The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 3 Trapped in the Mountains

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My name is Eric Gasco and you're listening to the
Distorted History podcast and Purbrim I didn't give you many names,
and you're a bloder. Look, I'm Raisling. I'm got the

(00:24):
barah A long struggle for freedom. It really is a revolution.
When they had initially set off, the various families that
would eventually come to be known as the Donner Party
were indistinguishable from the numerous other Americans who set off

(00:46):
in eighteen forty six seeking opportunities in the lands of
California and Oregon. The choice and that would secure them
all a placed in history was the one to deviate
from the main trail taken by the vast majority of others,
to take the so called Hastings Cunnef, a supposed shortcut
that promised to shave some two hundred miles off their journey,
a choice that was made because while their trip had

(01:06):
largely been typical of others undertaking that same journey, there
had been whispers that they were taking too long, something
that everyone on the trail knew was risky, as the
one piece of advice universally given to all making this
journey was that they had to make it across the
Sierra Nevada's before these snows started to fall, Lesty risk
being trapped. It was, and in an attempt to avoid
this faith that the men leading this group, George and

(01:28):
Jacob Donner and James Read in particular, advocated for taking
their shortcut promoted by the supposed expert trailblazer Langford Hastings
in his book The Immigrant's Guide to Oregon in California.
Yet so far the shortcut that Hastius had promised would
be a quicker and easier way to reach California had
been anything but, as the Donner party had experienced nothing
but hardship and delay since opting for this route. They

(01:51):
had exhausted themselves blazing a trail through the Wasatch Mountains,
and then while crossing the Great Salmn Desert, they had
worn out their cattle, oxen, and horses, which they deemed
incapable of carrying on any further. Plus, upon reaching the
freshwater spring at Pilot Peak, the Reed family had lost
only all their cattle and ox in, which they were
then unable to recover despite a week spent searching for them,

(02:12):
and they still weren't done with the shortcut. Plus the
still had the difficult crossing of the Sierra Nevada's ahead
of them. Yet, before I resume the tale the Donner
Party as they sent off from their camp by the
fresh winter Spring on pilot Peak, first, like always, I
want to acknowledge my sources for this series, which primarily
are Michael Wallace as the Best Land under Heaven, The
Donner Party in the Age of manifest Destiny, Daniel James

(02:34):
Browns in Different 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 and any other sources like websites that
I used, will be available on this podcast, blue Sky
and Koffee pages. Plus for anyone who doesn't want to
be bothered skipping through commercials, there is always an ad
free feet available to subscribers at patreon dot com slash

(02:57):
Distorted History. And with all that being said, let's begin
The Donner Party with the remaining wagons and surviving animals
set off in the freshwater Spring on Pilot Peak on
the tenth of September as they said, although the group
barely made it six miles before a heavy snowstorm swept
down from the mountains peak to where the party was traveling. Now,
this particular storm would pass relatively quickly, but still it

(03:19):
was a reminder of the fact that faced them when
it came to crossing the Sierra Nevadas, as an early
snowfall on those mounds would potentially block the path forward,
trapping them in those harsh peaks. A reminder that no
one actually needed, as that concern was already front and
center in their minds. Indeed, when they had a wooken
that morning and been greeted with the sight of the
summoned a pilot peak suddenly being dusted in snow, the

(03:41):
mothers in the party in particular took stock of the
remaining supplies, an inventory which then confirmed what they already
suspected and feared, which was, thanks to everything they had
been through, they no longer had enough food to get
them all the way to California. It became obvious then
that someone was going to have to ride ahead and
get help. At the very least, they believed they needed

(04:02):
to make contact with the party that Lansford Hastens was
leading someplace ahead of them to see if they could
provide any assistance. Charleston and William McCutchen would both volunteer
for this duty, with the single Stanton only asking for
a horse so he could make the ride, while McCutchen
asked that the others look after his family while he
was gone, with the red stepping forward to taking his
wife Amanda and their baby daughter Harriet. And so the

(04:25):
five foot five Charles stan would ride off side by
side with the six foot six big Bill McCutchen as
they made their way for California, and John Sutter carrying
with them a note from James Reed that promised to
repay the Swiss immigrant for any proficiency sent back with
the two men. Meanwhile, Tippers and the daughter party were,
let's say, on edge as they now all saw what

(04:46):
a folly had had been to follow Hastings shortcut. Sure,
they had experienced some difficulties in the lays in their
travels previously, but they had never experienced anything like the
hardships they had gone through ever since diverting from the
proven trail to follow the Hastings route. Recognize and then
where all their troubles had started. The people in the
party then rightly blamed the supposed trailblazer for all their suffering.

(05:08):
That being said, though, they also put quite a bit
of blame for their situational on James Reid, as he
was seen as being the leading voice behind opten to
take this path. Indeed, only thirteenth of September read in
this journal would name the place they stopped for the
night as the mad Woman Camp due to the angry
looks he got from virtually every woman in the party.
Glare's would seem perfectly understandable given that per Reed's own

(05:30):
estimate upon departing for Fort Bridger, they should have been
at or at least very close to Fort Suttern, California
by this time. Yet instead of having safely arrived in
California here they were still on the trail following Lanceford
Hastings Path had circled around south of the Ruby Mountains,
a track which would later be revealed and actually added
an extra one hundred and twenty five miles to their

(05:51):
journey that were absolutely pointless and unnecessary. It then wouldn't
be until the twenty sixth of September, when the dinner
party finally came to the Humboldt River that they were
finally done with the Hastings cut off as it returned
at long last to the proven route to California. Now,
just so we all understand how much of a disaster
the decision to take the Hastings cut off, flaws and all.

(06:11):
From the moment the Lefty parting of ways to take
the supposed shortcut, it had taken the members of the
Donner Party sixty eight days to rejoin the main trail
at this point. Meanwhile, those who they had been traveling
with who opted to take the Proven road, had reached
this very same spot in thirty seven days, meaning the
short cut had cost the Donner Party a month's time,

(06:32):
time that they could ill afford to lose with winter
fast approaching, Plus had also exhausted themselves, their animals, and
their supplies in the process. Meanwhile, not helping matters was
the fact that as a prestolemy party was visited by
some local poutes, who, despite first appearing friendly to the
span of traveling whites, would ultimately steal several oxen and a
horse from the Gray's family. Now, to be clear, this

(06:54):
was not a personal attack on the Donner Party for
anything they had done in particular. Instead, it was the
result of what had been done by all the white
sellers who had preceded them on the trail. As you see,
the local Shoshonian piotes had legitimately been friendly and welcoming
to the first whites who were arrived in their lands.
They had even shared what little food they had with
those initial travelers. With the passage of time, though, as

(07:16):
he Wides proceeded to pollute their rivers and just generally
ravaged their land as he simply took what they needed
without care for the impact they were having, the local
tribes then decided to just start robbing these white invaders.
As for the graves and the rest of the dinner party,
there really was nothing they could do about any of this,
as it's not like they could stop and take the
time to go hunting after their missing livestock or the

(07:37):
need of Americas they believed to be responsible for their
losses because they had to press on. As they did,
they were constantly on the lookout for Big Bill McCutchen
and Charleston, hoping to see them running up to them
bearing much needed supplies. In the absence of the return
of those two men, though the members of the Donner
party were not idle, as he attempted to haunt so
as to supplement their meager supplies. Yet despite their apparently

(07:59):
being wild life in the vicinity, they had no luck. Now,
nerves among the group had been freed for some time,
and the party was already seemingly splintering apart, with the
various families now more or Lester's keeping to themselves as
they did not intermingle as much as they had previously.
This simmering under current of anger then finally overflowed on
the fifth of October when James Reed stabbed and killed

(08:21):
the well like John Snyder, a handsome twenty three year
old bachelor who had asked for had been granted a
place traveling with the Grease family from the beginning of
their journey. Styder had then served the family as an
extra pair of strong hands, and he'd also helped to
entertain his fellow travelers by dancing jigs when they camped
together at night. He had even reportedly caught the eye
of the nineteen year old Mary Anne Graves. Which is

(08:44):
all to say that Sneyder was well liked by his
fellow travelers, unlike James Reed, who many saw us arrogant
and held responsible for their ill fated decision to take
the Hastings cut off. Now, what exactly happened on the
fifth of October is unclear, because, as is so common,
the eyewitnesses each had their own version of events, with
the witnesses opinion of James Reed seemly being a major

(09:05):
factor in how they viewed what it transpired, with the
Reed family in particular providing a different version of events
than those that did not share their same warm feelings
of the man, who they believed bore a good share
of the bardner for them being in this mess. Things
in general seemed to have started when the party came
to a place called Palto Pass, which notably involved a
steep sandy incline that was difficult for their wagons to surmount,

(09:27):
an obstacle that then required the party to work together
as they had to attach double the normal amount of
ox into each wagon to get them off the hell. Now,
two of the Graves family wagons had already been pulled
up the steep sandy slope using a double oxen team method,
when John Snyder decided that he would only need a
single team of oxen to get the family third wagon
of the slope. However, it soon became obvious that Steiner's

(09:49):
estimation of the oxen and the steepness of the slope
was wrong, as his wagon struggled to make progress. Meanwhile,
coming up behind Steinder was the Reed's lone remaining wagon,
which was driven by teamster Milt Elliott and an additional
five oxen. Now, Milt, like probably everyone else Knee Party,
was by this point impatient due to knowing just how
little time they had to spare, So instead of waiting

