The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 4 The Forlorn Hope

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 I didn't give you many names,
and you a blunder. Look. I'm raising the Arrah a

(00:27):
long struggle for freedom. It really is a revolution. The
Dinner Party had become trapped high up in the Sierra
Mountains due to a combination of their choice to take
the Hastings cut off and someone usually early snows that

(00:47):
made passage through the mountain passed to California difficult to
impossible were still The decision to take the Hastings cutoff
had lefty members of the Dinner Party a week and
worn out even before they reached the mountains, plus had
already gone through the vast majority of the supplies they
had brought with them before ever reaching this point. By
the early weeks of December, then the situation had already

(01:08):
become desperate, with no hope of relief coming in months
before these stones finally receded, it was obviously that something
had to be done. An attempt had to be made
to get at least some of them out of the
mounds so they could then bring back help. Yet, before
we get into the story of that mission and the
reason why I would be dubbed the Forlorn Hope. First,
like always, I want to acknowledge my sources for this series,

(01:31):
which primarily are Michael Wallace's The Best Land under Heaven,
The Donner Party in the Age of manifest Destiny, Daniel
James Brown's The in Different Stars Above, the Harrowing Saga
of the Donner Party, and Dee Brown's Wondrous Times on
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,

(01:53):
Blue Sky and kofe pages. Plus for anyone who doesn't
want to be bothered skipping through commercials, there is always
an ad free feed available to subscribers at patreon dot
com slash Distorted History. And with all that being said,
let's begin. Once Franklin Grace had assembled fifteen pairs of snowshoes,
he had set about recruiting others to join him at
Charleston on their latest attempt to make it through the

(02:14):
pass to seek eight on the other side of the mountain,
Sarah and William Foster, along with the recently widowed Harriet Pike,
would all go, and in doing so, they would leave
their babies in the care of their grandmother, the thirty
six year old widow Levana Murphy. Two more eleven, his
own children, twelve year old Lemuel and his ten year
old slightly built brother William, would also volunteer to take
part in the snowshoe expedition. William Eddie would also agree

(02:37):
to go, leaving his wife Eleanor behind to care for
their two small children. Then there was Patrick Dolan, who
was single and in possession of enough beef to potentially
see himself through the winter. Dolan, however, wasn't selfish, so
he gave some of the beef to Margaret Redefeed, her
children and the rest of the Green family who had
taken him in. Another single man, Charles Berger, who was
either one of the Donners teamsas or traveling with the Keysburgs,

(03:00):
would also volunteer to join the expedition, even though there
weren't enough snow shoes. As to the man whose planned
this was, Franklin Grays, would be leaving behind his wife
Elizabeth and their younger children fourteen year old Eleanor, twelve
year old Lavina, nine year old Nancy, seven year old Jonathan,
five year old Franklin Junior, and one year old Elizabeth,
plus his wife. Elizabeth would also be assuming the responsibility

(03:22):
for caring for Amanda mccutchein's baby Harriet, upon Amanda agreeing
to join the expedition. Elizabeth, though, would at least have
her seventeen year old son Billy to help with jobs
like shelving stone and chopping wood. Meanwhile, Franklin would be
bringing along with him on this journey his oldest daughter's
twenty year old Mary Anne and twenty one year old Sarah,
who was accompanyed by her husband Jay Fosdick. With the

(03:43):
members of the group who would be making this desperate
attempt now sent, all they had to do was wait
for the weather to cooperate. Namely, they had to wait
for the stone to actually stop falling, as it would
not be until the fourteenth of December that white flakes
would actually stop falling from the sky for the first
time in six days. That being said, the group would
not depart on this day as they feared that the

(04:03):
newly fallen snow would still be too loosely packed for
even their snowshoes to traverse, so they decided to wait,
despite their hunger becoming worse by the day. Indeed, during
the time in which they had been waiting for conditions
to clear up, Bayliss Williams, twenty five year old albino
brother of Eliza Williams, the Reed family's cook, would be
the first to die in those mountains. Now. Bayliss had

(04:25):
been fairly sickly throughout their journey, and by the time
they reached the Sierras had been suffering from a fever
and diarrhea for some time, as what was likely pneumonia
laid him low. Margaret Reid and his sister Eliza had
both tried to do what they could for him, but
it seems as if his fate was already sealed, as
he would just land a blanket pretty much all day
too week to move, and was uninterested in even what

(04:46):
little food they had. Baylison would succumb to a combination
of malnutrition and pneumonia when only fifty the December, the
young man, is body and mind racked with fever, suddenly
cried out and died. Virginia Reed would later right of
the young man quote Bayless Williams, who had been in
delicate health before we left Springfield was he first to die.

(05:06):
He passed away before starvation had really set in. John
denn and seventeen year old William Graves, whose family was
sharing the cabin with the Reeds, were then given the
responsibility of cleaning Bayliss's scorps, which they then wrapped in
a sheet and buried at six feet of snow. It
wasn't about roughly the same time when the temperature over
night dropped so low that the members of the snowshoe

(05:26):
party felt confident that a crust had been formed over
top of the snow that would allow them to walk
across the top of it without sinking in. So on
the sixty the decemberly group set off under the leadership
of fifty seven year old Franklin Graves, who was some
twenty years older than his next oldest companion on this mission,
Patrick Dolan and Charlesten As there prepared to set all.
Franklin's daughters, Sarah and Maryanne, closed themselves in heavy flannel

(05:49):
pants that they had likely sown themselves from their dresses.
They also wore linen shirts, wool coats, cloaks, wool socks,
and boots that had already worn thin for their long travels.
Men like Sarah's husband, also dressed themselves in wool trousers, shirts,
and hats. Everyone also don scarser, otherwise wrap scraps of
fabric around their necks. Each person also carried a pack

(06:10):
in which they had a blanket, a bit of coffee, sugar, tobacco,
and eight pounds of dried beef each, with the hope
being that this should last him for six days, by
which time they would hopefully have reached the Western Foothills
in a location known as the Johnson Ranch, which lays
the seventy miles wag they the path they planned to take.
The group also took with them and acts a piece
of flint, a rifle, some pistols, and three horns of

(06:32):
gunpowder before setting off, though those who were departing said
goodbye to the people they were leaving behind. This notably
included Amanda McCutchen, whose husband was still at Sutter's Fort,
and Harriet Pike, who both had to leave their babies
there in the camp after having been convinced that the
only way to help them was to go and bring
back help, as their bodies could no longer produce milk
due to lack of sustenance. Other tearful goodbyes included Sarah

(06:55):
and William Foster, who were leaving their toddlers behind in
the care of their grandmother Lebana Murphy, and William Eddie,
who was said to be visibly sobbing after saying goodbye
to his wife Eleanor and his son and daughter. Meanwhile,
as Franklin Graves promises wife Elizabeth that they would return
with help, everyone seemed to sense that this was their
last chance. They could not turn around. They had to

(07:16):
either make it and then try to bring back help
or dine the attempt. There could be no half measures
this time, because otherwise they were all going to die
frozen and starving in those mountains. In all, seventeen individuals
prepared to son off. There were ten men, five women,
and two children, thirteen year old Lemuel and ten year
old William Murphy. They only had fourteen pair of snow shoes, though,

(07:38):
as Milt Elliott and Noah James had taken a pair
to go down to the alder Create camp in an
attempt to get some tobacco in the daughter's compass, but
they had not yet returned, and they could not wait
any longer. As a result, it was hoped that the
two Murphy boys would be light enough to walk on
the snow unassisted, while the German teamster Charles Berger aka
Dutch Charlie, intended to try and make the journey without

(07:58):
the eight of snowshoes. Now, to be clear, the going
was not easy even for those wearing these snow shoes,
as most were completely unfamiliar with them. Be three without
these snow shoes, though, had an immensely more difficult time
as they camp singing down and into the snow, and
thus moved significantly slower and with significantly more effort than
the others.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
The rest of the group than Paul.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Several times to allow the through the catch up, but
they weren't even halfway around the lake before William Foster
volunteered to take ten year old William Murphy and Dutch
Charlie back to camp, while Lemuel remained determined to carry
on despite his difficulties. The end of the first day
of travel then saw the party barely making it beyond
the end of the lake. In fact, they could still
see the smoke rising up from the cabins they had

(08:40):
left behind. Clearly then they needed to move faster or
their meager supplies wore run out long before they reached safety.
To help improve their chances, they then improvised a smaller
pair of snow shoes out of some items they found
along the way to help Lemuel keep up with them.
The following morning, then the fifty remaining members of the
group that would come to be known as a Forlorn
Hope sent off, hoping to travel more than four miles.

