assured them
they had plenty of time to catch up. Hastings had
even left in struct for travelers like themselves to follow
so they could catch up with and join the others
who was gutting the longest shortcut. Indeed, according to these

(34:07):
two completely unbiased figures, all the Donner party had to
do was follow the tracks of the wagons that had
set off before them. So, after resting for three days
at Fort Bridger, as they allowed their animals to eat
and recover their strength, they set off on the thirty
first of July hope and to catch up with Lansford, Hastings, himself,
and the group that had set off before them. A
letter penned by James Reid before departing from the Ford

(34:29):
would inform his friends back in Springfield on their progress
and their path forward, as he wrote, quote the new
road Hastings cut off leaves the Fort Hall rode here
and is said to be savings of three hundred and
fifty to four undred miles and going to California and
a better route. Now, there was apparently one significant worry
about this trail, but Reid was confident in Hastings, as

(34:50):
he added that there was believed to be quote one
stretch of forty miles without water. But Hastings and his
party are out ahead examining for water or a route
to avoid this stretch. Now, for me, the fact that
they just believed that there was a stretch without water,
and that they were actively at this moment looking for
a way to either avoid this stretch or a mitigated

(35:10):
threat would have been the reddest of red flags, as
that strongly suggested Hastings was nowhere near as familiar with
this route as he claimed to be. This, though, did
not seem to give read much pause, as he confidently
proclaimed that quote, it is estimated that seven hundred miles
will take us to Captain Sutter's Fort, which we hope
to make in seven weeks from this day, a timeline

(35:32):
that would have them reaching their destination by the end
of September. So with this go on, my nineteen wagons,
seventy four men, women and children, as well as all
their various oxen horses in livestock, set off for Fort
Bridger under the leadership of George Donner on the thirty
first of July. Now as the Donner Party set off
for Fort Bridger, the first couple of days mostly passed

(35:52):
without incident, although the going was a bit slow as
he only managed twenty seven miles in two days. The
good news, though, was that they had found on ample
fresh water and grass for themselves and their animals. The
third day, though, had a bit of a rough start
as they were delayed and starting off in the morning
by the need to track down an ox he had
wandered off in the night, and things only got worse

(36:12):
from there, as the path they traveled that day was
fairly rough, But the real trouble took place after they
camped for the night alongside the Bear River, as it
was here that Virginia Read and Edward wereing, both thirteen
years old, took their ponies out for a ride, during
which time, as Edward's pony was galloping, it stepped in
a prairie dog hole, which caused the horse to fall
to the ground and in the process catapult the thirteen

(36:35):
year old boy forward. Edward was then knocked unconscious, but
worse still, he suffered a compound fracture between the knee
and ankle of his left leg. An injury then left
his tibia protruding out through his bloody skin. Now upon
seeing Edward fall, Virginia reach back to camp seeking aid,
as the adults rushed to the scene to retrieve the
wounded tea. They, upon seeing the gruesome wounds, sent Word

(36:56):
back to the fort seeking additional help. The rider then
brought back a grizzled old mountain man with a long
white beard that was streaked with tobacco, jews, questionable appearances. Aside,
chances were this old mountain man was potentially exactly the
kind of person they needed, as such an individual was
likely to have quite a bit of experience scaring for
others in these wilderness conditions. Indeed, as it turns out,

(37:18):
this man carried a bundle of instruments, including a long
knife and a meat saw that he pulled out upon
seeing the extent of the teen's wounds. Now, an amputation
wasn't really the worst idea in the scenario, as gangreen
was a serious threat, especially with them being in the wilderness,
far away from even the primitive medical care of the day. Indeed,
we saw this danger play out in the last episode

(37:40):
with the Boy. Edwin Bryan had been summoned to treat
as he boy's leg by the time he had arrived
had already begun to rot, which meant by the time
the leg was amputated, it was already too late. Young
Eddie Brendo had also heard the story of the terrible amputation,
and upon seeing the mountain man with these instruments, understandably
began to freakain as it seems that the message he

(38:02):
had taken from the story wasn't that they should have
amputated the leg sooner, but that the horrible experience that
the boy had been put through had taken his life anyway.
Eddie's parents then could not bear his screams and stop
the mountain man from carrying through with the operation, which
apparently greatly disappointed the old man, who wanted to show
off his skills with the knife and saw. The family, though,