(10:10):
for these struggling Snyder, Milt started driving his oxen around Snyder's,
a decision that Styd reportedly took some exception to, but
the real problem wasn't. Trying to do this maneuver, Milt
got his oxen entangled with Snyder's, which meant they were
now both not going anywhere. It was at this point
then that James Reid came running upon the scene to
witness Stider whipping the oxen. Now, whether this was in

(10:32):
an attempt to get the two teams separated, or because
this Reid and his family would later claim because Sneider
had lost his temper and was lashing out wildly, we
don't know regardless of Pon seeing this, Reed decided to
insert himself into the situation, which was probably not the
wisest decision, as the imperious and haughty Read even under
normal conditions, likely would not have called matters much. But

(10:54):
he especially was not going to light the moon now
that he was seen as the man who would put
all their lives at risk because his stupid insistence on
following the Hastings cut off. Now, according to the Reed
family's version of events, James Reid was simply upset with
Steiner for beating the oxen with his whip, as they
were the only way they had us surviving and getting
out of this mess. In fact, they claimed that Reid
even off the use of their oxen to get the

(11:16):
final Graves wagon up the slope read portedly though whenever
words were actually exchanged between the two men. Steiner then
not only threatened to whip Reed, but he soon actually
started being the man who he likely blamed for all
their problems with the heavy handle of his whip. Now,
the Reed's version of events portrays this as a wholly
unprovoked attack, while other eye witnesses suggest that Snyder had

(11:37):
only begun striking at reed after the other man pulled
a knife on him. Regardless, was roughly at this point
that James Reid's wife, Margaret, attempted to intervene by getting
in between the two men. In doing so, one of
Steynder's blows with his whip handle happened to connect with
her head. Upon seeing his wife struck in such a manner,
James Reid then lashed out with his knife, stabbing Snider
in the chest and puncturing his left lung in the process.

(12:00):
As blood began to pour out of the hole on
his chest, John Stuyd managed to stuble a few steps
before collapsing into the arms a sevent ten year old
Billy Graves, who gently lowered the mortally wounded man to
the ground. Now reportedly, Reid seemed to honestly be overwhelmed
with grief, horror, and guilt for his actions, as he
too seemed to apparently consider Stutter a friend. Indeed, as

(12:20):
it became clear that John Stiter was dead, Reid offered
a prime some of the boards from his lone remaining
wagon to providing coffin, but Franklin Grays refused the offer.
Tensions among the group then were understandably incredibly high. Reid
then retreated to see to his wife, who was suffering
a migraine and was bleeding due to the blow to
her head, while James himself was also apparently bleeding from

(12:40):
the blow set suffered during the fight. As he did so,
the other members of the party who had bore witness
to what had just happened, gathered together to discuss what
was to be done, as Reed had just killed another
man and they had to do something. The question, though,
was what, as the party was spent on who was
at fault for the clash and what the punishment should be,
as those who resented Reid and held him responsible for

(13:03):
getting them into this mess tended to assert that Reed
had been the aggressor, while those who were close to
Reid were similarly insistent that what had happened was a
tragic accident and Reid had just been defending himself and
his wife. There was in talk of waiting until they
reached California, at which point they would present their Affid
Davids to the officials there and leave it in their hands. This, however,

(13:24):
was not satisfactory to those who believed that Reid had
been the aggressor and had just effectively murdered another man.
Some then, including Lewis Keysburg, who had clashed with Reid
due to his disapproving of the way Keyesber treated his wife,
did not want to wait for the authorities in California
to hand down their judgment. Instead, they demanded that Reid
be hanged immediately for his crime. The others, though, refused

(13:45):
to allow us to devolve into a lynch mob. Plus
Reads teamsters had made a point of gathering around his
remaining wagon rifles in hand, as he promised to fight
back should there be an attempt to execute him. After
some more negotiations than it was decided that they would
not hang Read, but he would no longer be allowed
to travel with the party. James Reid was then bandhed
to travel on his own with only his horse and

(14:07):
no weapons or any additional supplies, something which in and
of itself was pretty much a death sentence. Read then
understandably bonked at this judgment, as not only did it
likely mean his death regardless, but it would also mean
abandoning his wife and children. Eventually, though, between his remaining
friends and the party promising to look after his family
and his wife pointing out that was Stanton mccutche's fate's unknown.

(14:29):
The sentence now gave Read the opportunity to ride ahead,
and since he was alone and unburdened, maketh through the
mounts of California, where he could then rally Aid and
save all of their lives, especially those of his family,
as otherwise, without Aid, all Reed could do, even if
he remained, was Watch's family slowly dive starvation, and so
the following morning, after joining the others for John Styd's funeral,

(14:51):
James Reid embraced his family one final time before mounting
his prized racehors Glaucus and running off. That being said,
Reid not go very far at first day, as at night,
his daughter Virginia and his teamster Milt Elliott slipped out
of camp to bring Reed into fins of the group's verdict,
his rifle, pistol and some ammunition, in addition to some
crackers from the meager remaids of these supplies he still

(15:12):
had left. Reid then rode off in earnest this time,
and as he did, he soon caught up with the Donners,
who had been moving at a swifter pace than the
others as such, they were completely unaware Styder's death and
the events surrounding it, including Reid's banishment. Reid then avoided
that uncomfortable subject, as he more or less seems to
have claimed to be riding ahead to try and procured
since it seems that Stan and McCutcheon weren't coming back.

(15:35):
Hearing this, Walter Herron, who had previously worked for Reed
but had lately been traveling with the Donners, volunteered to
join Reid on this mission. It was then decided that
since Heron didn't heavy horse of his own, the two
men would switch off frighting and walking, which would mean
they would travel at a slower pace, but it would
be easier on the horse, and they would still be
able to make better time than those traveling with the wagons.

(15:56):
Speaking of those traveling with the wagons as probably not
accurate to call them the dogs or party anymore, as
there really was no cohesion or feeling of unity among
them at this point. While George Donner had been elected
as their leader when they had sent off on the
ill fated Hastings Shortcut, mind this point, no one much
consulted Georgia even considered him to be their leader anymore. Basically, then,

(16:16):
there were just a bunch of individual families who were
all traveling along the same road in the same direction.
Their loyalty then was to the members of their family
first and foremost, and not to the group as a whole,
a fact which was clearly illustrated by the feet of
the old Belgian immigrant who was known only by his
last name, hard Coop. The old man had been traveling
with the Keysburgs, and recently he had been riding in

(16:38):
the Keysburg's wagon as his old lives could no longer
keep up with this brutal journey. However, hard coop struggles
no longer seem to matter much to Lewis Keysburg, who
kicked the old man out of his wagon, insisting that
he had to walk like the rest of them, in
an attempt to try and spare his exhaustion and worn
out oxen As again, the Hastings cutoff had been brutal
on everyone who experienced it, man and beast alike. Predictably, then,

(17:01):
Hardcoop quickly fell behind. Now, on the first night that
this happened, some men went back to find the old
man and bring him to camp, where they asked Keyesburg
to have some mercy and allow the old man to
ride in his wagon again. Keyesburg, however, refused, as he
pointed out that even his recently pregnant wife, Philippine, had
been walking. So the following day, Hardcoop was once again

(17:22):
forced to walk, and he once again fell behind. When
they make camp that night and the temperature started to plummet,
a number of the others pleaded with Keysburg to go
back and find the old man, but he refused. Failing
to get the much maligned German immigrant to bunch. These
individuals turned their attention to Patrick Breen and Franklin Graves,
men who had horses who could potentially ride back and

(17:43):
rescue old man Hardcoop. However, both refused, not wanting to
wear out their animals any further for such a mission.
No one that night then headed back to find the
old man, although they did build a large signal fire
that they kept burning throughout the night and they hope
that he would eventually find his way to them. Hard Coop, however,
did not arrive by the following morning, at which point

(18:04):
three men offered to go back and look for him.
The others, though, informed this trio that they would not
wait for them, as they had no time. The three
men then did not go back, fearing that they two
would be left alone here in the wilderness. As a result,
the last people to have seen hard Group alive were
the boys who had driven the remaining cattle into camp
the night before. They had last seen him that afternoon,

(18:24):
sitting several miles back beside some sagebrush with his shoes
off as his Felix swallen so badly that they had
turned black and split. Hard Coop then died. Because no
one was willing to risk their or their family's chances
of survival for someone the only kind of new and
so the members of the quote unquote Donner Party pressed
on leaving the old men to die alone in the wilderness.