(09:02):
They covered their first day out, and indeed today they
made it six miles, which does not sound like much,
but this was what they expected to be their hardest day.
As they were climbing up the narrow notch in the
mountains peaks which represented the pass through to the other side.
With Salvador and Lewis gotting them, the snow shoe party
made the nearly thousand foot a set and ultimately stopped
in made camp just Wesley Summit. Mary and Grays would

(09:25):
later read of this crossing quote, we had a very
slavish days travel climbing the divide. Nothing of interest occurred
until reaching the summit. The theory was too grand for
me to pass without notice, the changes being so great.
Walking now on loose snow and stepping on his heart's
like rock a number of one hundred yards in length.
Being a little in the rear the party, I had
a chance to observe the company ahead, judging along with

(09:47):
packs on their backs. It reminded me a sum Norwegian
for a company among the icebergs. To be clear, though,
when she said they had a slaverish stays travel, she
means that progress had been hard, as frostbury was already
beginning to set in, and they also had to overcome
the thin air that altitude, which just further sat their
already limited strength. Now, the women in the party reportedly

(10:08):
had a slightly easier time because of their lighter builds,
they were able to stay atop to snow, while the
men repeatedly sank, and despite their snow shoes, still they,
like all the rest, had little protection against the cold
wind that buffeted against him, or the harshness of the
sunlight reflecting off the endless expanse of snow. Indeed, both
Charles Ston and Franklin Graves as they set off the
following day down the other side of the mountain would

(10:29):
be struck snow blind. Now Franklin Graves, thanks to the
help of his daughters and his son in law, would
soon recover, as when given a chance to rest, the
cornea can heal within forty eight hours. However, by that
same token, continued exposure to those blanding conditions prevents recovery.
Stan's condition then only grew worse and was soon said
to be an unbearable pain as his eyes turned wet

(10:51):
and wootery. Then, as things continued to grow worse, his
eyes were said to have started twitching uncontrollably before ultimately
just swelling shot. Now, while the this was obviously a
terrible turn of events for Charles Sten, this also was
in great news for the rest of the expedition either,
as Stan was supposed to be their guide, as he
had made this trip before, all beat in significantly different conditions. Thankfully, though,

(11:13):
they still had the two Miewok men to also act
as guides. Indeed, not only was Stan effectively blinded at
this point, but at five foot five, his shorter legs
were also having a harder time traversing the snowy environment,
and he wasn't increasingly falling behind. Everyone then was worried
about Stan as he finally staggered into camp at night,
as he was universally lightd and was also viewed as

(11:34):
their most reliable guide because again, unlike his two Miewok
and panions, Stan had actually crossed the mountain heading in
this direction, and they also had only limited English to
work with. Meanwhile, the overall situation of the expedition by
this point was also decidedly not good, as it were
quickly nearing the end of their rations, and they also
had seen zero game animals since departing from Trucky Lake.

(11:56):
Plus just made the situation just a bit worse, a
small storm would descend upon them during the night to
dump even more snowe on the tired and weary travelers.
As more days of trouble passed, more members of the
Snowshoe party began to suffer from some degree of stone blindness. Still,
though Charles Stan's case remained by far the worse, and
his strength in general was starting to give out.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
This was because, in.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Addition to these struggles brought on by a shorter stature,
he'd also traveled farther than the others, simply because he'd
crossed these mounts once already and then came back.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
To help them.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Plus, as a single man, he had long had fewer
supplause to fall back on than the others, and was
then an ominous sight. Went on their fifth day out,
Mary and grays at their hanging back to help her
sister Sarah with some difficulty she was having with their
snow shoes, happened to notice, before setting off to join
everyone else who had already left, that Charles Stan was
still in camp, sitting by the fire, smoking.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
His pipe as he stared off into.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
The distance blindly. Mary then approached Charles, who was making
no move to get going, and asked if he was coming.
Stan then turned his blind gaze toward the young woman
and said he would join them shortly. Yet Stoley made
no motion toward actually doing so. Unsure of what to
do and not willing to fall too far behind yourself,
Mary then set off after the others. This then was

(13:10):
the last anyone saw of Charles Sten, until when five
months later a group heading back east happened to pass
by this location and found his bones. His brother Philip
would later read of Charles quote, he was always normal
and generous, even to a fault, always ready and willing
to share his last said with his less fortunate brothers
and sisters. This characteristic he bore from his earliest childhood.

(13:31):
He was ever ready to sacrifice his own interest and
means of the welfare of others and hends. It is
not so surprising that he should be found willing to
yield up his life in endeavoring to relieve his perishing companions.
And to be clear, when Stan rode ahead with Big
Bill McCutcheon, as a single man with no familial ties
with anyone else in the Donner Party, Stan absolutely could
have stayed in California and been fine. Buddy had ridden

(13:53):
hand and get supplies to help the others, and so
he had gone back. He was trying to save their
lives and had risked his own to do so. Now, granted,
I do believe his refusal to leave the mules behind
in their prior attempt to escape the mounds was decisive
him making things turn out as bad.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
As they do. But he would pay the ultimate.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Price for that mistake. Meanwhile, unaware stands fate, his companions
for days to come would consistently pause whenever they reached
a high point and look back at the direction in
which they come, hoping against hope to see Charles gradually
making his way toward them. The thing was, though, as
worried as they were about him, they couldn't exactly pause
a wait or even go back for him, as they

(14:30):
all knew they had to keep moving due to their
limited supplies and the constant threat of the weather turning bad. Indeed,
by this point they were nearly out of their supply
of beef, and they had still not gotten below the
stone line. Then, on the twentieth of December, what minuscule
amount of lunk they had ran out as yet another
snow storm descended upon this years. It snowed throughout the night,

(14:50):
and it was still coming down on the morning of
the twenty first, But with little of their choice, the
group set off again, following the two miwokmen as they did,
hoping that they would be able to guide them through
this Still hopelessness began to set in for the various
members of the Snowshoe party, and some announced their desire
to head back just so they might be able to
hold their children one last time. This despite the fact

(15:13):
that it had taken them six days to get this
far and they would now be attempting the journey back
in worse conditions. And virtually no provisions. In response to
such talk, Mary and Graves declared that you would rather
die than go back and watch your subling solely die
of starvation. Equally determined not to go back, we're losing Salvador,
their two mewalk guides, who made their decision especially clear

(15:33):
as they turned and just kept walking down the mountain.
Mary Ann then was quick to follow, and soon the others,
left with no other choice, also fell in line. Later
that day, however, their two guides would make what would
prove to be a fetal mistake as they reached a
ridge line. Then, instead of climbing up it, they turned
left and headed in an appealing downhill direction. The problem was,

(15:54):
if they had ascended that ridge line, they would have
found the road to Immigrant Gap, a road traveled by
many settlers who came into that region. As through that gap,
the land quickly began to descend, and from there it
would have been a relatively easy tract at Johnson's Ranch.
Which is to say that had they made the decision
to ascend the ridgeline and continued on, they would have
fairly soon reached Salvation. Unfortunately, the Miwok men, who had

(16:17):
never traveled in this direction, and who were likely as
disoriented as the rest by the rolling snow, never realized this.
So instead of taking the path of salvation, the snowshoe party, which.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Would come to be known as the Forlorn Hope.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
Headed down to a canon that had been carved up
by glaciers and the north fork of the American River,
a place, and in other circumstances, is a location of
majestic natural beauty, but who sheer cliff faces made it
nearly impassable. That being said, the members of the snowshoe
expedition were not yet aware of the beautiful landscape or
the daunting challenges that faced them just yet, as this

(16:50):
was the twenty first of December and the shortest day
of the year, so they made camp, where they set
a pine tree of fire and ate the last of
the mate they had with them, as the snow could
continued to fall throughout the night. The following morning, though,
while the snow fall had lessened, when they tried to
set off, they found the stone and ground was both
soft and wet, which men had clung stubbornly to their
snow shoes, making progress nearly impossible. So after making an attempt,