(38:22):
simply paid him five dollars for his time and sent
him on his way. The brains, though, in this at least,
had made the right choice, as they opted to clean
the wound and set the bones. So while for the
time being Eddie had no choice but to ride in
the wagon where he felt every single bump and jolt
and was in constant pain, he would within eight weeks
time be able to walk again. With this emergency passed,

(38:45):
the group then settled back into their regular routines, as
the next day they once again followed the path of
those who had departed before them as they headed into
what is today Utah. Soon then they passed through Echo
Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains. The subsequent day, though as
they followed the wagon runs to a place known as
Weber Canyon. The members of the Donner party were surprised
to find and know that had been left by Hastings,

(39:07):
which warned them not to attempt this canyon. They were
instead to send a messenger forward to find Hastings so
we could come back and show them a better route.
This was because the group that Hastings had taken ahead
of them were the first to actually attempt this crossing
with wagons and had subsequently found that the canyon was
all but impassable for a wagon train. The path you
see was very narrow, very steep, and littered with obstacles

(39:29):
like boulders, all of which had combined to sow the
party's progress to about a mile a day. As they
had to use a windlass think like a winch to
pull and lift wagons through the canyon, specifically to get
them over boulders and off these steep slopes, they encountered
a process which on one occasion resulted in the loss
of an entire wagon and all the oxen which were

(39:49):
attached to it as they tumbled down the soap and
then over the seventy foot cliff at the bottom of it. Now,
faced with the clear sign yet that this shortcut was
completely untested, the Donner party did not turn around. Instead,
three men, James Reid, Charles Stanton, and William Pike, all
volunteered to ride ahead to Hastings, trusting that the avunted pathfighter,
who had already chosen this already failed path, would find

(40:11):
another route for them to take. As these three men
set off on the seventh of August, it quickly became obvious,
even while on horseback, that trying to take a wagon
train through this canyon was a terrible idea, with James
Reid noting quote our conclusions were that many of the
wagons would be destroyed in attempting to get through it.
Then wouldn't be until the evening of the following day

(40:32):
that the three men caught up with Hastings, camping with
the other party, who were currently set up just south
of the Great Salt Lake. Now by this point it
seems that the tired men were a bit disillusioned by
the famed trailblazer when they finally encountered him. Hastings, though,
would assure the trio that he had a plan to
get their people through the Wassatch Mounds via another route,
So the following morning, Read and Hastings started back on

(40:53):
fresh horses, while Pike and stand remained in camp with
the others to rest and recover after their long ride.
Yet Reading Hastings would barely make it back to the
Wasatch Mountains before the thene pathfinders started making excuses. As
you see, he claimed that this was a longer ride
back than he had anticipated, which doesn't really make any sense,
as you would think that he would know how far

(41:15):
he had come from the mountain range that he had
just crossed. Regardless, Hastings was suddenly insistent that he had
a responsibility to continue leading the other party forward, and
as a result, he could not go all the way back,
much less spend the time necessary to get the dinner
party through these mountains. Basically, it just seems like Hastings,
knowing full well that he didn't actually have an alternative

(41:36):
path and thus couldn't be sure that the donner parties
crossing would be any easier, didn't want to be around
for the inevitable difficulties that they would face, especially since
he still had to figure out the best way forward
for the rest of his untested shortcut. So the following morning,
after bringing Read to the top of a mountain, Hastings
pointed out a path that the Donner party could take,
at which point he rode off back to the Great

(41:58):
Salt Lake where the other party was camp so he
could lead them on thereby leaving the Donner party more
or less of their own devices. Indeed, this would be
the last time anyone from the Donner party saw Hastings,
the man who they had put so much faith in.
Read then on his own road back to the others,
arriving back in camp on the evening of the tenth
of August to find that their party had grown even

(42:19):
larger as an additional thirteen people had been learned by
the promise of Hastings and his wonderful shortcut. Among them
were the Grey's family, who had also left from Illinois
round about the same time that the Donner Reed family had.
The Greased family consisted of Franklin Ward Graves, a tall,
mikey man who originally hailed for Vermont before his family
moved to Dearborn, Indiana. Franklin seldom wore shoes and never

(42:42):
wore a hat, but he was seeming the most known
for his warm and generous nature. In fact, in addition
to his little farm, greases don't provide for his family
and the local villagers. Through his hunting as to make
ends meet, he saw not only some of the vegetables
that they grew, but also fresh game and cured pellants.
Now Franklin had met and married his wife, Elizabeth, while
residing in Dearborn. Elizabeth was described as being tall and