(18:46):
This decision, however, would come to haunt some of the
party more than others, as some Franklin Grays in particular,
came to believe that they were being punished by God
for abandoning Hard Coop. Meanwhile, some engaged in arguing and
finger pointing over who was to for basically sentencing an
old mant to death. The local piodes helped to make
these situation worse as it took this opportunity to steal

(19:08):
all of Franklin Grave's horses, which means the animals he
had refused to wear out by going back to search
for hard coup were now gone anyway. Then, less than
a week later, on the fifteenth of October, the piode
struck again, this time killing twenty one cattle that belonged
to the Eddie and Wuffinger families, while the Donner brothers
lost another eighteen cattle to the poisoned arrows of the
local tribe. Now, under normal circumstances, this might not have

(19:31):
been a complete loss, as it could still have butchered
the animals so their me could be dried at preserve
for later, but thanks to the looming threat of winter,
they could not take the time to do so properly,
so what meat they could hastily butcher off these sat
animals was eaten then and there and was not safe
for later, which probably wasn't all that much as the
cattle were likely quite scrawny and worn out by this

(19:52):
point times and were increasingly hard, and in this situation
it seems that none were inclined to make sacrifices to
help others. This then led to even further shedding of
valuables and belongings in the name of survival. The remaining Reads,
for example, abandoned their lone remaining wagon and much of
their belongings as they procured a lighter wagon from the
Gray's family, likely the one that had been driven by

(20:14):
John Stuyter, as they pressed on, hoping just to survive.
William Eddie and his wife Eleanor also abandoned their wagon
as Saints ten, buried what belongings they had left and
set off on foot, with Eleanor carrying their infant Margaret
and the only food they had left a bit of
tea and a three pound loaf of sugar, while William
carried their three year old son James. Meanwhile, Jacob Wolfinger

(20:35):
and his wife Doris seemed to have made a similar
choice around this time as well. As you see, not
much as known about the couple, but it is believed
that Jacob Wolfinger had been a successful merchant and was
then carrying quite a bit of wealth in their wagon. Wilfinger, then,
in the name of preserving these valuables, insisted on staying
behind in burying them, while the others, including his wife Doris,

(20:55):
which started this journey wearing fine gowns and jewels, pressed
on on foot. Yet, just as the others were about
to set off, leaving Wulfinger alone to bury his valuables,
two of his teamsters, Joseph Reinhardt and Augustus Spitzer, volunteered
to stay behind and assist in this task. The others, meanwhile,
found themselves now crossing yet another Alkali desert. Thankfully, this

(21:16):
one was only forty miles wide, and so they were
able to cross it in just a day and a night.
Along the way, though, they would get a minor break
as they came upon a set of hot springs, which,
despite spelling a sulfur, they still drank from after allowing
the water to cool. Of course, as what choice did
they have, they did those still had to be careful
to keep their animals away from the boiling hot water

(21:37):
so they did not burn themselves. It was here though,
that the growing tension among the group, their desperation and
their lack of compassion for those who were not members
of their family, was further illustrated. As you see, when
William Eddie arrived with his wife Elinor, they continued to
fear that their newborn son James and daughter Margaret were
on the verge of death even after being given a
drink of the sulfurous water. William Eddie then asked of

(21:58):
Breenswood arrived before them, for half a pun in the
water that they had stored away. Patrick bring them, who
to be fairhead seven children of his own to look after.
Refused this request any though, was not about to take
no for an answer when it came to his children's revival,
so he took up his rifle, swearing as he did
that he would have the water even if he had
to kill for it. William then took a bucket full

(22:21):
of water from the brain supply to ensure that his
children survived this ordeal. No further violence came from this encounter, though,
and so they all went on plowing through the desert,
the final ten miles of which consisted of deep sand
that claimed the elives of six more oxen. Still, though
only seventeenth of October, they had long last exited the desert,
finding salvation in the form of the Truckee River, which

(22:42):
offered him a seemingly endless supply of cool, clean water
and lush grasses for grazing. The people and animals of
the Donner party then drank their fill on the river's waters.
Yet while the animals had grassed to fill their bellies,
the people were virtually without food. In fact, William and
Eleanor and he had not eaten a thing two full days,
while their children had only a lump of sugar each

(23:03):
to suck on. The desperate William Eddie then went to
both Elizabeth Grays and Peggy Green to beg for a
piece of me to give to his two little ones,
but both women refused, as they were now focused exclusively
on the needs of their own children and they really
had nothing to spare. It was then, in this moment
of desperation that William Eddie heard the hugging of geese
and saw some fly over the river. With his own

(23:26):
gun having been broken along the way, Eddie then barred
Lewis Keysburg's gun and set off hunting so as to
provide for his family. When William Eddie came back later
that day, he brought with him nine plump geese, one
of which he gave to Keysberg and return for the
loan of his gun, and legend has it two were
then given to each Missus Gray's and Missus Breen to
provide for their families, while the rest were presumably kept

(23:48):
to feed the hungry Eddie family. Yet, even this moment
of respital long the Truckee River would be tented with tragedy,
as it was here that the two teamsters who had
volunteered to stay behind with Jacob Wuffeger to bury his valuables,
Joseph Reinhardt and Augustus Spitzer, rode into camp without Jacob Wuffinger.
The two men then told of how they had been
attacked by Piutes and that Wolfinger had been slain by them,

(24:09):
a fairly plausible story, given that the reason why Wolfinger
was bearing his valuables in the first place was because
he Piotes had killed so many of their oxen, so
they were definitely in the area, and it wasn't entirely
possible that they had then attacked these three men who
had remained behind and were isolated. However, reportedly some among
the group felt the two men's behavior was odd and

(24:30):
their countenance guarded, as if they had something to hide,
but they also had no way to disprove their story. Still,
the fact that the matter was in the span of
the last month, three members of the Donner Party had
died John Styter, Hardcoop and Jacob Muffinger, and they had
not yet even reached this year.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
In Nevada's.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
It was now only in October and the dinner party
in may Company Valley called the Trucky Meadows, which was
staying for the river, which itself took its stay from
a friendly piout chief. Most importantly, though, there were now
the last group of emigrants still on the trail, thanks
primarily to their choice to try and make up for
lost time by taking the Hastings cut off. Yet instead
of reaching their destination quicker, the supposed shortcut had delayed

(25:30):
them an additional month, while also wearing at the members
of the party their livestock and also exhausting their supplies. Indeed,
people were already starting to go hungry, and they still
had forty more miles ago just to reach their final
obstacle to the Sierra Nevadas. The party, though, was divided
on how to proceed. Namely, some fearing winterstows blogging the
pass through the Sierra Nevadas wanted to get back on

(25:52):
the road immediately, while others wanted to take some time.
In this slash Verden Meadow so as to give their
animals time to recover, as they would need their strength
to take on this year in Nevadas, as they represented
by far the greatest obstacle of their entire journey, with
the group finally deciding to compromise as they agreed to
stay in the Trucky meadows for a few days before

(26:12):
setting off intent on making it over the mountains. Meanwhile,
James Reid and Walter Herron, after departing from the daughters,
had ridden ahead, with each man taking turns riding Reed's
prize horse. The pair then had crossed the forty mile
desert well ahead of the others and had then proceeded
into the mountains. Now it wasn't much more than a
couple of days after they had left the others than

(26:33):
what little ration zy pair had ran out. Now Reed
was able to initially supplement their meager supplies by killing
geese and various small animals like rabbits. It wasn't long though,
after they headed into the Sierra Nevada's proper but the
game started to disappear. Not much it seemed lived in
those harsh peaks, especially with winter approaching. Plus the two
men didn't really have the time to stop and hunt,

(26:54):
which left them to try and sustain themselves on wild
onions alone, not helping matters as they climbed to this
eras was defect that Reed's prized horse was so weak
by this point that it couldn't even carry a saddle anymore,
much less either man, a situation that led Walter Herron
to suggest that they should kill and eat the horse. Reed,
though wasn't quite at that point, but he did promise

(27:15):
that if it did get to that point, he would
kill the horse himself. The desperate men then continued to
press on through the mountains, even as Heron grew delirious
from hunger. The only relief they found for this situation
were five home beans that had likely been dropped by
some presumably better supplied traveler. Reed then gave three of
these beans to his companion, while keeping two for himself,

(27:36):
and that was the extent of what they had to
eat for that entire day. The following daily, twenty second
of October, though, brought hope when they found some wagons
of bend and along the roadside. Unfortunately, though, whoever had
owned them had predictably taken whatever supplies they might have
Once contained with them. That being said, Bredan Herron would
find at the bottom of a bucket a bit of
rants a tallow about the size of a walnut, a

(27:58):
substance that was typically used to grease wagon wheels, but
which they now attempted to consume. While Heron seemed to
suffer no effects from this meal, the rants at tallow
soon made Reed sick to the point that he had
bouts of blindness before ultimately perching the toxic substance from
his system. So though, Reed would not give up, as
not only was his life on the line, but so

(28:19):
too were the lives of his family and everyone else
in the Donner party. So after perging his system, the
two men finally made it over the mountain and headed
down the other side. As the two men now headed
down into a region known as Bear Valley, they finally
encountered other people in the form of a wagon train
of settlers who had actually been traveling with the Gray's
family before the parting of ways, which again just further

(28:40):
illustrates the fact that had they stayed on the main trail,
everyone in the Donner party would have safely made it
to California by this point. Regardless, the settlers, upon seeing
the state of these two men, welcomed the pairento their camp,
where they wrapped them in blankets and set them by
the fire, where they were given hunks of bread and
MUCKs of tea, which again illustrates the contrast between these
people the members of the Dinner Party, as they had

(29:02):
food to spare for desperate travelers on the road, while
the members of the Donner Party didn't even have enough
food to give to hungry children who were traveling with them.
It was that at this point that Reed and heron
were approached by none other than Charles Sten, who had
written the head of the party back on the tenth
of September while they were at Pilot Peak fallen the
crossing of the Great Salt Desert, when it became abundantly

(29:22):
apparent to the party the thanks of the Hastings cut off.
They know Muller had enough food to make it to California.
The continued absence of Stan and his companion Big Bill
McCutcheon had subsequently worn'ed the members of the Dinner Party
to the point that they had become convincing two men
weren't coming back that however, Reid realized upon speaking with
Stan now was not at all the cays as While