(17:15):
it was decided that they should just spend the day
where they were and try again tomorrow. This was far
from a relaxing experience, however, as they could not start
a fire because every time they got one going, it
just sank into the soft, wet snow, extinguishing the flames. Meanwhile,
they had exhausted their meager supplies, with the exception of
William Eddie, who had found a half pound of bear

(17:35):
meat that had been secretly hidden in his back by
his wife Eleanor, a discovery that Eddie kept to himself.
The others, meanwhile, just pretty much spent the day setting
there motionless in the snow, growing coldered by the minute
due to the lack of food and fire, yed for.
As hopeless as things bore that day, all fourteen members
all the group would make it through the night and
would set off again on the morning of the twenty third,

(17:56):
their eighth They had traveled since leaving their camp in
the mountains. As they said, although the result of the
mistake that had been made two days earlier became clear
as they found themselves walking through territory, there was nothing
like what they'd been told to expect by Stanton. Indeed,
even their guide Salvador and Luis, were confused. With every
passing hour, then it became increasingly obvious that they were lost,

(18:16):
and they had no idea where the road they were
looking for was. Plus, what was worse, they didn't even
have a compass to fall back upon to give them
a reliable direction in which to follow. So, with despair
setting in, the group pause that afternoon. It was here then,
in this moment of desperation and hopelessness, that Patrick Dolan,
the man who had given all of his beef away

(18:36):
to the women and children back at camp, made the
declaration that they had no other choice. The men had
to cast lots to see who among them would die
so the others might live off his flesh. And with
that the prospect of cannibalism was broached for the first time,
the terrifying, horrifying, and appalling prospect that had likely crossed
the minds of more than a few members of the

(18:57):
Donner Party prior to this, but still no one had been,
for this moment, given voice to such desperate thoughts. And
as a fair warning, dear listener, it is pretty much
downhill from here on out. Now the prospect of cannibalism,
as disturbing and taboo as it is, was not unheard
of in history in general, or even in American history
in particular, as time and again throughout history, when people

(19:20):
are given to the brink of death by starvation, they
have resorted to cannibalism just to survive. In fact, things
got so bad in the Jamestown Connie during the winter
of sixteen oh nine and sixteen ten that it came
to be known as the Starving Time, as hundreds of
British colonists died from starvation while others only managed to
survive through acts of cannibalism. And to be clear, for

(19:41):
the members of the Snowshoe Expedition, there was more than
just their own survival at stake here, as most had
left camp on this faithful journey in the hope of
bringing back eight to the family members They had left behind,
their brothers, sisters, wives, and children, people that they cared
about and could not bear to see die. They then
were motivated to survive, not to for their own sakes,

(20:01):
but so they could save those they cared so much about.
The group then sat there in a snow seriously discussing
and arguing about Patrick Dolan's proposition in the end. Then,
while William Foster firmly opposed such a move, they eventually
sided with Dolan. The women in the party then watched
on horrified as the men tore a paper into strips,
which they then proceeded to pull one by one until

(20:22):
at last the men who had made the suggestion in
the first place, Patrick Dolan, drew the fatal lot.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
The others, though, quickly came to the.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Realization that they did not have it in them to
commit murder. William Eddie then stated that one of them
was sure to die sooner than later. As such, they
did not have to actually kill one of their own. Instead,
they could simply wait until someone died of natural causes,
at which point they could decide whether or not they
would consume the Flash of the Dead. With murder at

(21:08):
least temporarily off the table, the members of the Snowshoe
expedition pressed on, However, between the lack of food, the cold,
and just sheer exhaustion, they increasingly found it difficult to
keep their balance. As a result, they didn't make it
much further that day when they stopped for the night.
Then the group hastily assembled a platform atop the snow
and started a fire, which, due to the green and

(21:30):
wet wood wantonly produced more smoke than actual heat, but
at least it was something. Yet, even with this fire,
the members of the group were not in a good way,
with the twenty three year old hired hand Antonio apparently
being be worst off. Indeed, as he fell asleep by
the fire that night. When he rolled over, his arm
flung out and his hand led it in the flames.
William Eddie, who was the only one still awake at

(21:52):
the time, saw this and was stunned when Antonio did
not immediately pull his hand back. It then seemed he
took a moment for Eddie to comprehend what he was saying,
but once he did, he loved into action, pulling the
young man's hand out of the fire, the hand that
was already shriveled and burnt. But even more concerning was
the fact that Antonio remained unconscious. It then was a
long before the young man stomped, breathing altogether, and with

(22:15):
that the second member of what was supposed to be
a rescue party had died. Meanwhile, the weather continued to
show the other snow mercy. Indeed, if anything, the storm
grew worse as it pelted them with more snow, hail
and high winds.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
To try and.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Counteract these increasingly brutal conditions, the remaining members of the
snowshoe party tried building the fire up higher. The fire, though,
started mounting through the snow underneath their platform, which was
especially bad as they had apparently belted over a frozen stream.
As a result, the logs fell down, extinguishing the flames immediately.
It then became a desperate struggle to get a new

(22:50):
fire started before they all froze to death. Luckily, Harrod
Pike was able to find a small patch of her
cloak that wasn't soaked through using these bits of stell
dry con fabric, and then managed to get another fire going. However,
fate was far from done toying with them, as when
they went to chop down some additional wood for the fire,
the head of their hatchet flew off, disappearing somewhere in

(23:11):
the snow. The survivors and had no choice but to
range even farther afield to just rip off by hand
any branches they could get their hands on. Yet, even
as they were struggling to keep the fire lit. It
was already too late for Franklin Graves, as the oldest
member of the Stowshoe expedition had been clearly struggling for
the last couple of days. The fact that his end
income became clear as his face turned blue and he

(23:33):
stopped shivering despite the overwhelming cold.

Speaker 2 (23:36):
Upon seeing this and.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Recognizing what it meant, Wimedi gently told the older man
that he was dying, to which Franklin responded that he
did not care about himself. All he cared about was
his family and their survival to that, and he told
his daughter Sarah and Marianne to pass alongst message to
their mother and their siblings that he loved them very much.
To do so, though, he reminded the two young women

(23:59):
that they had to serve because the others dependent upon
them bringing back help. They then had a responsibility to
stay alive no matter what, which he told them included
the consumption of human flesh to survive his own if
they had to, a message that they also gave to
the young widow Harriet Pike, as he insisted that she
too had to survive for the sake of her two daughters.

(24:20):
Remained back at the lake. It was then with his
final message, given that Franklin Graves joined Antonio in death
on that terrifying Christmas Eve, while his daughter's knelt by
a signe weeping bitter tears. The storm meanwhile showed the
grieving women no mercy as he win and still continued
to make their already desperate situation even worse. Willim Any though,

(24:40):
in the midst of this dire situation, happened to recall
something he had once heard from some Rocky Mountain fur trappers,
recalling that there was a technique that they used to
survive in the frozen wilderness, where they all gathered tightly
together and covered themselves in what blankets they had, with
the idea being they would then be able to share
their body heat, which would also be kept in by
the blankets that served like a kind of provised tent.