(43:05):
lanky like her husband, and also like Franklin. According to
friends and neighbors who thought quite highly of the couple,
she always seemed to have a smile on her face
and always seemed ready to help out the grazery sturdy,
resilient people who were used to living on the frontier.
As the couple had left Indiana with their growing family,
hoping to find cheaper and better land elsewhere. They had
first tried out in Mississippi before ending up in Illinois

(43:27):
in eighteen thirty one, where they grew corn, summer squash,
and pumpkins. Yet, unlight the land that the Donners had claimed,
the land that the Graves had settled on wasn't exactly good.
The soil simply wasn't as rich near the woods where
they settled versus the more open plains and were still
the area proved to be a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which,
in addition to being an annoyance, were also to blame

(43:49):
for the agu or Illinois shakes, as the reoccurring bouts
of high fevers, chills, blinding headaches, steffan aching joints in
the uncontrollable shaking that seemed to plague those who settled
in the lands around the Mississippi and its various tributaries
was known an ailment, which was in fact malaria. As
a result of these and other factors, While the dollars
had an expense of farmhouse with multiple chimneys, as saw

(44:11):
when the departed from Illinois, the graves had resided in
a simple one room cabin where still they had also
been severely hurt by the Panic of eighteen thirty seven,
when they were already barely scraping by. Thus the prospect
of better lands where they could start over was especially appealing.
Plus there was also the promise of a better and
warmer climate without the harsh winners of the Midwest, and

(44:32):
rare people did not suffer from regular bouts of the
Illinois shakes, as a result in eighteen forty six, so
the newcomer to the region made his intentions known that
he wanted to purchase some land in the region. Franklin
Graves led to the opportunity to sells five hundred acre
farm for three dollars an acre. The Graves and took
this fifteen hundred dollars, which was mostly in silver coins,

(44:52):
and hid it in a pair of wooden cleats that
they hauled out for this exact purpose. These coats were
then nailed to one of the family's wagons in such
a way that it looked like they were there for support.
Also joining them on this trip with Sarah Graves, the
couple's firstborn daughter, who had survived. Leading up to this departure,
though the twenty one year old had been contemplating staying
behind in Illinois so as to marry the man she loved,

(45:13):
twenty three year old Jay Faustik, who played the violin.
The thing was staying and getting married would have likely
men never seeing any of her family members who are
parted her California ever again, as in that day and age,
the distance was simply too great and there was no
fast or even reliable form of transportation in between Illinois
and California. Sarah then would never see her mother, her father,

(45:35):
nor any of her eight siblings, many of whom she
had played or role in raising ever again. Sarah that
had been left with the heartbreaking choice of living the
only home she had ever known since she was six
years old and the man she loved and wanted to marry,
or never being able to see her family ever again.
The young couple, though, found a solution to this conundrum
as Jay offered to marry Sarah now and then moved

(45:55):
to California together. As a result, the whole Graves family
would now be going to California, the family which insisted
of Franklin and Elizabeth, twenty one year old Sarah and
her now husband, Jay, nineteen year old Mary Anne, seventeen
year old Bill, thirteen year old Eleanor, eleven year old Lovena,
eight year old Nancy, seven year old Jonathan, five year

(46:15):
old Franklin Junior, and nine month year old Elizabeth. As
again we see the number of young children and teens
on this journey, the Graves, like the Dunner and Mead families,
then had three wagons, with Franklin and Elizabeth being responsible
for one, the newlywed Sarah and her husband Jay taking
a second, while the twenty three year old and reportedly
handsome newcomer to the region John Sneyder, being given the

(46:38):
responsibility for the third. Snyder Ucy had only arrived in
Illinois the previous winter, but upon hearing of the family's
plans to move to California, he asked if he might
join them. Franklin Graves, and, recognizing that they might need
another pair of strong hands on the trail, agree to
take Snyder along, with the agreement being then in exchange
for driving their third wagon and helping out along the way,

(47:00):
the Graves would provide Steider with a place to stay
when they arrived in California. Now the first time for
the Greaves family after departing from their home in April
eighteen forty six, was Saint Joseph, Missouri, where they made
sure they were fully outfitted and supplied for the journey ahead.
While there, though, they also likely heard the tale of
an unfortunate immigrant party from the year prior and the
ill faith that had befollowed them. You see, this group