(29:44):
Big Bill had fallen ill to the point that he
was in no condition to make the ride back and
had to be left behind. At Sutter's fort, Charles Sten
had with him seven mules carrying verious supplies, including flour
and dried beef. Not to mention, he also had with
him a pair of Miwok Native American nineteen year old
Salvador and twenty eight year old Louise, who Sutter had
sent along with him to ensure that the Donner party

(30:05):
completed their journey. As Sutter, despite what you could say
about his plans and his motivations, he did make sure
to take care of both the people who were ride
at this fort and any who were struggling on the
trial to get there. As such, Stan really hadn't had
any issues in procuring supplies to help those still on
the road. That being said, Sutter didn't anticipate being paid back,
but the fact of the matter was there was no

(30:27):
benefit for him and his enterprise to have people die
on the road to California. Stan then was on his
way back across the mound when he happened to encounter Reid,
who he had not even recognized at first, as he
once wealthy and powerful man, was now so gaunty was
nearly unidentifiable. Indeed, it wasn't until Red had spoken that
Stan realized who the sad haggard figures were. After catching

(30:49):
up then Charles Stan, who it has to be noted,
was a bachelor who had no family or any other
connections with anyone in the dinner party, then set off
leading his train of mules over the mound to bring
the unter party much needed aid. Meanwhile, Reid and Herron
continued on the Sutter's Fort, where again Reid would encounter
a number of people they had been trawing with who
had opted to not take the Hastings cut off. He

(31:10):
would also learn that there was an ongoing conflict taking
place in California as a part of the Mexican American
more read then pledged to services to one Colonel John Fremont,
the head of a group would be revolutionaries loosely connected
to the American military, who hoped to see his control
of California and bring it into the United States, doing
so in part because his brother in law was a

(31:31):
member of these forces. As was another old acquaintance, William
Levy Todd, Mary pod Lincoln's nephew. In doing so, though,
Reed made it clear that before adjoining the volunteers, he
first had to bring supplies back to the Donner party,
who were still on the other side of the Sierra
Nevadas and in need of all the help they could get.
Speaking of, after spending a couple of days resting in
the Truckee Meadows and allowing their animals to recover somewhat

(31:53):
for the next leg of their journey, brother in law's
William Pike and William Foster were preparing to set off
ahead of the others. Pike and Foster u See were
part of a larger thirteen member family group, which consisted
of their families and that of their mother in law,
thirty six year old widow Levena Jackson Murphy. The plan
was these two men were going to set off ahead
of everyone else across the mountains, and then, upon reaching

(32:15):
Sutter's Fort, bring back supplies as they, like all the rest,
had given a hope of seeing Charles stand in Big
Bill McCutchen again. After all, anything could have happened to
those two men, and so rather than clutching onto that
thin hope, they intended to be proactive and save not
just themselves and their families, but their traveling companions as well.
Now as a part of their preparations, in addition to

(32:36):
getting their saddle bags in order, the men also made
sure to check their weapons. In particular, Foster checked out
and were reloaded as pepper box, which is a type
of handgun with multiple barrels that looked like a pepper grinder,
hence the name. Something then happened that cost a gun
to go off, shooting Pike in the back at damn
near point blank range, causing a wound that was fatal,

(32:56):
but not immediately so, meaning that Pike lingered on in
pain for another half an hour before his eighteen year
old wife, Harriet was made a widow, left in charge
of caring for their two daughters. And so just like that,
yet another member of the Donner Party had died before
ever ridging the Sierra Nevadas as a graves dog for Pike.
The rest of the Donner Party also made preparations to

(33:17):
set off the mountains in ultimately California. As they did so,
though the so called Donner Party was no longer a
unified singular group. Instead, it was just a collection of
families who just so happened to be traveling in the
same direction, who had no real sense of leadership or
loyalty to one another. As they set off. Then they
more or less traveled than three general groups. The first

(33:38):
consisted of the Breen family, which itself consisted of Edward
and Beggy Breen and their seven children. They were also
joined by their friend Patrick Dolan, the Eddy family, William
and Eleanor and their two young children, in the Keyesburgs
Lewis and Philippine and their two children. This group had
lost a few as cattle in their recent traveils and
thus would the most fit to press on. Plus they
were also seemingly the most concerned about crossing emails before

(34:00):
the snowe started to fall and become too deep. Following
behind them was the second group, which consisted primarily of
the extended Murphy family, a group that was based around
thirty six year old widow Lemna Jackson Murphy and her
seven children, including her two oldest Sarah Foster and the
now widowed Harriet Pike, who each had children of their
own mean while also traveling with them. In this second

(34:21):
group was the Grace family Franklin and Elizabeth and their
nine children, including Sarah and her husband Jay, as well
as Margaret Read and her four children. Then, finally, there
was the third group, which consisted of the Daughner brothers,
Jacob and George Dnner. There was Elizabeth and Tamsen respectively,
as well as their children five each. Also joining them
were their various teamsters in Jacob Wolfinger's widow Doris. Now,

(34:43):
this group lagged behind the rest as they moved at
a slower pace, likely due to the excessive losses of
their cattle and oxen in recent weeks. As these group
sent off in a staggered fashion, had very much seemed
like the Breen's fears were justified, ass the temperatures were
starting to tumble dramatically and heavy snow clouds hung overhead.
When the brains were and on ahead, though, they were
greeted by a totally unexpected sight, as against all logic,

(35:06):
it seemed like someone was heading down the mountain in
their direction, with this of course being Charles Den and
his Mewhile companions Lewis and Salvador, leading seven mules loaded
down with various supplies they dried beef, flour, beans, tea, coffee,
and sugar. Upon seeing the three men and their mule train,
ly Breeds and the others in their group let out
a cheer as this was the first glimpse of actual

(35:27):
hope they had in quite some time. Stan then headed
out some of the supplies to the various members of
this first group, before pressing on to do the same
to the next, which notably included members of the Reed family,
who were overjoyed to receive word that James Reid had
survived and made it across the mountains. Stand Then, after
making sure that all the supplies were distributed to the
various families, then brought the mules back to the second

(35:49):
of the three groups, just so the young Reed children
would be able to ride them and not have to
walk the rest of the way. Meanwhile, at the rear
of this very much disconnected wagon train, as the daughters
did their best u catre with the others and they
hope that they too might be able to make it
across the Sierra Nevana's before the snows blocked their path.
They experienced even more difficulties as an axle, one of

(36:09):
George daughter's wagons snapped, causing the wagon to overturn with
two of his daughter's four year old Georgia and three
year old Eliza still inside. Now, Georgia was quickly located, however,
it was a worrying amount of time before Eliza was
found and rescued. Time, though, was of the essence if
they wanted to reach California safely. So once the girls
were rescued, as Tamson looked after them, the daughter brothers

(36:31):
quickly chopped down a tree and began fashioning it into
a new axle. Unfortunately, as he moved in haste to
carving new axle, Jacob's chisel slipped and sliced into his
brother George's right hand, a wound that, despite George assuring
his worried brother that it was but a mere scratch,
was anything but it was in fact quite the bloody
wound that had to be cleaned and bandaged before the

(36:52):
axle was finished and the wagon was repaired. As tams
and Donna was trying to deal with what would prove
to be a significant wound to her husband's hand. Back
at the head of the party on the thirtieth of October,
the Breen group was pressing on, intending to ascend seven
thousand feet up to the pass through the mountains. Yet,
as d day were on, with the pass of five
or six miles stone further on, the weary travelers, who

(37:13):
were at this point walking on the threadbare and worn
out shoes that were filled with holes, decided to call
it a day as some cold rain and stone flurries
descended upon them. When they awoke the following morning, though,
William Grays, who was a few miles behind the League group,
was alarmed to find some eight inches of snow already
on the ground. That being said, one of the Breens
reported it was only an inch, a difference which could

(37:35):
be the result of where they had camped regardless of snowfall,
was enough to heighten the worries of all involved that
early snows in the mountain peaks would make the pass impassable.
As they pressed forward now with the snowe continuing to
fall down upon them, the Breen group reached Trucky Lake,
which sat near the entrance of the pass. The going
was slow though, due to now having a sog through

(37:55):
the snow, plus with any potential grass in the area
now covered, the members of the groups now had to
cut down pine branches so as to feed their hungry
and worn out cattle. When night began to follow, the
group then made camp near the lake and girded them
sauce of the morning when they would to send the
final thousand feet of the pass through the mountains and
safety in California. Notably, that night, the snow finally stopped

(38:16):
and the skies cleared, which seemed to be a good sign. However,
the next morning, as he reached the pass, their worst
fears were confirmed. As John Breen would write in their
attempt quote, these snow was falling fast on the terrible summit,
over which we had yet to cross. Notwithstanding we sat
out early to make an effort to cross. We traveled
one or two miles, the snow increasing in depth all

(38:37):
the way. At last it was up to the axle
on the wagons. We now concluded to leave them, pack
some blankets on the oxend and push forward. But by
the time we got the oxen packed, it was impossible
to advance, first because of the depth of the snow,
and next because we could not find the road. Left
with no other choice than the breams turned back and
retrieved their wagons as he headed back down the path

(38:59):
toward Trucking, where instead of snow, it was raining hard.
So the Breen family took shelter in the little cabin
that had been constructed by the lake two years earlier
in the winter of eighteen forty four by eighteen year
old Moses Schallenberger and two other men, who were part
of the first group of emigrants to cross over the
Sierra Nevadas using wagons. The three had stayed back to
stand guard over some of the wagons while the rest