(25:01):
This way, even without a fire, there would have some
protection from the stow on the wind, and they could
be cap worn by their shared body heat. This, however,
would not be enough to save Patrick Dolan, the Irishman
who had first broke the subject of cannibalism, and Ito
had drawn the fatal lot before the others realized that
they were not capable of murder.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
In that moment.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Astlin would awake the others at Christmas morning with a
shriek of alarm as he also began thrashing about in
his hypothermia field delirium. The others and tried to calm
him down, but the irishman soon began tearing off his
clothes as he attempted to crawl his way out of
the tent, acts which both terrified and confused the others,
who desperately tried to stop him. Now what none of
them understood at the time was this was a phenomenon

(25:41):
known as paradoxical undressing, which takes place in the final
stages of hypothermia, as it is basically the result of
your body giving up. You see, typically, when you're cold,
the various blood vessels in your skin and extremities contract
so as to force the blood back to your core
to warm your vital organs. In the final stages of hypothermia, however,
as your body's seems to more or less start shutting down,

(26:01):
these blood vessels relax.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
As a result.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
In these funnel moments, blood and warmth suddenly rush into
these previously frozen areas, making the unfortunate victim feel suddenly
overwhelmingly hot. In response, there oftentimes delirious states. These individuals
then start stripping off their clothes in an attempt to
cool down, which is exactly what Dolan was doing as
he tore off his clothes and tried to crawl out
of the shelter. Now the others managed to stop his

(26:26):
initial attempt to escape, but he fought back and ultimately
fled into the snow. The others over pursued the dying
irishmen and fortunately dragged him back into the shelter, where
William Eddie held Patrick Dolan down until he finally quieted.
That after noon, though Dawn would fall asleep and never
wake up again. The now dead Dolan's body was then
placed in a snow alongside the remains of Antonio and

(26:47):
Franklin Graves. Then, come the following day, even as the
snowe continued to fall, these surviving members of the Snowshoe
expedition crawled out of their shelter, all them stiff and
remaining huddled together for so long during this star I'm
up and about they attempted to do, finally missing hatchet
heead but they could not locate it in.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
All the stove. They did.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
However, spotty mouse that darted out from underneath a tree,
all desperate with hunger, then gave chase. But it would
be thirteen year old Lemuel Murphy, whose young mind was
not handling all this well, who caught it and then
shoved it into his mouth, eating the rodent while it
was still alive. Unfortunately, this mouse did not do the
young Lemuol any good, as when night came, the thirteen

(27:27):
year old reportedly began screaming something about give me my
bone as he started clawing and butting at the others.
His twenty three year old sister, Sarah Foster, tried holding
onto and comforting her little brother, but much like Dulin
the previous night, Lemeol was able to pull free as
he too attempted to flee the tent. The others that
were able to pull the boy back in until he
stopped fighting. In this though, they seemed a sense at

(27:49):
the end was once again near, as his sister held
his head in her lap for the next several hours
until he too finally stopped breathing. The following morning, the
twenty seventh the December, when Eddy once again decided to
try and start a fire with no other tiner at hand,
as any dead branches had already been used and were
buried under the snow, and with all their clothes and

(28:10):
blankets soaked through. He then decided to try and use
gunpowder to get the green wood delight, a move that
proved to be both wildly successful and a terrible idea,
as while Eddie was definitely able to get a fire started,
he also blew up his powder horn in the process,
which burned his hand and his face in addition to
singing both a Menda the Couchein and Sarah Foster in

(28:31):
the resulting blast stone. The fact in the matter was
and now had he fired to alleviate some of the
terrible cold, which then left the surviving members of the
Snowshoe expedition to deal with the question of their overwhelming
hunger and what to do about it, especially now that
four of their own Antonio Franklin Graves, Patrick Dolan and
young Lemuel Murphy had all died over the previous two days.

(28:52):
After all, the subject of cannibalism had already been broached,
and in their desperation and desire to survive, they had.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Agreed to do it.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Indeed, it seems that the only thing that had prevented
them from doing.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
So previously was the fact.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
That none of them were willing to commit murder. Instead,
they had decided to wait, figuring that one of them
was sure to die sooner than later, And so now
that the sad prediction had come to pass, they now
her faced were committing the ultimate taboo and the name
of surviving and saving their families. Now, to keep this
from being any harder and more traumatizing than it already was,
precautions weren't made to make it so that no one

(29:26):
had to consume the flesh of their relatives or had
to see what was done to their bodies. For example,
Franklin graves daughters and Lemuel Murphy's sisters would not have
to deal with the thought of having consumed their loved
ones fleshed, or be forced to bear witness to their
bodies being butchered, so that the others might survive. To
that end, Patrick Dolan, who had no familial ties to
anyone else in the group, was the first to be

(29:47):
consumed and shared amongst the others. Now still in the
process of consuming human flesh was a strain on their psyche,
so to try and make it so they weren't constantly
being confronted with the reality of what they were doing,
the flesh was cut into strips to make it unrecognizable.
They then cook these strips and or drive them in
the sun so as to reserve it for later, a
process which further read in the flesh unrecognizable, as it

(30:09):
simply looked like jerky at that point, and jerky, though
was meant for the journey ahead. In the meantime, then
they started off by consuming their companions internal organs as
the worthy riches and nutrients, and would also be the
first parts to go bad.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Crucially, though, the flesh that they.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Consumed started reviving the survivors. For example, upon consuming the flesh,
their long dormitant shut down thy jestive systems kicked back in,
causing them to eat more, and as they did, they
gained the fuel that they needed to survive, which in
turn alleviated some of the pains in their heads and
in their muscles. Death then had been staved off for
at least a little while longer, that being said Daniel

(30:46):
Brown notes and indifferent stars above that it is likely
that the members of this group could have survived for
some time yet without food, and thus did not necessarily
had to resort to cannibalism in these exact circumstances, as
it had only been without food for saike days, and
people have been known to survive for much longer without food,
even infrecing cold environments like the one they found themselves in.

(31:08):
He then argues that this decision was likely at least
partially based on the fact that they did not understand
what had actually claimed the lives of their fellows, as
they likely believed that their companions had died primarily due
to starvation, when the true culper was not lack of
food but lack of warmth. Still, the core motivating factor
in their decision was the desire to save those they
had left behind on the other side of the mountain,

(31:30):
as the way the members of this group saw things,
they were the only hope for those they had left behind,
and thus they had to survive no matter what. This
would also help to explain whyle Lewis and salvag Are,
unlike the others, refused to take part in these activities,
as without the driving motivation that the lives of their
family members were wholly reliant on them. The horror and
the taboo of consuming human flesh was too much, and

(31:52):
so the two meewalkmen kept a distance from the other survivors.
That being said, William and he also be refused to
take part in these horrifying meals. Buddy was aided in
this decision by the additional rations of bear meat he
had found secreted away in his pack, and he then
hadn't been without food for as long as the others had, regardless.
After their first gruesome meal together with the Stowe finally

(32:15):
letting up, the survivors began making plans and preparations for
their next steps, preparations which included further processing their fallen
companion's remains, namely drying and preserving their flesh so it
could be brought with them to provide sustenance for the
rest of their journey. After three days of regaining their
strength and preparing for what was to come, on the
twenty ninth of December, the remaining members of the Stowshoe

(32:37):
expedition that would come to be known as the Forlorn Hope,
set off in the place that they had come to
think of as the camp of Death. Meanwhile, death was
also haunting those who still remained in the mountain camps. Indeed,
round about the same time as the forlorn Hope was
setting off from Trucky League down by Alder Creek, they
were experiencing their own losses. Some three hundred yards separated

(32:58):
the camps that had been set up by the to
Donna brothers, not a huge distance, but as he still
piled up and obstructed the view in between these camps,
so when one wanted to visit the other camp, they
often had to use the smoke rising up over the
stow drifts to guide their way. Now, the first to
nine these camps was none other than the fifty six
year old Jacob daughter, the younger of the two brothers, who,

(33:20):
despite being four years younger than his brother George, was
often mistaken for the order of the two. Indeed, his
niece Eliza, when later documenting this time, would write, quote,
Uncle Jacob, the first to die, was older than my
father and had been in miserable health for years before
we left Illinois. Jacob's death then wasn't exactly surprising. In fact,

(33:40):
according to Eliza, quote when we reached the placement Cammon
in the mounds. He was discouraged and gave up in despair,
and even the needs of his family could rouse him
to action. He was utterly dejected and made no effort,
but tranqully awaited death when the time came.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Then, according to Eliza quote.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
My father and mother watched him during the last night,
and the following afternoon helped Hi lay his body in
a cave dug in the mountain side beneath the snow,
with George holding this vigil and assisting in the creation
of this icy tomb for his brother, despite his one
arm being incapacitated due to the infection from the cut
on his hand. Jacob's death that was far from the last,
as his body had barely been laid.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
The rest before.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
He was joined by Sam Shoemaker, James Smith and Joseph Reinhardt,
with all three being hired hands who were to have
aided any work on the trail yet mom Both Sam
Shoemaker and James Smith were said to have quiet deaths,
as those around them made show to comfort them in
their final moments. The same was not true of Joseph Reinhardt,
who in his final moments seemed to be haunted by