(47:22):
of settlers had been traveling to Oregon when they happened
to encounter a trapper and guide named Stephen Meek who
was looking for employment. According to me he had traveled
through Oregon multiple times, and he promised the group of
sellers that he knew of a shortcut that would not
only cut one hundred and fifty miles off their journey,
but it would also somehow take these families safely around
Walla Walla, Indian territory, as rumor had it that the

(47:44):
tribe had turned hostile. A shortcut that make assured the
others followed old trappers trails, and thus he was well
acquainted with it. All he asked and for guiding them
along this wonderful shortcut was five dollars for every wagon
he would be guiding. Now, not all the members of
them this group would choose to follow Meek. However, roughly
a thousand of these cellars and their nearly two hundred

(48:04):
wagons and some four thousand head of livestock did take
Meek up on his offer, as he left the main
and well traveled Oregon trail behind. It would, though, only
take a few days time before they began to regret
their decision as things started to go bad. As you
see the land there traveling through became increasingly dry and dusty,
which meant that they grasped their livestock relied upon to

(48:25):
you know, live, became increasingly scarce, As one of the travelers,
Samuel Parker, would note quote rock all day, poor grass,
more swearing than you ever heard. People were obviously not happy.
And it wasn't like this was just some small rough
patch before things got better, because the further they went,
the worst things got. As soon the ground was littered
with sharp rocks, they cut up the feet of their

(48:47):
oxen and horses, so without adequate food, and with their
feet leaving behind trails of blood on the rocks they
tread upon, the oxen soon began to give out, which,
seeing as how they were the only way they had
to pull their wagons, which carried all their supplies, was
you know bad. And the so called shortcut just continued
to get worse, as soon the terrain was so bad

(49:08):
that the wagons themselves were starting to break down, which
then delayed progress further as repairs had to be made.
As a result of all this, the party of travelers
who had trusted this guide and the shortcut were increasingly
strong out a situation then meant that their guide, Meek,
was at times more than a day ahead of some
of the people he was supposed to be guiding, so
he began leaving notes to tell them where to go. However,

(49:29):
with each passing no it became increasingly apparent then Nick
was thoroughly and completely lost, as he knows, became increasingly
confused in contradictory, a revelation that led to talk among
the travelers of stunting or even hanging their supposed guide. Then,
somehow things got even worse as the party entered an
area where the water was scarce and the temperatures were high,
and when they finally seemed to find some relief in

(49:51):
the form of a large, shallow lake, it turned out
that the water was alkaline and undrinkable. The group then
traveled for days and nights and searched for any amount
of water that they could find. Meanwhile, with their food
supply running out, some of these sellers tried to eat
the rants and flesh of their oxen, which had died
from lack of food and water, as even at the
times when they had actually managed to find water for

(50:11):
the people, there typically wasn't enough for their animals. Then
only adding to the situation was the fact that now
disease started spreading through the wagon train as people weakened
by lack of sufficient food and water and living in
unsanitary conditions foul victim to a fever. A woman named
Sarah Chambers would be the first to perish as a
result of this illness that survivors would call camp fever,

(50:32):
but which was likely a form of typhis, a disease
mainly transmitted by license fleas and which has a sixty
percent mortality rate without antibiotic treatment, an illness which typically
manifests in the form of headaches, rashes, high fevers, severe
muscle pain, light sensitivity, and sometimes delirium. Following Sarah's death,
the children started to die as well, and they were
soon followed by more adults. It then actually got to

(50:55):
the point where the travelers were bearing people on a
nightly basis, with the only their being the number of
people they had to bury on a given night. As
all this was happening, Meek now seemed to purposely ride
well ahead of the rest of the party, as he
now traveled exclusively with his new wife and a select
group of friends, likely suspecting that by this point, the
rest of the party weren't exactly fans of his. Indeed,

(51:17):
when they happened to find themselves in the company of others,
his friends made shore to hide Meek in the back
of their wagon. It then wasn't until their twenty fourth
day on the trail that they grew finally found a
reliable source of fresh water in the form of the
Crooked River, which they could then follow up to the
Columbia River. Many by this point, though, were too weak
to ride on horseback, much less walk any further. The

(51:38):
only option left then was putting all such individuals into
the wagons, wagons which were being pulled by Oxen that
they were actively running short on, even though there were
still many miles offt to go. Meanwhile, Meeks would be
the first to reach the Methodist mission he had promised
to bring the rest to, at which point he alerted
the residents of the mission that there were hundreds of
people behind him on their trail dire need. Meek then