(39:21):
of their party made sure that the women and children
arrived safely in California. As they waited, those snows had
descended and blocked the pass. Now Moses's two older companions
were strong enough to make it out, but the young
man could not keep up, and so he decided to
remain in the cabin, surviving the winter by trapping some
of the few small animals remained in that harsh environment. Now,

(39:41):
to be clear, this wasn't the most well put together
log cabin. Indeed, Patrick Brain would call it a shanty.
In fact, it provided so little protection from the rain
that they ultimately opted to shelter under their wagon covers
for the night. Yet, for as miserable as the night
under the appelding rain had been, it still had given
the travelers a bit of hope, as they were sure
that if it was raining where they were, it also

(40:02):
had to be raining up in the pass as well.
The rain then would surely clear out the snow to
at least some degree, thus opening up their passage. Indeed,
se second group of ride to the lake the following morning,
and the rain started to come down even heavier. Some
among them were convinced that this was good news, because,
based upon their experiences back in Illinois, such a weather
pattern met a warming trend that would mount the stow

(40:24):
and clear the way before them. Others, however, who were
more familiar with mounds, rightly assessed that rain here likely
men it was snowing at higher elevations, which meant that
the pass, which was a thousand or so feet above them,
was likely getting snow and, if anything, becoming that much
more harder to get through. With every moment they waited.
The following day, then the brains decided that this was

(40:45):
as far as they were going to go for the moment.
To that end, they started butchering the remaining cattle, laying
away the meat in the snow drifts and using their
hodgs to cover the cabin so it would provide them
with some better shelter. The others, meanwhile, including the Graves,
the Eddies, the Keyburgs, and remaining members of the Reed family,
all decided to try the pass again. Just this time
they planned to make use of Sutter's mules to carve

(41:07):
a pass through the snow, and to take advantage of
the gunnans of the two mewalkmen, Lewis and Salvador, who
had accompanied Charles ten on his journey back. As they did, though,
there was much disagreement about what should or should not
be brought with them for this attempt, as some wanted
to carry with them items like containers of tobacco and
bolts of cloth. To that end, some insisted on taking
their wagons with them for this attempt, while others to

(41:30):
abandon them and instead strap their belongings to their oxen,
who very much did not appreciate this decision as they
rubbed against trees in an attempt to scrape the things
I've been strapped to them off. Yet, when they actually
started making this attempt for the pass, the hope that
the mules would be able to break a trail through
the snow, thereby making the going easier for the Oxen
soon gave way to reality, as even the mules had

(41:51):
a hard time of it as they consistently stumbled and
fell into the snow, all the while loudly protesting this plan. Meanwhile,
the families were attempting this passage with their wagons were
finding progress not impossible due to their iron rimmed wagon
wheels that had no way to grip the snow covered
rocky ground. The wagons en regularly slid backwards, despite the
efforts of the ox and to pull them off the

(42:11):
slope to the pass Stowe. They continued to crawl forward
yard by yard as the day went on, but as
dark clouds began to gather overhead, Lewis and Salvadore reported that,
much like the brains had during their prior attempt, they
too had lost the track of the Ragon road and
all the snow. Charles Stan and one of the two
mewalk men then went on ahead alone to see if
they could figure out where to go, and they were

(42:33):
actually able to find the pass and see how the
way beyond was relatively flat and seemingly easy to traverse. However,
as they headed back down to the others to encourage
them the press on, they found that their progress had
ground to a halt as everyone was just too cold
and exhausted by that point. Indeed, they found that some
of them, in an attempt to get warm, had set
fire to a pine tree, and the others had gathered

(42:54):
around equally desperate to try and get warm. As remember,
they had been walking through snowdrifts that came up to
their thighs for much of the day, doing so with
the men also driving the oxen and were helping to
push the wagons while the women did so while carrying
children in their arms. So, despite Stan's encouragement that they
press on before night could fall, since they were just
three miles from the summit, and they didn't know when

(43:15):
more snow would fall, making their traversal even more difficult
or even impossible, the others started laying out buffalo robes
over the snow so they could lay down and cover
themselves in blankets. Lewis Keysburg would be the first to
await the following morning, the third of November, doing so
because he felt what he would later describe as a
weight pressing down on him as he slept. As he
sprung to consciousness, Keysburg screamed in fear as he looked

(43:37):
around and found himself alone, surrounded by nothing but snow.
The others, then alerted by this cry of alarm, awoke
and soon began emerging out of mounds of snow all
around the frightened German immigrant Charles dan It seems had
been right to worry, as he had brought another storm
that had dumped another foot of stow atop the party
and made drifts as size ten feet in some places.
Were still some of the meals and a noworthy cattle

(44:00):
had wandered off during the night as well, and most importantly,
the past thanks to this latest round of snowfall, was
now effectively blocked. They had come within just three miles
of making it through the pass and heading down the
other side of the mountain, where safety and relief weighted.
The decision then not to press on the night before
had proved to be the final straw. They were now

(44:20):
trapped with no path forward. In the end, though the
daughter party's fate had been sealed through a combination of
bad decisions and poor Locke for his catastrophic as a
decision to lead the proven and relatively well traveled path
the California for the Hastings cutoff was and for as
much as it set them behind schedule, just as devastating
was the weather patterns that affected this year to the

(44:41):
Vada that year, as the first large snowstorm had hit
the mounts back on the sixteenth of October, which was
far earlier than usual. Indeed, the first snow had fallen
only some of as far back as the seventh, which
was a month earlier than normal, and it was just
beginning as from October eighteen forty six to April eighteen
forty seven, ten storms with dump significant amounts of snell

(45:02):
on the mountains. In particular, by the time the Breeds
had reached the pass just before this last failed attempt
and had been stalling continually on the summit for forty eight hours.
In other words, in most other years, while the Donner
Party would have most definitely been cutting things close, they
likely would still been able to make it through. Granted
it likely wouldn't have been easy, but the past likely

(45:23):
would not have been sealed off, trapping them until spring.

(45:55):
The singular piece of advice universally given to all immigrants
making the journey to the West Coast was to make
it across to mountains in early fall before the snow
started to fall, lest they remaining trapped and unable to
cross where there was relief until the following spring. The
Donner party, though thanks to the Hastings cut off the
various travails and delays they had encountered and their final

(46:15):
inability slash indecision to cross the pass at that last
possible moment, now had to deal with the consequences as
they were now faced with probably the greatest fear of
all immigrants heading for California, being trapped in the mountains
unable to cross until spring came. As the three families
who made the final attempt to reach the Pass of
woke in the morning to find themselves covenants runned by

(46:36):
fresh layer of snow with even more falling on top
of them. It was decided that rather than trying to
press all through the now even deeper snow and risk
collapsing and dying from exhaustion and or exposure, they would
turn around and head back towards Truckie Lake. So they
turned around and started heading back as best they could, which,
to be clear, was not easy as their tracks from

(46:56):
the previous day were now obscured by the fresh snow.
Then arrived at four in the afternoon to find that
the Breens had effectively settled into the small cabin, which
meant that the others now to construct their own shelters,
but they would do so the following day, as for
now they were too tired and thus had to make
do with what they had. Meanwhile, the Donner families were
still well behind the others, as they had been moving

(47:18):
slower in general, and the actual incident had served to
further delay their progress by a day. Georges had been
while despite the irregular and gentle care of his wife, Tamsen,
was in a bad way as it was swollen and
clearly not healing properly, and dated was so painful that
George could not even use it, making him effectively a
one armed man at this point, When a runner was

(47:40):
sent back from trucking late to inform the Donners that
the pass was now effectively blot the brothers decided to
rather than press on and join the others, they would
set up camp a lonely banks of the Altar Creek,
as here they would have a source of fresh water. Plus,
the valley in which they were currently situated was still
free of stow, so the hills was and would remain
relatively sheltered going forward. Lee brothers and their teamsters then

(48:03):
began chopping down trees to be turned into log cabins. Yet,
with George the stronger the two brothers strongly to help
due to his wounded hand and the further Jacob being
unable to make up for his brother's shortcomings, they only
managed to get the wall four logs high before snow
began to fall on them as the storm that had
put us stop to the other's progress descended upon the
area where the Donners had camped. Notably, as it did,

(48:26):
these storm apparently worsened to the point that they had
to abandon construction of the cabins. Instead, they then constructed
hastily assembled shelters that were covered in pine boughs and
rubber raincoats or sheets, less than ideal accommodations as they
were open on one side, but at least they kept
the snow off and the hope buzz and once the
snow stopped, they would be able to finish constructing their cabins. This, however,

(48:48):
would prove to be anything but a brief snowstorm, as
Tamsen Donner would write quote for eight consecutive daisy fatal
snow fell with but few short interruptions, thus leaving the
Donners to have to regularly ding their way out of
their shelters, if for no other reason than to gather
more wood for their fires. As for their cattle. According
to Tamsen quote, some of the poor creatures had perished

(49:09):
under bushes where they salt shelter. A few had become
bewildered and strayed. Others were found under trees and snow pits,
which they themselves had made by walking round and around
the trunks to keep from being snowed under. These starvelings
were shot to end their suffering, and also with the
hope that their hides and fleshless bones might save the
life of a snow beleagued party. Every part of the

(49:29):
animals were saved for food. Meanwhile, up by trucky leg
things were no better, and they were made worse by
the divided nature of the group. As really their best
hope for survival would have involved working together, but by
this point, everyone was more concerned with looking out for
themselves and their own family, which meant there really was
no sense of community or cohesion to see them through