(34:40):
his actions in life, namely, Reinhardt were confessed to missus
Wulfinger that he had shot and killed her husband when
he and Augustus Spitzer had stayed behind to help him
hide his valuables. Now, the pair had previously claimed that
mister Wolfinger had died as a result of a pie
un attack, but now in his deathbed, Reinhardt declared that
that was a lie.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
While none could be.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Sure if this was a true confession or ju justy
ravings of a fevered and dying mind, Doris Wolfinger was
seemingly convinced that her husband had been betrayed and murdered
for his gold. Given this, George Donner promised her them
once they were rescued, he would make sure there was
an inquiry to ensure that Augustus Spencer was held accountable
for whatever it was he had done. In the meantime, though,
it wasn't like Spitzer was going anywhere, as he was

(35:21):
trapped just like the rest of them. Indeed, at that
moment he was too weak to move as he laid
in the Breens cabin up by Trucky Lake. Meanwhile, as
a result of these deaths and George Donner's incapacity due
to his wounded and infected hand, it fell to Tamsend
Daughner and the recently widowed Elizabeth daughter to maintain the camp. Now.
They were aided in this bond the fact that shortly
before the deaths had started, two teamsters, Mount Elliott and

(35:44):
Noah James, who had been up a trucki lake, had
come down to the Donner's camp along Alder Creek. The
two men then had helped to bury the three young
men who had died, while also taking the time to
show the others how to do stuff like probe to
snow so as to search for the cattle who were
now frozen and buried. The reason why the two had
come down when they had was to bring word of
the Stowshoe expedition and to invite any who wanted to

(36:06):
join them, but none for the Donner camp would volunteer
for this mission. With this work done and the encompass
and tobacco they had come for acquired, Mount Elliott departed,
intending to join the Stowshoe expedition, but he would discover
that he had not returned in time, as he had
been delayed by these snowstorms. And the others had feared
him lost and thus had not.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
With it around.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Meanwhile, Noah James, who had worked for George Donner, elighted
to remain behind to help and the search for food,
but there unfortunately he wasn't much in the way of
success during this time. He lies a Donner, who was
just four years old, would later remember sitting stuggled in
between her sisters Francis and Georgia, who quote gave me
of their warmth and from whom quote I learned many

(36:45):
things which I could neither have understood nor remembered had
they not made them plain. Her strongest memories, though, seemed
to have been of hunger, as she would later recall
how quote the little field buss had I crept in
the camp were caught and then used to ease the
pangs of hunger. Also, pieces of BEEFI were cunn the
strips sind scraped, boiled to the consistency of glue, and
spawned with an effort, for no degree of hunger could

(37:08):
make the solis sticky substance palatable. Maryless bones, which had
already been boiled and scraped, were now burned and eaten.
Even the barks and twigs of pine rechewed in the
vain effort to soothe the gnullings, which made one cry
for bread and meat. Meanwhile, come Christmas, unawathy deaths of
Franklin Gray, As, Patrick Dolan Antonio, and young Lemuel Murphy,
and the subsequent cannibalism, there was still hope back in

(37:30):
the camps, as He's thinking was would take the snow
shoe parties six days to reach the Johnson Ranch, from
where they could get assistance and begin the process of
bringing relief back to those in camp. By this point
then it had been nine days, so the hope was
they had reached their destination and were currently in the
process of gathering supplies for the trip back. It was
then this bit of phil that those in the camps

(37:52):
clung onto as he marked the holiday. Patrick Green, for example,
despite being weakened by hunger and in pain from his
kidney stones, as he devowed Catholic, he still me known
in this journal how his family had quote Oftener prayers
to God this Christmas morning. The prospect is appalling, but
hope in God Amen, notably making these prayers while qusby
Trier and murderer Augustus Spitzer lay close to death in

(38:13):
the corner. Meanwhile, over in the double cabin, Margaret Ridho
had for weeks been feeding her children the unpleasant gooey
substance that came from the boiling of ox hides. Had
a small surprise for her children on this day, as
she was able to provide for them a bit of
a Christmas feast in the form of a few dried apples,
some tripe from the sotted oxen, some beans, and a
bit of bacon. It wasn't much, just little bits that

(38:36):
she had been saving for this occasion, But it wasn't
the life of the surprised children. According to Virginia Reads
later runnings on this day quote, Christmas was near, but
to the starving its memory gave no comfort. It came
and passed without observance. But my mother had determined weeks
before that her children should have a treat this one day.
She leaned away a few dried apples, some beans, a

(38:57):
bit of tripe, and a small piece of bacon. When
this hoarded store was brought out, did a light of
the little ones knew no bounds. The cooking was watched carefully,
and when we sat down to our Christmas dinner, mother said, children,
eat solely for this one day. You can have all
you wish, so bitter wastein misery, relieved by that one
bright day that I have never sat down to a
Christmas dinner without my thoughts going back to Donner Lake

(39:21):
on that Christmas Day, Elizabeth Graves also had a similar
surprise for her children, as she too had preserved a
bit of tribe from the soldered oxen, which she then
combined with some of the remaining beans that were supposed
to have been used to plant their first crop upon
arriving in California. Now Elizabeth also still had a supply
of beef frozen in the snow to keep her family
going for at least a while longer. Others like the

(39:43):
Murphy family, however, were less well off. Indeed, Levina Murphy
and Eleanor Eddie were completely out of meat, and even
the hinds that they were boiling for sustenance were starting
to run low. To try and supplement this, the two
women had taken new gathering bones from the soldern oxen
to boil and use for broth. So was to feed
the ninth chldren in their care using these same bones over.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
And over again.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
That being said, like the others in a made a
point of doing something special for the children on this
day by adding an oxtail to the soup they were
now subsisting on. Things weren't much better down in the
Donner's camp by Otter Creek, as they two were eating
bones to survive, as they either boiled them like the
Murphy's or they were toasting them in the fire and
gnawing on them. In general, though, they were just worse

(40:24):
off as their shelters were much more haphazardly constructed than
those up by the lake. As such, they were constantly
coder and a threat of hypothermia. Plus most of the
healthy young men they were to have relied upon to
shovel pass through the stow and to collect wood for
their fires were either dead or otherwise not in camp.
And then there was Georgie's Donner, who could do nothing
as the infection continued to climb its way up his

(40:46):
arm bim. Even as the members of the Stow Shoe Party,
or the Forlorn Hope as they have since been dubbed,
were first resorting to cannibalism around this time, back in
the Trucky Lake in Otter creek camps. No one had
openly talked about taking such a step themselves, although it
was apparently increasingly on their minds. Yet, while they hadn't
quite reached that point of desperation, the fact the matter

(41:07):
was their situation was growing progressively more dire as another
two feet of snow was dumped on the lakeside camp,
making the snow there some nine feet deep, and the
wood for their fires even harder to come by. Virginia
Reid would later write of this time, quote, these storms
would often last ten days at a time, and we
would have to cut chips from the logs inside which
formed our cabins in order to start a fire. We

(41:29):
could scarcely walk, and the men had hardly strength to
procure wood. We would drag ourselves through the snow from
one cabin to another, and some mornings snow would have
to be shoveled out of the fireplace before the fire
could be made. Poor little children were crying with hunger,
and the mothers were crying because they had so little
to give their children. We seldom thought of bread, we
had been without so long. Four months of such suffering

(41:51):
would fill the bravest hearts with despair. Charlie Burger aka Dutch.
Charlie's suffering, though, would come to an end only twenty
eighth of December, as he died while huddled and Louis
Keysburg's lean to. Charlie, who was just thirty years old,
had attempted to leave with the snowshoe expedition, but since
he did not have enough snow shoes for him, he
had been forced to return to camp, and ever since

(42:12):
that time his health had gone downhill. Charlie's body was
then taken out and placed in the snow, after which
time the other men residing in the Keysburg lean To,
Louis Keysburg and Augustus Spencer divided the dead men's belongings
between themselves, with Spencer taking a coat and a rainsticker,
while Keyesburg claimed a gold pin to silver watches, a
straight razer, three buses of percussion caps, and fifty dollars

(42:35):
in cash. Meanwhile, by this point at time, Margaret ridhad
completely run out of meat to feed her four children. Now, Margaret,
as you might remember, had long been played by illness, weakness,
and debilitating migraines. However, here in these desperate circumstances she
was prepared to withstand anything to save her children, so
after exhausting all other options for meat, Margaret turned her

(42:56):
attention to the family's loan surviving dog, Cash, which was
their beloved pet. But for the sake of her children's survival,
Margaret took the poor dog out of the cabin and,
after letting him play in the stow one last time,
she killed him so our children would have something to eat. This, however,
was only a temporary solution, and she knew it to
that end. Margaret, fearing that the stow shoe party had failed, again,

(43:19):
making plans to make her own attempt to get through
the pass and head down the other side of the
mound to get help. Joining Margaret on this attempt would
be her thirteen year old daughter of Virginia, their teamster
Milt Elliott, and their cook slash servants slash part of
the family, Eliza Williams.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Now.