(52:01):
purchased those supplies for the relief expedition. However, he notably
refused to actually go back to aid them, likely fearing
retribution for leading the party into that disaster. In the
first place. Meanwhile, even when the rest of the immigrants
were eventually guided to the mission by the African American
guide in mountain Man Moses Harris, who was oftentimes known
as Black Harris, and the number of Native Americans who

(52:23):
had joined him on this rescue mission, they would continue
to perish as a result of everything they had been through.
This was because some of their desperation on their overwhelming hunger,
did not wait until the food they were given finished cooking.
They then grew ill as a result, which was a
shot their system could not take. These final tragic deaths
would bring the total number of those who died as

(52:43):
a result of the supposed shortcut to fifty, a number
that is actually higher than those who will die during
the ill fated Donner expedition. That story, though, like the
salacious details of what the Donners and their companions would experience,
and so it is not talked about much in comparison. Still,
the lesson from this story to mainly seems fairly obvious.
Don't deviate from the main trail to take some supposed shortcut,

(53:05):
as the main trail was the main trail for a reason.
A warning that the graves should have heeded when approach
with the prospect of taking the Hastings cut off, but
one that they clearly did not, regardless after presume behearing
this tale. Departing from Saint Joseph, the Graves had, like
the Readson Donners, hooked up with a larger caravan. This one, though,
had mainly consisted of families bound for Oregon, and so

(53:27):
it was understood that when the trail divided at Fort Hall,
the Graves would have to try and find others bound
for California to hook up with and travel beside. Now,
this group that the Grays are traveling with were actually
several weeks behind the Donner and Reed caravan, who consistently
felt like they were moving too slowly. Plus, the Graves
in their travel companions also had a bit of a
rougher go of it than the Donners had up until

(53:49):
this point, as were the Donners extended caravan hadn't really
had any serious issues with the Native Americans whose land
they had been traveling through, the same was not truly
Graves in their caravan. The trouble started for the caravan
the Grays were with when a number of ponies stole
a number of their cattle. The subsequent quest to retrieved
their stolen livestock then resulted in one of the travelers

(54:09):
being killed during a clash with the Pawnee. This man
would leave behind a pregnant wife and four young children.
Faced with this disastrous and tragic turn of events, the
widow very much just wanted to turn around and return
to their Iowa home. The unfortunate reality was, though, that
wasn't really an option, as on the people they encountered
heading back east had women in their group, and the

(54:29):
widow wasn't comfortable traveling without some kind of female companionship
as pregnant as she was, which meant she had to
carry on traveling west with the others. Meanwhile, unconscious of
the rains that had played the Donner's travels toward for Laramie,
the Gray's family and their companions were played by dust
dust and was ever present thanks to a combination of
their wagons, their livestock, and the wind which just seemed

(54:51):
to constantly blow, stirring up more dust. By the end
of eight day's travel, then the verus would be sellers
would just be plastered with it plus and not only
covered them in their clothes, but it also had a
tendency to settle on their food as well. Still, though
they had carried on as their eyes, hearts, and minds
were set on California as he placed to start over
and find their fortune. Now it should be noted that

(55:13):
along the way, much like the Donner and Reed party had,
the Graves would also run into fame mountain man Jim Cleiman, who,
just like he had the Donners, the Reeds, and every
other westward bound traveler he came across, would warn the
Graves at California with simply not a good place to settle,
while also likely warning them against trusting Hastings and his shortcut.
Apparently opting to ignore this warning, the Graves would depart

(55:35):
from Fort Laramie, had of most of their traveling companions,
as they were seemingly in more of a hurry to
get going than the rest of their caravan. The Graves
and the other two families that they were traveling with
at this point would then, over the course of the
next two weeks, often find themselves traveling amidst these scattered
parts of what had been the Russell caravan, which at
this point was technically the box caravan that the Donner

(55:56):
Reed party had been a part of during this time.
Then the Graves only passed and were passed by different
parts of the larger caravan. As a result, by the
time the Graves reached the location which has come to
be known as the Party of Ways, there were only
a few days behind the Donners. It was here then
that the Graves and the two other families that were
traveling with made the same choice as the Donner said,

(56:17):
as they opted to ignore the warnings of Fame Mountain
manned Jim Cleman to take the southern path toward Fort
Bridger and the Hastings cut off. It was then, with
the arrival of the Graves family and the others at
the camp on the border of the Wahsatch Mountain Range,
that the Donner Party that would go down in history
was complete, as the group now consisted of eighty seven men,
women and children and twenty two wagons. When James Reid