(49:50):
this trying time. As it was, some had more than others.
Margaret Read, for example, who had been among the mouth
wealthy in the group at one time, now hadn't to
nothing for herself, her family, and her servants. The Breens, meanwhile,
had it better than all the rest, as not only
did they have the already constructed cabin, but they also
still had most of their cattle and their belongings. Although

(50:12):
to be clear, when I say cabin, it was really
this simple little twelve by fourteen foot structure with a
dirt floor and a single opening that was both door
and window. The fat of the matter was though, between
the canvas and hides they stretched over the top, and
its simple chimney that allowed smoke to flow up and out.
This cabin was the best shelter on the mountain for
the nine members of the Green family, their friend Patrick

(50:33):
Dolan and Antonio the Mexican shepherd, Lee Breens, and their
companions and had it relatively easy. As he settled into
the alm ready constructed shelter before the snow really started
coming down. The others, meanwhile, were forced to build their
shelters amidstly falling and blowing snow. William Eddie and William Foster,
for example, would work together constructing their shelter after finding

(50:53):
a large boulder by the lake which had one side
that was basically flat. They then used that as the
back wall for the cabin that they constructed using unpeeled
pine logs. The resulting structure was a sepo one with
a dirt floor and a narrow gap between the roof
and the boulder to act as a natural chimney for
the smoke from the fire that they would build up
against the boulder. This eighteen by twenty five foot structure

(51:15):
then became the home for the six Murphys, the three Fosters,
the three Pikes, and the four Headies, meaning sixteen people
were all huddled together in this four hundred and fifty
square foot place. The Grays, meanwhile, even though they lost
their horses and a lot of their cattle, they still
had most of their oxen and their various belongings, plus
more so than the others. A Wrey family used to
living on the fringes in harsh conditions. The Grays were

(51:38):
a frontier family through and through and were used to
rough conditions and struggling. Franklin graves And built his cabin
nearly a half mile distant from the others, choosing the
spot as he believed it would provide better shelter from
the storms while still having ready access to water and wood.
Franklin graves And built what was effectively a double cabin
which had to chambers, each with its own fireplays, while

(52:00):
for himself, his family and Amanda McCutcheon, whose husband handed
two ill to return with Charleston and their infant daughter, Harriet,
while the other chamber was for Margaret Reid, her children,
her servants Eliza and Bayliss Williams, and their five dogs.
Also joining the Reeds in the second chamber would be
the single men in the party, Charleston, John denn and
Mind Elliott, in addition to the two meanwalk men Lewis

(52:22):
and Salvador. Having even more difficulty than all the others,
so was Lewis Keysburg, who, during an attempt to hunt
in the days prior to this, had the unfortunate look
to step on the stop of a willow tree. This
stub then pierced through his moccasins and stabbed into the
ball of his foot, which had subsequently swollen badly and
even at one point needed to be lanced just to
relieve the pressure. Keyesburn then was in no shape to

(52:44):
fashion a proper shelter like the others. Instead, he and
Augustus Spitzer, one of the other German members of the party,
constructed a simple lean to against the side of the
Breen's cabin, where he and his family and the others sheltered.
The ones who were the most vulnerable in this moment, though,
were the women in their children, who, due to the
spate of recent deaths, found themselves suddenly without a husband
or a father to aid them. This and left doors Wolfinger,

(53:07):
who was camped with the Donners along Alder Creek, Harriet Pike,
Amanda McCutcheon, and Margaret Reid to all have to depend
upon other families for warmth, shelter and food as winter
now descended upon the Sierra Nevanas. In between the camp
and Trucky Lake and the one six miles away by
Alder Creek, there were eighty one people eighty one individuals
who had been anticipating arriving in California. By this point

(53:29):
in time, eighty one people who had been planning on
securing land and starting new lives, eighty one people who
were now forced to survive the winter in the mountains.
Of those eighty one people more than half or less
than eighteen years old, with the majority of them being
children and infants. There more than fifty nine people huddled
beside the Trucky League, while the remaining twenty two individuals

(53:51):
were honkered down beside the Alder Creek. And to be clear,
they were in nowhere prepared for this turn of events
as a supplies at stand in as Miewak companions had
brought back to the rest of the party had only
been intended to see them through the mountains so they
could reach California, where more relief weighted those supplies that
were nowhere near enough to see them through an entire winter. Indeed,

(54:12):
as the members of the Donner Party now huddled in
their hastily constructed shelters, those supplies were all but gone.
Now there were still some cattle and oxen left, which
could provide a source of meat to survive off for
a while. The question then became whether or not they
should kill and butcher all the livestock now or wait,
as on one hand, should these stone prove to be temporary,

(54:32):
and if the weather turned warm, they might still be
able to use the oxen to make it through the
pass and down the other side with their wagons and
all their belongings. Also, should the weather warm, even if
the pathway wasn't cleared, the meat they butchered was likely
to rot and go bad, as they didn't have much
salt left to preserve it. On the other side of things, though,
the longer they waited, the frailer of their livestock would

(54:53):
become and the last meat they would have, as the
animals were in pretty much the same state as the
people were in and there wasn't really anything for them
to eat other than pine trees. So the longer they waited,
the more the livestock would be just skin and bone,
and the more useless they would be as food. Still,
the fact that the matter was, even if they did
slaughter all the livestock immediately, it would only mean food

(55:14):
for weeks, not months. Plus, While some still had livestock,
others through the various travails and disasters, they had been
through over the last month or two had lost everything.
Margaret Reid and her children, for example, had no livestock
left by the time they reached the Sierra Nevadas, so
in an attempt to provide for her children, she approached
Franklin Graves asking to buy some of his oxen. Now,

(55:35):
this is not an easy ask for Franklin Graves, who
is not exactly a big fan of James Reed, who
was viewed as the main figure for being responsible for
the decision to follow the Hastings cut off, and who
had then killed John Snyder, which doesn't even get into
the fat that any oxen he gave up was that
much less food for his own family. However, the Graves
could not just leave this woman and her children to starve.

(55:57):
That's not who they were after all. Franklin had built
the double cabin in such a way so as to
give Margaret and her children shelter since her husband was
no longer withan to provide such a service. So the
Graves agreed to sell Markered a pair of oxen on credit,
as did the Breens. The Graves also sold another oxen
was almost starved to death to William Eddie. It was then,

(56:17):
with this business settled that the various families all made
the decision to saunder the animals immediately and then store
the meat in the snowbanks so as to preserve it. Meanwhile,
unaware that their families and traveling companions were now effectively
trapped on the wrong side of the Sierra Nevanas James
Reed and Big Bill McCutcheon, who had recovered from his illness,
set off with thirty horses and a mule, all laden

(56:38):
down with supplies, including a large amount of flower any
hind quarter of beef, all of which had been supplied
by John Sutter thanks to some of the cash and
Read it squirreled away despite his bankruptcy. The two men
were then attempting to make their way east to bring
further relief to their loved ones and various traveling companions. Yet,
as the two men reached the Bear River Valley, they
were stunned to find it covered in two feet of snow.

(57:01):
As they pushed into this wintery landscape, Reading McCutcheon came
across Jonathan Curtis and his wife, who had come from
Missouri and had subsequently split from their wagon train. Crucially
after acrossing the mountains, the couple had decided to stop
and settle in for a winter camp due to the
increasingly poor weather. The problem was since making that choice,
their oxen had run off and their food was now gone.

(57:21):
The arrival of Riadom mccutcheen then effectively saved the lives
of the cruises, as they gave them some of their
flour and beef to hold them over while they proceeded
across the mountain, with the idea being they would take
the cruises with them on the return trip back to
Sutter's Fort. Asriadom mccutcheen tried to press, although they found
that they could not finally trail through all the snow.
Plaster horses weren't able to make any progress through these snow,

(57:43):
there was some thirty inches deep. The two men then
decided to leave their horses behind end Quote proceeded further
on foot, thinking we could get into the people, but
found that it possible, the snow being soft and deep.
Rida McCutcheon were still some ten to twelve miles away
from the summit and the pass, and there was no
only for them to reach it, much less get through
to the other side. Heartbroken and sick with bory for

(58:05):
their families, the two fathers and husbands were left with
no other choice but to reluctantly turn back, dig out
the horses they had abandon, and head back down to
the Curtis camp so they could all return to the
Sutter four together. For his part, John Sutter was not
surprised by the fact that they had not been able
to reach the mountain pass. Sutter, though, was convinced that
there wasn't too much to worry about, as based upon

(58:27):
the number of livestock the Donner Party was believed to
have with them, they should have food enough to stay
of all starvation until rescue was able to reach them.
The thing was, none of them were aware of just
how many of their livestock had been killed by pyou
to tags, or had been stolen or simply wanted off.
As such, they had far less time than Sutter or
anyone else in California realized. Yet, even if they knew

(58:48):
the full extent of the problem facing the Donner Party,
the fact of the matter was there were no young,
able bodied men in the region with whom you could
mount a rescue mission with, As everyone had more or
less left to take part in the fight against the
Mexican forces as a part of the ongoing Mexican American War.
To that end, Sutday then advised Reid to head down
to yeerbur Bueno, which we now know of San Francisco,

(59:10):
to speak with the naval officer in command there to
ask for aid back in the mounds of the Trucky

(59:41):
Lake camp to supplement their limited supply of ox and
meat that everyone seemed to know from the outside would
not be enough to see them through the winter. William
Eddie would on a daily basis, bar William Foster's rifle
to go hunting the problem loss. Most of the deer
had already headed further down the mountain to flee the snows.
As a result, only came back with was a coyote
on Monday and an owl on another. Now there's not