Speaker 1 (43:34):
Margaret could not take her three youngest children with her,
but she somehow was able to talk three of the
other families to take them in. The Keysburgs would watch
over eight year old Patty, the Graves would take in
five year old James, and the Breens agreed to look
after three year old Thomas. Virginia would later remember how
difficult this parting was, as she wrote, quote, it was
hard to leave them, but she felt and must be done.

(43:55):
She told them she would bring them bread, so they
were willing to stay. Then and once these painful goodbyes
were made quote with no guide but a cup. As
we started, my mother, Eliza, Milt Elliott, and myself. Milt
wore snowshoes, and we followed in his tracks. The fact
that only one of them had snowshoes, though, would prove
to be their undoing, as it was simply too much

(44:16):
to try and walk through so much snow. So after
just five days of been dragoned, party returned to cab
where they now I do find someplace new to stay,
as in their absence, the hides that had been covering
their side of the double cabin had been taken down
to be boiled and used for what passed for sustenance.

Speaker 2 (44:32):
The Brainsen would.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Ultimately volunteer to take Margaret and all her children in,
which meant there were now fifteen people residing in their
relatively small little cabin at the very least, though at
the very least, though the shared body heat of so
many people in such a small space did soon to
keep the cabin warmer than it otherwise would have been,
which was good as another storm soon descended upon them,

(44:54):
a storm which buried all the cabins and the various
shelters where the remaining members of the Donner party huddled,
which was honestly just an additional level of misery that
they did not need, as things were already getting worse
without this additional factor. For example, Levana Murphy had taken
ill on Christmas night, and while she would continue to
care for the children under her watch, with each passing

(45:14):
day she grew progressively worse as it became increasingly difficult
for Levina to get out of bed, and worse still,
her sight, whether due to illness or stone blindness from
trips retreat would for their fires, also began to fade. Meanwhile,
Levina's seventeen year old son, John the Onus Bell and
the family wasn't doing much better, as after weeks of
doing all the heavy work, he was also struggling to

(45:34):
rise from bed and was seemingly starting to lose his
grip on reality. Now, the young children that Levina was
caring for all seemed to be doing okay, considering monte
trio of infants that she was looking after. George Foster,
Catherine Pike, and Margaret Eddie were not doing well. All
were weak from hunger and were also the victims of
an infestation of licensed bedbugs. Catherine's eyes, in particular act

(45:56):
she grew increasingly and god were said to have grown
larger and darker, while she also repoortedly made almost constant
quiet sobbing sounds. Harriet mccutch and another infant who was
being cared for by Elizabeth Grays, was also suffering, as
she was said, I've been screaming almost costantly due to
the pain from her own lice infestation. Meanwhile, also complicating
matters was the fact that some among the party were

(46:17):
discovering that they, at least at times, could not physically
digest the boiled hides. Now, this wasn't as big of
an issue for the Breen family, as they still had
some fresh oxen meat hid in the way that Peggy
carefully doled out to her seven children, a fact there
was not a secret, and so some of the others
did from time to time tried to beg and barter
for some of the remaining store of meat, but none

(46:38):
were successful in these attempts. Still, upon taking the Reed
family into their cabin, Peggy could not help but grow
attached to those children as well, So when she noticed
that Virginia was having trouble eating the boiled hides, she
slipped the girlsome small pieces of meat to sustain her.
Mean maulled up at a murphy continued to deteriorate rapidly
as the thirty seven year old grandmother now started experiencing

(46:59):
wald moods, as she would, out of nowhere just start
laughing uncontrollably, only to just as quickly burst into tears. Yet,
despite her blindness and increasing infirmity, Levinett kept doing what
she could to care for all the various children.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Under her care.

Speaker 1 (47:13):
This included making a thin gruel of melted stowe and
flower to try and sustain her granddaughter, the infant Catherine Pike.
Although potentially even more worrying was the condition of her
once strapping seventeen year old son John, who could no
longer eat the hides, and as a result, he became
increasingly delirious from lack of nourishment. Mean Whaldo trying to
distract themselves from their own gnawing hunger. The children in

(47:35):
these various shelters filled their time by reading the same
books over and over. Initially, they were also expected to
do some studying during this time, hauled around the fire
for warmth. That and they also read books like Samuel
Kirkham's English Grammar in familiar lectures. Meanwhile's son, like Patrick Green,
filled his time praying while down by the Alder Creek,
the daughter spend their time gazing out into the snow,

(47:57):
so running them all though while hoping to catch glimpse
of a relief party that was coming to save them.
And when they weren't doing that, something like Jean Baptist,
Drew Doe and Noah James busied themselves by searching for
the lost and buried oxen as. Again, there were additional
supplos of meat somewhere out there in the form of
animals that had wandered off and been subsequently buried under
feet of snow, with Eliza Donner leading writing of these attempts, quote,

(48:21):
they made excavations and forced their hand pulls deep deeper
into the snow, but in vain their efforts. In other words,
things were bad in the campslng The Trucky Lake and
Water Creek, and they were only looking to get worse
without aid. We now returned to the Snowshoe Expedition and

(49:04):
their desperate mission to bring relief to those they had
left behind, a mission in which they and their efforts
to survive and reach assistance had just resorted to cannibalism
following the deaths of Franklin Graves, Antonio Patrick Dolan, and
Lemuel Murphy.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
It has to be.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Noted, though, that the meat that they gained from their
fallen companions did not go as far as you might think,
as remember, these were not hale and hardy individuals that
they were consuming. These were individuals who, just like the survivors,
had been without adequate food for some time, which was
the same issue that had kept the oxen that they
had been surviving off of from lasting as long as
the otherwise might have, as they had been weakened and

(49:40):
emaciated as well.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
As a result.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
When the survivors left the Camp of Death, they figured
they only had about four days of supplies. The group
that would come to be known as the Forlorn Hope
would then trouble about eleven miles of the course of
the next two days, notably doing so while in immense
pain as their frostpin feet spoilt so much that their
skin cracked burst painfully. Meanwhile, after the first day's travel,

(50:03):
William Eddie was off so weak that he could barely stand,
at which point he reluctantly joined the other surviving settlers
in eating their gruesome rations. Now it has to be
said that the group was very much lost at this point. Yet,
whether they did not realize that they had made a
wrong turn, or because they simply did not know where
they had gone wrong, they just kept going in the

(50:23):
same wrong direction. This then meant first to setting into
the daunting canyon.

Speaker 2 (50:28):
Before them.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
To do so, they basically tried setting down as a
knot on their improvised snow shoes. However, they proved to
be impossible to control, and more often than not, the
beleaguered travelers were sent off course into snowbanks, and their
only reward for this descent was the slow, strenuous climb
up the other side of the canyon, an effort which
served to further damage their already frostmen swollen and split

(50:51):
feet that they tried to wrap his best ay code
with his blankets, but Even then, they still left trails
of crimson through the stall wherever they went. As they
trudged on mean while, it increasingly fewn to the women
to lead the way and force the men in the
party to keep up, as the men, either due to
fay tag or due to crushing hopelessness, just seemed to
be ready to give up, Yet the women refused to

(51:12):
join them, and thus forced the men to press on. Now,
the second of January brought a bit of good news
in that they found the snow and crossed it over
and off that they could walk across the top of
it without their waity encumbersome improvised snowshoes, so they took
them off and pressed on, carrying them on their backs.
The bad news, though, was they were already out of
their gruesome rations, so when they made camp that night,

(51:35):
they cooked what was aft of their leather shoes, and
also took apart their snowshoes to cook and eat their
raw hide strips. Their food situation then had once again
reached a point of desperation, but at least on the
following day they finally reached a point where they were
no longer surrounded by snow. Of course, so This bit
of good news also came along with some additional bed as.
Blocking their way forward were manzanita, a type of bush