(57:07):
returned to the Donner Party camp, the authors were disappointed
to learn that Lansford Hastings had not in fact returned
to guide them through the mountains as he promised to
do in his note. The party then was left with
the decision to take the route that had been taken
by the advanced group that had proven to be dangerous,
but they had ultimately made it through. Or take the
path that had been suggested by Hastings as a possible alternative,

(57:29):
a route that Read had taken back that, while not easy,
he believed to be safer than the other trail. The
group then agreed to try this new proposed path, as
they said off. The going was initially good. However, it
wasn't long before the cannon grew noticeably narrower and steeper. Indeed,
it would untimately take the Donner party two weeks to
make the thirty six mile crossing through the Wahsatch Mountains.

(57:52):
The going then was incredibly slow, to the point that
some days the wagons did not advance at all, due
to the party having to literally cut their their own
path through the dense underbrush of the canyon. There was
more of a small forest than anything, as it was
really an expanse of ten to twelve foot tall hardwood
trees that had densely grown and closes with one another.
The members of the party then spent day after day

(58:14):
cutting down and hauling away large trees or rolling boulders
out of the way. As they utilized double and triple
yoked oxen just to move some of these obstacles out
of their path so the wagons could advance. Meanwhile, as
they're making this tales crawl out progress, there was the
increase of concern among the group for the other two
men who had written ahead with three to get Hastings,
as neither Stand nor Pike had been seen since Raid

(58:36):
had left them in the company of the other party.
The two men had intended to rest themselves in their
horses for a bit before running back to connect with
the rest of the dinner party. They shouldn't have been
that far behind, reed then, Yet, as day after day
passed without any sign of Stant nor Pike, a search
party was formed a scout ahead and see if they
could find the two missing men. Eventually, then Stand and

(58:57):
Pike were found in a stated desperation as a they
were about ready to kill their horses for their meat.
The pair were saved from taking such a drastic step
and were then brought back to camp, where after a
warm meal, they joined the others and trying to blaze
a trail through these mountains. Meanwhile, at one point during
this crossing, the dinner party almost disintegrated when they realized
that the path they had been blazing let into a

(59:18):
box canyon, meaning it was a dead end with no
way out. When this realization was made, and combined with
the fact that they were already beginning to run low
on supplies, the mood was so bad within the group
that some started about leaving and going their own way,
effectively leaving the others behind. James Reed and George Donner, though,
would manage to hone everyone together during this troubled moment.

(59:40):
It then wouldn't beam till the twenty second of August
that the group finally made it out of the Wasatch Mountains,
after having to used teams of six to eight oxen
to drag each of their wagons off the final steep
soape so they could escape into the Utah Valley beyond.
They then at long last had escaped the Wasatch Mountains,
and had done so safely without any law of life

(01:00:00):
or the loss of any of their livestock. But they
were now some eighteen days behind schedule. The members of
the Donner party were then both exhausted and demoralized, and
they still had yet to face what Hastings had described
as a trying but still manageable forty mile crossing of
the Salt Desert, which would then be follow by another
journey of hundreds of miles through dry, sandy hills before

(01:00:22):
finally facing their last and greatest obstacle, the Sierra Nevadas.
The members of the dinner party then took a couple
of days to recover by the Great Salt Lake before
setting off again. It was here, though, that the group
would experience its second death, as Lou Calaran, the young
Irish immigrant from Saint Joseph, who the daughters had taken in,
finally succumbed to the tuberculosis that had racked his body

(01:00:44):
and which had compelled him to try and make it
the California and the hope that the climate there would
be beneficial to his poor health. The journey and his condition, though,
had proven to be too much for the young man,
and so on the afternoon of the twenty fifth of August,
Lou died, with his head cradled in Tamsen Donner's lamp
as she cared for him through his final moments. What
chances Luke ever had of reaching California is unknown, but

(01:01:08):
it seems that the arduous crossing of the Wahsatch Mountains
had done him no good, and so as Luke was
laid to rest, there were some in the party who
cursed Hastings and his guidance are lack thereof, for the
young man's death, while some also quietly cursed the arrogant
James Reed, forever trusting in Hastings in the first place.
Oddly enough, though, the Donner Party's numbers remained at eighty seven,