(01:00:03):
a lot of meat on an owl, but still any
main opponent sputting whenever he actually managed to shoot with
Foster as payment for barring his gun. Meanwhile, Franklin Graves
was determined to try and find a way through the
pass and down the other side of the mountain so
help could be brought back to those who were trapped now.
Grays was a man who was used to living in
harsh wood inness conditions. His family had long lived on

(01:00:24):
the fridges, surviving as much due to his farming as
from his hunting, as they had the unfortunate lunk a
living long land that was less than ideal for farming.
As a result, he had experienced surviving in the wilderness.
This man, in addition to his vast experience as a hunter,
Franklin knew how to build an improvised shelter and how
to read the weather. He then was the person best
suited to make such an attempt, since, despite his age,

(01:00:47):
he was still a large and powerfully built man. Speaking
of his age with the Dinner brothers both down the
mountain in their own camp, the fifty seven year old
Franklin Graves was the oldest man in the Truncky camp,
a distinction that he likely fell came with a certain
amum amount of responsibility. Most importantly, though, Franklin Graves was
aware of how dire their situation was, and he had
no interest in watching his family slowly starve to death

(01:01:09):
while trapped in those stowy peaks. When the snow finally stopped,
falling on the twelfth of November, then Graves sent into
motion his attempt to make it through the pass. Now,
not everyone would be going on this journey. In particular,
he was planning to leave behind the women who had
children who care for, as he believed it would be
too taxing on them to try and carry their children
through the snow. Instead, he intended to take a smaller

(01:01:31):
group ahead in the hope of breaking through and once
on the other side, they could at least bring back
supply so the others could make it through the winter
given this criteria. Taking part of this attempt was Franklin Graves,
his son in law, Jay Faustick, William Eddie, William Foster,
and some of the Dunner and Reed's teamsters. Franklin's two
eldest daughters, Sarah and Mary Anne, would also join the others,

(01:01:52):
as they didn't have children on their own to worry about,
and because it was strong and capable like their father. Finally,
also coming along ward True Stan and the two miwalk men,
Lewis and Salvador, who would all act as guides. Everyone
then dressed up in multiple layers of woolen flannel as
they set off with the meals that Stan had and
brought over the mountain from John Sutter that would now
carry some of their meager supplies. They, however, would not

(01:02:15):
even make it to the path through the mountains, as
at the far end of the lake they found deep
and lightly packed snow, a combination that meant as they
tried to walk forward, they sank down to their thighs,
meaning they either had to try and plow through the
snow or otherwise lift their legs up high enough with
every stop to free themselves. Either way, this took quite
a lot out of them. Plus when you combine that

(01:02:35):
with the fat that these were people who probably hadn't
been eating properly for a while to preserve their limited supplies,
and the fat that there were something like six thousand
feet above sea level with the thin air that comes
along with such an altitude, it was all too much,
and so they abandoned the attempt and returned to camp
by midnight. It was then, following this latest failed attempt
to get through to California, that on the fourteenth of November,

(01:02:57):
William Eddie went out hunting again. As he did, he
happen to come across some large tracks that he believed
had been made by a grizzly bear, and as he
falled said tracks, and he did indeed come across a
large eight hundred or so pound bear digging through the
stone trying to reach some roots. Seeing this mighty creature
as at least momentary salvation, Eddie took aim and fired. Now,

(01:03:17):
while the shots struck true and don't the bear a
grievous injury, it was not enough to finish it just yet. Instead,
the bear reared up on its hind legs and let
out a war of pain, at which point its eyes
fell upon the creature that was responsible for said pain.
Upon spawning, William Edie, now wounded and enraged, bear charged Now.
Eddie was prepared for this, as he had held a

(01:03:38):
spare ball in his mouth, which he quickly removed and
started loading into his rifle, along with the black powdered
charge necessary to fire it. As he was rhyming the
ball and powder home, however, the bear closed in, forcing
Eddie to step around the tree, so he kept it
in between him and the bear as he frantically reloaded
his gun. With the large bear in hot pursuit chasing
him around the tree, William Eddie finally managed to finish

(01:04:01):
floading his rifle and which Bony spun presty barrel into
the bear's chest and fired again, bringing down the terrifying
creature long last, at which point, just to be sure,
and he grabbed a heavy tree branch that he proceeded
to batter the bear's body with to ensure that it
was indeed dead. With that, dun William Eddie headed back
to camp, where he convinced Franklin Graves to follow him

(01:04:21):
with one of his remaining oxen. Together, then the two
men chained the dead bear to the ox and they
could drag it back to camp, where Eddie gave Foster
half of the meat for the use of his gun,
while Greaves has also given some for his assistance. Notably,
during this trip back, Franklin Graves confided in Eddie that
he was convinced he would not make it down off
this mountain, as he believed that God was punishing him

(01:04:42):
for not returning to search for Harkoup, effectively leaving him
to die, and for exiling James Reed, which at the
time believed would have been a death sentence as well. Yet,
despite being convinced he would not be getting out of
this alive. Franklin Graves remained determined to try and get
the others out of this predicament. To that point, come
the twenty first of November, it had not snowed in

(01:05:02):
a week, and as a result, the members of the
Donner Party who were honked around Trucky Lake could actually
see the ground in some spots. Given these facts, it
was hoped that the pass, which while higher up and
likely not free of snow, still would have experienced enough
melting to allow free difficult passage. So Franklin Grace organized
yet another attempt, with twenty two people making the attempt.
This time, once again, the majority of the adult men

(01:05:25):
in the party would take part, with the exception of
Lewis Keyesburg and his wounded foot and Patrick Breen, who
had developed a bad case of kidney stones. Also really
no one for the Donner camp down by Alder Creek
other than young Jean Baptiste Trudeau would take part in
this attempt. They would, however, this time be accompanied by
half a dozen women and older children, with the hope
again being that they could get through and then send

(01:05:47):
help back. But crucially, in the meantime, those who were
left behind would be able to last longer, simply because
there would be less mouse to feed. Charles Stanley, two
mewalkman Lewis, and Salvado would lead the way, hoping, as
he did, to use the strengthen their seven mules to
clear a path through the snow. Now, as they said
all this time, they had much more success than their

(01:06:07):
previous attempt as the deep snow that had prevented their passage,
the stow that they had sunk up to their thighs
into now had a thick cross over top of it
that supported their weight, a cross that had been formed
thanks of the warmer days, mounting the top layer of
the snow, which then froze again during the cold nights.
The party then actually managed to reach the summit their
first night out from camp. In fact, it seems like

(01:06:28):
they actually made it through the pass and were on
the western side of the mountain by the time they
made camp the following day. Though, as he tried to
press forward while they crossed, the snow tended to support
the weight of the people, the mules kempt breaking through.
Recognizing this, some including William and He, just wanted to
abandon the mules in the name of getting the people
down the mountain as fast as possible. Charles Stan however,

(01:06:49):
would not hear of it, as he had promised John
Sutter to return with them, a situation which was immensely
frustrating as the others could not simply leave Stand in
his tomb while Companis behind with the meals to continue
on by themselves as they needed them to act as guides.
William Eddie then tried to break the stalemate as he
offered to pay for the meal, should Sutter really take
that much of an offense to the situation, Stan though,

(01:07:12):
would not hear of it. Indeed, when Eddie tried to
leave Stand behind with his precious mules, instead relying upon
the two mewalkman Lewis and Salvador to guide them the
rest of the way, stand again intervened, telling the Mewalks
that Sutter would hang them if they returned without the mules.
To be clear, then salvation was very nearly at hand
for these twenty two members of the Donner Party, as

(01:07:33):
from where they currently stood they could look out into
California and see that it was a bright, clear day there.
All they had to do then was make it down
the mountain, which, to be fair, as we will see
in the next episode, was not the easiest task in
the world, but still the path out of this mess
was there. Charles stand those stead fast and refused to cooperate.
It was then, thanks to Charles Stan that these twenty

(01:07:55):
two members of the Donner party who had come this
close to escape in the Sierra Nevadas in the and
awaited them that winter, turned back from salvation and headed
back over the pass and back to their camp, arriving
there late that afternoon. This attempt had then fail, primarily
because it stands on wavering stubbornness, or his inability to
think clearly in an emergency, as he apparently never once

(01:08:17):
considered that if the remain trapped in the mountains, those
meals were going to die anyway, but at least if
they carried on the chances where they could get at
least some of the people to safety. The complete full
of short suddenness of Stan's refuals would soon be painfully
and tragically illustrated, as according to the journal that Patrick
Brain had started keeping since becoming trapped, by the twenty
fifth of November, these skies had turned quote cloudy looks

(01:08:40):
like the eve of a snowstorm. Patrick Breen's estimation of
the sky was right, as yet another powerful storm was
bearing down upon them from the Gulf of Alaska during
the course of the following week. Then, as a stowed,
almost costly, all the meals that stan had refused to
abandon during their reported escape attempt would wander, often die
as or were buried under something like six or seven
feet of snow. Patrick brings diary would give a glimpse

(01:09:02):
into this time period as you would make notes like
quote stowing fast, deep, soft wet snow and still snowing.
He would also ominously note during this period, quote killed
my last oxen today and that it had been quote
hard to get wood now. The loss of the mules
would be discovered in the early days of the storm,
when for a brief period the snow slackened enough to