(51:57):
or small tree whose branches they had to light through
just to progress, an effort which further a tore and
shredded their already tattered clothing. Meanwhile, by the fourth of January,
Sarah Graves husband Jay Faustig, who she had married just
before setting off from this journey to California, was finding
it harder and harder to keep up with the others.
Sarah then made sure to sew her pace so as
to stay by a side, which forced the others to

(52:20):
stop and wait for them to catch up on multiple occasions.
Mean while, the journey and the fact that they had
now once again gone several days without food was apparently
having a deleterious effect on the mind of William Foster,
who in westper Tone started suggesting to his way companions
that they should kill the two mewalk gods, Lewis and
Salvadors so they could eat them. While we do not
know how most of the group reacted to this proposal,

(52:42):
it seems that William Eddie was the one most strongly
opposed to this murderous betrayal of the two men who
had been through so much with them. Eddie in fact
suggested that now that they were down below the stone line,
chances were they might be able to find and kill
a deer, which seemed to be enough to get Foster
to abandon his plans for the moment, regardless that night,
either because Eddie had worn them or because they did

(53:04):
not trusting look in the eyes of the people they
were traveling with, both the memok men Lewis and salvad
are slipt off, clearly hoping to escape from these dangerous
people they had been thrown together with. The following morning, then,
with the two men safely away, William Eddie, asper stated
planned the night before, set off ahead of the others
with his rifle and Maryanne Graves as they hoped to
find and kill a deer. The pair then wore a

(53:26):
ways ahead of the others when they found the site
that neither could truly believe, as he found signs that
a deer had fairly recently been laying in a spot
of brush before them. William Eddie and mary Anne were
so shocked by this piece of actual good news that
they both began to weep as a note together in
that spot where the deer had been laying to say
a quick prayer before setting off in pursuit. The two

(53:48):
then followed the tracks until they spotted their quarry standing
about eighty yards away. Yet, as Eddie tried to raise
his rifle, he found he could not hold his study.
His arms were so weak he could not hold the
gun in place, which was especially not good with a
flanlock rifle like the one he was carrying, as there
was a not insignificant delay in between the pull the
trigger and the gun actually firing, which meant even if

(54:11):
his shot was lined up properly when Eddie pulled the trigger,
by the time the gun actually fired, if his arm
started to give out, the shot might miss its mark,
thus frightening the deer and costing them this opportunity. For
her partner, Marianne very much recognized what this meant. Because
she watched Eddie struggle with his gun, she let out
a sob of despair. William Eddie, though, was not about

(54:32):
to give up, especially when they were this clothes, so
to try and compensate for his own weakness, he aimed
the gun above the deer and waited until his weakened
arms brought the sight's level with it to pull the trigger,
trusting as he did that by the time the gun fired,
it would still be aiming at his target. Eddie, then,
using this method, took a shot, but when the deer

(54:53):
did not drop immediately, Mary feared that he had missed.
The pair soon realized, though, that he had hit and
at least wounded the deer, at which point both set
off in a lipping pursuit untild. Finally, some two hundred
yards away, they saw the deer fall to the ground, dying. Meanwhile,
while behind them, the others heard the sound of the
gunshot and were filled with hope that the hunt had

(55:13):
been successful. They too then set off in pursuit, hoping
that a long last thing might get some much needed sustenance. Ultimately, though,
none from the trailing group managed to catch up with
Mary and William Eddie that night, even though Eddie did
make a point of periodically firing off his gun so
as to guide the others to their position. Farthest to
the rear and from hope, though, was Sarah and her

(55:34):
husband Jay, who too had been excited and hopeful at
the sound of the gunshot on what is suggested as
Sarah would later recount, upon hearing the gunshot, Jay had said, quote,
Eddie has killed a deer. Now if I can only
get to him, I shall live. As nightfall, though, it
became increasingly clear that Jay, who now laid in the
stone covered with the only blanket they had with them,

(55:54):
was not long for this world. Sarah fully recognized this,
but you could not bring herself to leave him, even
with the promise of much needed food so close. Jay
was said to have been frankfully gaunt and skeletal at
this point, as he suffered from some combination of malnutrition
and hypothermia as he lay there in the snow. Then
his breathing became increasingly shallow as he drifted in and

(56:15):
out of consciousness, while his wife, who he had just
went before the start of this journey, stayed by his side,
trying to get him the hold on. But sometime around midnight,
Jay's body just gave out. At this Sarah laid down
in the stowe alongside her husband, wishing to join him,
but when morning came and she continued to breathe, Sarah
took a black silk neckerchief from Jay's body, and then

(56:36):
set off alone, now a widow. As she marched forward grieving,
Sarah was met by her sister Mary Anne, as well
as William and Sarah Foster, who, upon being informed of
her beloved Jay's death, promptly asked if they might eat him.
Sarah then just looked at the pair and said simply, quote,
you cannot hurt him now, as she just kept on walking,
leaving the couple to butcher the body of her husband. Meanwhile,

(56:59):
Mary lent Sarah to William Eddie and the remains of
the deer they had killed, giving her a portion of
the roasted venison, which was the first non human flesh
she had consumed since the twenty first of December. They
were then joined soon by Harriet Pike and Amanda McCutchen,
who were also given portions of the venison. Meanwhile, at
some point the Fosters would eventually join them as well,
carry their own supply of fresh meat. Indeed, that night,

(57:23):
even as Eddie was drawing strips of venison for the
journey ahead, one of the Fosters took out Jay's hart
and began roasting it and eating it, even as his
widow sat right there. The following day was the seventh
of January, and only seven members of the original group
of fifteen who had set off for left. This doubibly
included all five of the women and only two of
the men, William Eddie and William Foster. Lewis and Foster,

(57:46):
meanwhile were also alive, but they had unfortunately not made
a clean escape the night they had disappeared, as their
feet were no better condition than the others, so they
had left behind bloody footprints they could easily be seen
by the others as they made their own weight down
the mountain. Meanwhile, as the remaining survivors of the snow
Shoe party pressed on in their efforts to find the
Johnson's Ranch, where they knew they would find aid, they

(58:08):
once again crossed the canyon that they never actually needed
to encounter in the first place. With this latest crossing
proven to be especially tiring and exhausting, as it took
them two days to descend into and then climb back
out of the canyon, an effort that also further destroyed
their threadbare clothes, exposing parts of their bodies and in
other conditions would have been a cause for alarm, especially

(58:28):
within their repressive Victorian society, yet at this point none
could be bothered to care, especially since they must have
resembled shambling zombies at this point. Now the worst among them,
at least mentally, was likely William Foster, as he had
for some time already been acting more unhinged than the others.
As an addition of being the one to so bluntly
as Sarah, he and his wife could consumer recently deceased

(58:50):
husband Foster had also been the one to suggest killing
their two mewalk companions so as to eat them, and
now he apparently no longer even bothered hopping to make fires,
they stopped for the night. It was then at this point,
according to one version of this tale, that William Foster
approached William Eddi with the proposition that they should kill
Amanda mccutch and an eater, after all, he reasoned she

(59:12):
was slowing them down. William Eddie, though would claim that
he rejected this idea, telling the other man that she
was a wife and a mother, at which point Foster
shifted gears, turning his attention to the sisters Mary Ann
and Sarah, who were neither mothers nor wives of anyone.
Following Jay's death, it was at this point, according to Eddie,
that he pulled a knife on Foster, warning him to
put a stop to such talk. Now, a competing version

(59:34):
of events suggested it was William Eddie who was actually
making such plans, with this version suggesting that the actual
reason why he had taken Mary and with him the
go hunting was he secretly had planned to kill her. Now, obviously,
I can't say with any true certainty which of these
events are accurate, as it's entirely possible that William Eddie's
mind might have cracked under these stress as well. However,

(59:55):
giving Foster's other actions, I'm inclined to believe that he
at the very least made a suggestion of killing some
of the women. Further supporting this is the fact that
it wasn't long after this that William Foster was given
the opportunity to revive an old plan of his as
the surviving members of the Sotshoe party came across some
bloody footprints which could have only come from their tomb
Mewhile companions Lewis and Salvador. They would then be poorly

(01:00:18):
find the two men by a river scavenging acorns as
they unlike the others, had never eaten human flesh, but
better understood how to live off the land. Yet, instead
of seeking their advice, William Foster announced he was going
to kill them. As the women poortly moved away, not
wanting to bear witness to what was about to happen,
Foster then shot Lewis and the head before reloading and

(01:00:38):
killing Salvador as well. Notably, though, while William Foster alone
committed these murders, some of the women, upon returning to
the campsite, assisted in the butchering and drying of the
flash of their now dead guides. This then, was the
only time during the entirety of the tragic tale of
the Daughter Party that we know for sure that someone
was killed to be consumed, and it was no mistake

(01:00:59):
that the two who were killed were Native Americans. Indeed,
in the years to come, no one seems to have
judged Foster for his actions, nor was there an effort
to prosecute him, as the general consensus seems to have
been they were simply Indians and thus by definition less then,
that being said, for the rest of their journey together,
none of the other survivors of the Snow shoe party
other than his wife, dared to sleep anywhere near Foster.