(01:01:29):
as Philippine Keysberg, the wife of the much disliked Lewis Keysburg,
gave birth to a baby boy during the same time.
It was then, after taking the time to bury Luke
and for Philippine to give birth to Lewis Junior, that
the Donner Party pressed on as they had no time
to waste. The group would then reginal Aces Stone as
Hope Springs on the twenty eighth of August. Yet whatever

(01:01:51):
hope they might have garnered from the supply of fresh
water was he immediately replaced by dread as. According to
Eliza Donner, who was just three years old at the
time but would vivid the remember the moment as he
found a quote be wondering guideboard flight with bits of
white paper showing that the noticer message, which had recently
been pacing intact thereon, had since been stripped off into
regular bits. Lanceford Hastings, it seemed, at once again left

(01:02:14):
behind instructions for the next leg of their journey. But
those instructions, whatever they might have been, had been destroyed,
possibly by crows, who the party suspected had tornly noted
what guidance it might have provided them to pieces. Tamson
done and then began frankly searching the surrounding area for
any scraps of paper she could find, an effort in
which he was soon joined by a number of others,

(01:02:35):
who brought these scraps to Tamson so that she might
try to reassemble the note and decipher what Hastings had
written to them. The message that Tamson then pieced together
read quote two days, two nights, hard driving cross desert,
reach water, a message which, while incomplete, did once again
illustrate how Hasting's earlier claims about a shortcut had not

(01:02:57):
been let's say accurate, as prior to this he had
stated that the crossing of this desert that they were
about to undertake would be easy and could be done
in the span of a day and a night, provided
they only took a few short rests along the way. Now, though,
this note seemed to indicate that the journey would be
both harder than what he had promised and also at
least twice as long as well, and ominous sign considering

(01:03:20):
their recent experience with the Wasatch Mounts that Hastings had
assured them they would have no trouble crossing in a
couple of days. The problem was he had now gone
too far down this road, and they really had no
option but the press on, and so they started making
their preparations as they cut down and bottled off as
much grass as they could so as to provide their
livestock with food while crossing the desert. Meanwhile, they also

(01:03:43):
filled everything that could possibly hold water with water to
see them through the desert. The party then gave their
livestock thirty six hours to rest, recover, eat, and drink
their fill at this oasis to try and make sure
they were in the best condition possible before setting off.
With their preparations thus made, on the thirtieth of August,
the Daughner party headed into the Great Salt Desert Virgina

(01:04:05):
Reid would then describe the landing now cross through quote.
It was a dreary, desolate, Alkali waste that a living
thing could be seen. It seemed as though the hand
of death had been laid upon the country. We started
in the evening, traveled all that night and the following
day and night, two nights and one day of suffering
from thurst and heat by day and piercing cold by night.

(01:04:27):
Throughout this time, the party barely rested, as the only
paused long enough to wordor and feed their precious oxen,
whose strength they were relying upon to see them through
this blasted wasteland as a winth. The caravan stretched on
for over a mile in length, as the Grace family,
whose oxen were in better condition than the rest, and
whose wagons were likely lighter, surged ahead, while the heavy

(01:04:48):
Donner and reed wagons ended up in the very rear. Meanwhile,
to try and lightly burden on the oxen as much
as possible, everyone who could walk and did, which meant
walking under the blazing hot sun during the day and
having to wrap themselves in blankets during the cold nights. Meanwhile,
the further in they went the hard salt flats, which
had allowed for a relatively quick passage gave way to

(01:05:10):
what was effectively a thin crust that covered a shallow
lag that was little more than thick mud that clung
to the wheels of the wagons and thus had to
be periodically cleaned off. One member of the group would
then compare this money expanse to quote walking through deep
oatmeal mixed with glue. Also adding to the traveler's troubles
were the mirages, with William Eddie, one of the last

(01:05:31):
to join the group, seeing a corus line of himself
traveling alongside them as he mimicked his every move. The
cruelest mirage, though, was when the members of the Donner
family thought they spied Hastings and the wagon training was
leading just up ahead, camped at the edge of a
great leag salvation that scene was at hand, but of
course at hope was soon dashed. So on and on

(01:05:52):
the wind day and night, constantly marching as a headed
for the distant Selllow wet of Pilot Peak, where they
had been told there was a fresh water spring. By
the second of September, the company's third Daanely Desert that
they had initially been told would be a relatively easy
jawn lasting a single day and night, their supply of
grass and water was almost spent, which was you know bad,