(01:09:24):
allow the shaken would be sellers to emerge from their
hastily constructed shelters. As they did, they would discover that
it wasn't just the mules that had disappeared, as all
their remaining horses and cattle had also wanted off and
were now dead and buried somewhere under all those feet
of snow, which, to be clear, was a massive loss
as those animals represented an invaluable source of meat, so

(01:09:46):
to try and find and retrieve set meat, various men
and boys in the camp started probing the store with
long poles, hoping to find the bodies of the dead animals,
but more often than not they came up empty. Meanwhile,
wood was also becoming an issue thanks to the multiple
feet of snow covering everything, as it was exhausting to
try and travel at any distance in such conditions, and

(01:10:06):
because any fallen branches that were a good source of
firewood were now buried under all of that stow. Some
then resorted to cutting and using the parts of the
pine trees that had been left exposed by the stoves. However,
between it being green meaning it wasn't dried, and because
it was pine which was rich in resin, this wood
was far from an ideal source of fuel for indoor fires,
as such wood created so much smoke that those inside

(01:10:28):
the shelter had to flee outside into the cold. Meanwhile,
Franklin Grays remained determined to find a way out of there,
as not only did he know how bad their situation was,
but unlike some of the others. He likely feared that
there would be no help coming, as for all he knew, Reeds,
sut Or, and the others might be under the impression
that they had made the pragmatic choice and stayed back

(01:10:49):
in the trucky meadows, a place where they wouldn't be
buried under feet of snow and where there was likely
to be a fair amount of game that had to
send it for the mountain heights for the winter. Plus
the location also would have, at the very length east
provided plenty of grass for their oxen and other livestock
to eat, thereby making them a much better source for
meat when it came time to kill and butcher them.
Should those in California be making decisions on such an idea,

(01:11:11):
then their only hope for rescue and salvation was getting
themselves out in the planning and preparing for this next attempt.
Franklin Greaves would be assisted by none other than Charles Sten, who,
without Sutter's mules, had nothing holding him back. Plus Dan
Light Graves, unlike everyone else in the party, knew of
and understood Snowshoes any principles upon which they worked, meaning

(01:11:32):
they understood that by distributing their weight over a larger area,
they would be able to walk upon the surface of
the snow and not sink down into it. The two
then set about digging into the snow to fine ox
bows pieces of wood that had run under the ox's
necks in which had been attached to the yokes with
which they had pulled the wagons. These pieces of curved
wood had become useless and been discarded as soon as

(01:11:53):
it had become trapped, and the oxen became more useful
as a source of meat. Now though, they became invaluable
as the basis for their snow Franklin graves and carefully
split each of these oxpos in twain to produce matching
sets of curved wood. As they worked on their framesey,
two also set some of the women and girls in
the camp to cutting long strips of raw hide to
be used as bindings, with the plan being they would

(01:12:14):
craft some fifteen pairs of snowshoes, and then once they
got a clear day, they would attempt to make for
the pass again, just this time they would be traveling
atop the snow thanks in the snowshoes. As to making
these preparations, stand sending letter down to the Donner's camp
along the Alder Creek asking for a pound of their
best tobacco and the loan of their pocket compass. As
to tobacco u s would help quiet their hunger pains

(01:12:35):
and alleviate some of these stress they would be under,
while the compass would obviously help to a point them
in the right direction. That being said, they did not
feel it was an absolute necessity, as they hope between
tracking the sun and the experience of Stand and the
two miwalkmen, they would be able to find their way
regardless upon receiving the snow tams and Donner would agree
to Sandstand what he requested, although, as it turns out,

(01:12:57):
these items and the men carrying them would not make
these six mile journey back up to the Truckee camp
before this latest attempt to escape the mounds set off.
Mean whilein has to be noted that the situation in
the Donner camp along the Otter Creek was dire, as
by this point they were subsisting off of roast and
mice and he broth created from boiling cattle hides, which

(01:13:18):
ultimately created a gelatinous substance ent while repulsive did at
least ease the stomach pains to be rarely get. As
bad as things were for the Donner's, things were worse
for the very single men living with them. Indeed, Elizabeth
Donner would later write in her memoir quote fear of
men became dispirited, said they were too weak and hungry
to gather would and did not care how soon death

(01:13:39):
should put an end to their miseries. These men in
question were Sam Shoemaker, Joseph Reinhart and James Smith, men who,
in addition on not having resources of their own, and
who had been exhausted by their journey along the Hastings cutoff,
were now left to try and pick up the slack
left by these seriously ailing Donner brothers, who were breaking
down themselves. These single men up by the leg were

(01:13:59):
in a similar state as well. Indeed, one of the
Donners teamsters, Augustus Spitzer, had been staying with the Keysburgs,
but since they weren't sharing what little food they had
with him, he had abandoned their shanty and made for
the Breen's cabin. Before reaching it, however, Spitzer collapsed while
descending the steps that had been carved into the snow
and subsequently came crashing through their doorway. Seeing this, Patrick

(01:14:19):
and Peggy Breen dragged Spitzer inside, where they gave the
starving man something to keep him going. Meanwhile, as they
alluded to earlier, the Donner brothers weren't much better off.
Jacob Donner, for example, who had not exactly been the
picture of strength and good health to begin with, was
by this point mostly laid out on his back, seemingly
unable to find the strength to move. Meanwhile, George Donner,

(01:14:40):
the head of the party, was only getting worse as
the infection from the wound on his hand was not
starting to creep up his arm, while the head itself
was said to have swollen to twice its normal size.
The weather, though, remained the greatest threat to all who
remained trapped in those mountains, as the snows continued to
fall bearing both the Trucky Lake and Alder Creek camps.
The situation then became even more dire as the snow

(01:15:01):
piled up so high that it actually began to cover
up their hastily constructed shelters. This and then Foresty would
be sellers to car steps into the stove just so
they could climb up and out of their holes. This
also notably made the conditions in these shelters progressively worse
as a blocked out light from the outside. Additionally, the
simple act of going to the bathroom was also a

(01:15:21):
bit of a chore, as one either needed to climb
up these snow steps to do whatever they needed to do,
or they had to use the chamber pots that then
required someone to eventually ascend the snow steps to dump
out the contents beam. All these smoke from what fires
that could build for heat and cooking burn the eyes
of everyone inside these shelters, and even then there was
seemingly no relief from the on ending cold that chilled

(01:15:42):
them and made their various joints hurt constantly. This was
especially bad at the dinner camp, as their improvised tent
slash shanties really did little to shelter them from the
cold conditions, which were obviously no good for the nerves
and temperament of anyone involved. They were all cold and
bored as there was nothing they could do, and no
pleased to go surrounded and buried under snow as they were.

(01:16:03):
Li's bedbugs and fleas were also becoming a problem for
the residents of these shelters, as no one had the
ability to bathe or even wash their clothing. However, the
greatest and most growing threat was of course hunger, as
the best cuts of meat and the organs were probably
already consumed by this point the early weeks of December.
This then left only the meagrest and leanest bits of meat,

(01:16:23):
which were only doled out sparingly. As we near the
end of this episode, then, I think it is important
to get a good understanding of what these poor souls
were experiencing while trapped in these little shelters. To do so,
Daniel James Brown and his book In Different Stars Above
looked at a study conducted by the University of Minnesota
in nineteen forty five which provided scientific and medical evidence

(01:16:43):
for what happens to the human body under the stress
of extreme hunger. As a part of this study, the
group of healthy young men who had volunteered were how
to strict and severe caloric restrictions. These individuals then notably
became sensitive to cold as metabolism slowed and their blood
pressure dropped due to their hearts actually shrinking. This sensitivity
to cold and poor circulation would then have been exacerbated

(01:17:06):
in the freezing additions the members of the dinner party
found themselves in, putting them at increased risk of frostbite
and hypothermia. The study also found that lung capacity was diminished,
which again was further exacerbated by the fat that the
air was so thin high up in the mountains where
they were. This then effectively ensured that the members of
the dinner party were both weak and lacking an endurance

(01:17:26):
during these extremely trying circumstances. Now, to be clear, the
parties still had some lean meat on hand that they
were subsisting off of. However, this meat was so lean
that it was actually a little used to the members
of the dinner party. As you see, we actually need
a certain amount of fat to digest and extract nutrients
from meat. Which is all to say that these scraps
and meat they were consuming weren't actually providing the would

(01:17:48):
be sellers much in the way of nutrients because their
bodies did not have the fat to properly digest them.
As a result, the people in these various cabins and
or improvised shelters began to wither away bit by bit
as their bodies consumed themselves in an effort to keep
functioning as a dender. Flesh began to seemingly melt away
their eyes and seemed to sink into their heads, while

(01:18:09):
their bones began to protrude more and more. Something then
had to be done lest they all just waste away
and die one by one trapped in those mountains, which
brings us back to Franklin Gray's and his plan to
take a group out on stow shoes in an attempt
to make it through the pass and head down the
other side of the mountain to bring back help. Yet,
the story all this expedition, which will come to bear

(01:18:31):
the name the Forlorn Hope, and the way in which
they helped to earn the Daughter Party their infamous place
in history, will have to wait until next time. As
for now there will have to remain a story for
another time. Thank you for listening to Distorted History. If
you would like to help out, please rate and review

(01:18:51):
the podcasts and tell your friends if you think they'll
be interested. If you would like ad for 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 the 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 Coffee and Twitter though, as it's

(01:19:13):
just a convenient place to go to access that information regardless,
once again, thank you for listening and until next time.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 3 Trapped in the Mountains

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The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 3 Trapped in the Mountains

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