(01:01:22):
And it also should be noted that William Eddi, who
had apparently once again opposed these murders, actually refused to
partake in consuming the flesh of the menu were supposed
to be their guides, opting to eat grass instead. When
they pressed on again following these murdersy going while stills
thrown painful as all these survivors were weak with damaged feet.
That being said, they were increasingly surrounded by grass, trees

(01:01:44):
and even deer, although by this point William Edti was
too weak to probably aim at them with his heavy gun. Then,
just two days after the murders, the group's tumble across
a trail with human footprints in it, marking it as
an Indian trail. They then followed it and were soon
discovered and led to a nearby knee of American village. Now,
upon seeing these seven ragged, zombie like pale figures come

(01:02:04):
stumbling toward their village, the locals reportedly fled. However, as
the women pleaded for help and they got a better
look at these pitiful souls. The mind of the mewalks
as it's unclear exactly which tribe they came across, returned
as they realized that these were simply exhausted and starving people.
The survivors were then led into one of their lodges,
where they were fed a kind of gruel and a
bread made of acorns. As they did so, the Native

(01:02:27):
Americans were careful to only give the survivors small portions,
as they knew it was dangerous for starving people to
eat too much. William Eddie, though for whatever reason, could
not manage to eat the acorn based food stuff, and
so he drank a tea made from grass instead. Regardless,
the fact of the matter was this was the first
time in likely months than any of them were warm

(01:02:47):
and dry while rain fell outside, all of which was
thanks to the kindness of a people who were akin
to the pair of men they had been fine with
killing just days earlier, as they were seen as less
than Still, the survivors could not stay here and recover,
as the driving purpose for everything they had been through,
injured and done was not just to survive, but so
they would be able to get help for those they

(01:03:09):
had left behind, And so they managed to communicate to
their saviors that they needed to reach the nearest American settlement,
at which point they set off once again, this time
under the guidance of some of the local Native Americans.
The going, though, was still so as even after being fed,
they were still very much suffering from malnutrition and it
would take them time to fully recover from that pluster.

(01:03:30):
Feet were also still swollen, split and bleeding, so they
traveled from one village to another, taking the opportunity to
rest at each community they came to before setting off again.
Now the full extent of their malnutrition really seemed to
hit the survivors on the seventeenth of January, a week
after first stumbling into that Native American village, as on

(01:03:50):
that day they found that they physically could not carry
on as their bodies were simply too weak, with the
one exception being William Ettie, who had started eating pine nuts.
It was and with the help of two strong Native
Americans at Eddie at long last was able to make
the final fifteen mile journey to Johnson's Ranch and the
cabin that was currently occupied by recent immigrants Matthew dill

(01:04:11):
Ritchie and his family. Now the Johnson Ranch itself was
owned by one William Johnson, hence the name, but the
actual labor only farm was done by Native Americans. Most importantly, though,
this was the location that most American immigrants first came
to upon reaching California on the way to Sutter's Fort.
Settler Zen often tended to pausit a ranch to rest, recover,

(01:04:32):
and resupply after the arch was crossing before moving on.
The Richies Thou had arrived late with winter coming on,
and so they had decided to stay at the ranch
until spring. It was and Matthew Ritchie's fifteen year old
daughter Harriet, who, on the afternoon of the fifteenth of January,
first beheld the sight of the two Native Americans holding
up a third figure who had blunny feet in rags,

(01:04:53):
hanging off a body that was so thin in god
that she began to cry just at the sight of him.
As this figure was broad closed to the fifteen year old,
the weak, pale and heavily bearded William, and he was
able to lift his head and utter one simple word bread.
Soon Harriet's parents, William and Caroline, were bringing the poor,
pitiful figure inside to lay him down in a bed

(01:05:13):
and feed him, during which time Edy relaid word that
he was not alone. There were in fact, six more
people just like him stile on the trail, as well
as even more trapped in the mountains in desperate need
of help. Upon hearing this, as her mother began spooning
food into the poor man's mouth, fifteen year old Herod
ran from cabin to cabin on the ranch, spreading news
that there were people in desperate need. Everyone currently residing

(01:05:36):
on the ranch then gathered at the Richie cabin, bringing
with him whatever supplies he could think of, from food
to blankets. It was from this gathered group that five
men who were assessed by the Native Americans who had
brought William any in, set off on the tround to
finally six other survivors of the Snowshoe expedition, finally coming
upon the others sometime around midnight. As they did, they
shared with the survivors the supplies they had brought with them.

(01:05:58):
In doing so, though they were not as careful as
in Native Americans had been, who had only given the
survivor's small amounts that their weakened systems could handle. As
a result, some of the survivors grew sick, vomiting off
what they had even as they weren't able to handle
that much food at the moment. Regardless, the survivors would
be brought back to the safety of the Johnson Ranch
thanks to these and a second team of men who

(01:06:19):
had been dispatched to find them. Upon arriving, they found
that the women who had remained behind at the ranch
had been busy baking bread and stewing beef to feed
the poor suffering survivors. In particular, when Sarah and mary
Anne were brought in, they could not help but notice it,
being drawn to the warm glow of the lamplight coming
from inside the cabins. He cited that they would remember
for the rest of their days, as it was a

(01:06:41):
sign that meant that, after everything they had been through,
they had been saved. In all, it had taken the
Snowshoe Expedition thirty three days to reach Johnson's Ranch and
to begin getting word out of their desperate need for aid.
In doing so, only seven of the fifteen men and
women who had sent off actually made it. Meanwhile, as
he members of the the Snowshoe Party were beginning their

(01:07:01):
long still recovery the Tucker and Richie families, who were
wintering at the Johnson ranch began the process of soldering
cattle and drying their meat so that it might be
brought up to those still trapped in the mountains, during
which time William Johnson also sent some of his Native
American workers to grinding wheat in a flour so it
could also be packed up and brought for this release mission. Meanwhile,

(01:07:22):
they also said about cutting these same cattle's hides in
his trips so as to make snowshoes for the journey back.
As others began the process of scouring the local countryside
for enough horses and mules to carry the supplies for
were gathering for their planned rescue mission. As the various
residents of the ranch undertook these preparations for a rescue mission,
William Edie was penning a letter to John Sutter detailing

(01:07:43):
when it befallen to the Dunner party and their situation
back in the mountains, as he banged for further assistance.
It is here then, as the survivors of the Forlorn
Hope began the process everything they had been through and
all they had lost, with Sarah Grace, for example, dealing
with the loss of both her father and her husband,
and as preparations were being made for efforts to rescue
those still trapped in the mountains. Then will step away

(01:08:05):
from the story one final time, as this tale is
tragically far from over. Indeed, it would prove to be
no easy test to return to where the remaining members
of the Donner party were trapped to bring them maid
and try to bring them out. The story of these
desperate and agonizing rescue efforts then will have to for
now remain a story for another time. Thank you for

(01:08:30):
listening to Distorted History. If you would like to help out,
please rate and review the podcasts and tell your friends
if you think they'll be interested. If you would like
ad free in early episodes, I set up such a
feed over at patreon dot com slash Distorted History.

Speaker 2 (01:08:43):
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Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
Bucks a month, you will gain access to these special
ad free feed available on Spotify or likely through your
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Speaker 2 (01:09:02):
Listening, and until next time,

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The Tragedy of the Donner Party Episode 4 The Forlorn Hope

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