(01:06:12):
as once sat ran out, their oxen would start to
die and sew too, with the people who were, to
be clear absolutely relying upon them and their strength to
see them and their wagons through this. Recognizing his growing emergency,
James Reed saddled up his best horse, Glaucus, and rode
ahead to find water, while others, like the Donners in
the Eddies just opted to abandon their wagons for the

(01:06:33):
time being to bring either their families or their oxen
ahead to try and find some water. It was then
only after a grueling, newly three day trek through the
salt desert that they had been assured by Hastings would
be a relatively easy journey lasting no more than a
day and night, that they finally reached the life saving
spring at Pilot Peak. The Donner party, then, out of
pure necessity, took a week to rest and try to

(01:06:55):
recover at the spring, or to be more precise, they
took a week to try and a louther sing animals
to recover while they made trips back into the desert
to retrieve their wagons or at least to take some
of their belongings off them. As you see, while all
the human members of the Donner party had survived this
track through the desert, the same was not true of
their livestock, as they had lost a number of horses, oxen,

(01:07:16):
and cattle, either during the crossing itself or upon reaching
pilot peak for most of the families. This was because
even if the animals had survived the track, there were
some that it was obvious that they could not keep
going on this journey. Now. Arguably, the most logical thing
of both parties in this scenario would have been to
kill these animals rather than lead them to their own

(01:07:37):
devices in this foreign land where they would most likely
die anyway. The thing was, the members of the Donner Party,
after traveling alongside these animals for their entire journey, had
grown so close to them that they could not barely
thought of outright killing them at this point. So, instead
of giving them mercy and also harvesting their meat for
the journey ahead, a number of their animals were left

(01:07:57):
by the spring in the slim hope that they couldn't
cover and survive there. Meanwhile, the Reds had a different
problem in that they had lost eighteen oxen and cattle
at Pilot's Peak, not by choice. Red Juicy, after riding
ahead and finding the freshwater spring had returned with winter
for his family along the way, he encounted as teamster
who was leading their livestock forward, and instructed him to

(01:08:18):
be careful and to keep a tight control over the
cattle because they were likely to stampede and scatter upon
catching the scent of fresh water up ahead, a warning
that the teamster apparently did not heed or was simply
too much to ask, as the cattle did stampede and
were then lost or alternatively spirited away by the local
Native Americans residing in those hills. Regardless, after a week

(01:08:39):
of searching with the help of every man in the
Dnner party, all eighteen of Reed's cattle were lost. With
these losses, the decision was made to leave behind several
wagons and the goods they contained, with the obvious exception
of what little food and supplasts they might have carried,
which were naturally retrieved and put into one wagons they
were still capable of carrying on with both George's daughter

(01:09:01):
and Lewis Keysburg will leave behind a wagon apiece, while
James Reid was forced to leave behind two of his
three wagons due to their poor estate and the loss
of so many of his oxen. In fact, Reed had
been left with just a single ox and a cow.
So to keep the Reeds moving, some of the other
families donated some of their animals so they wouldn't be
able to pull along their singular wagon, with Reid selecting

(01:09:23):
to keep the largest of their three wagons, the one
that had been belfy the covering of his dying mother
in law. Now though they discarded her bed in heavy
cookstove to make room for what goods they could retrieve
from the other wagons. It is here, then that we
will for now leave the dinner party. After traveling so far,
they had opted to leave the triad and true path
to California to take the so called Hastings, cut off

(01:09:45):
a straighter path to their destination that promised to shave
some two hundred miles off of their journey. Yet what
they might have sayed and the number of miles covered,
they had seemingly lost in time making a through the
Wassatch Mountains, and in the number of animals had died
or wandered off thanks to the They're harrowing crossing of
the Great Salt Desert, which had very nearly claimed all
their lives. Yet they were not done with the cutoff,

(01:10:07):
and they still had to deal with the greatest obstacle
at these Heerra Nevadas. However, the story of their continuing travails,
any nightmares that'llwait them in those mountains will have to
for now remain a story for another time. Thank you
for listening to Distorted History. If you would like to
help out, please rate and review the podcasts and tell

(01:10:28):
your friends if you think they'll be interested. If you
would like ad free in early episodes, I set up
such a feed over at patreon dot com slash Distorted History.
By paying ten bucks a month, you will gain access
to these special ad free feed available on Spotify or
likely through your podcast app as long as it uses
an RSS feed. I will continue to post sources on
koffee and Twitter, though, as it's just a convenient place

(01:10:51):
to go to access that information. Regardless, once again, thank
you for listening and until next time. Isla

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The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 2 The Hastings Cutoff

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