1. The Donner Reed Tragedy
Hope, Pride, Arrogance, Spite, Apathy, Procrastination, and Taboo.

2. Lansford Hastings
This story starts to go bad long before the pioneers of the Donner – Reed party started moving west.
The story really begins with Lansford Hastings. He was a working in the west as an explorer and surveyor.
In the late summer of 1842 he went west. To help set up new cities. In 1844 he was in California, and he needed to get back to the east coast.

3. Hastings
Hastings came from a family that had a rich history. His family had been one of the first to arrive in America way back in (only 14 years after the pilgrims).
He was trained as a lawyer, and hoped to start an uprising in California against Mexico.
Once California broke away from Mexico he hoped to be a leader.

4. The Hastings Cut-off
Hastings had lots going for him, and as an educated man he must have noticed that on the trail map of the west the trails made a big bend around the great basin.
He must have surely decided that the detour was a waste of time, and if a path could be found through the deserts of Nevada and the Mountains of Utah then the trail could be hundreds of miles shorter.

5. An Emigrants Guide
Hastings really wanted people to move to California, so he wrote a book.
The book described Oregon and California as amazing places where the weather was always nice, there was no winter, and living was easy all year long.
Most of his descriptions were wildly exaggerated, but based in some truth.
In addition to the descriptions of California, he also suggested a new route, the Hastings Cut-Off.
His book did its job, it inspired huge numbers of people to uproot their families and move to the west coast. The huge number of emigrants helped California break away from Mexico.

6. The Donners
George Donner was a rather wealthy man. He grew up in North Carolina. By the age of 62 he had already moved west 4 times (Kentucky, Indiana, Texas, and finally Illinois).
He brought his 44 year old wife (Tamsen) and 5 daughters aged 3-13.
His older brother Jacob also came with his wife and family.
George Donner was wealthy enough to have 3 wagons for just his family.

7. The Reeds James Reed was also wealthy enough to have three wagons.
He brought his whole family including his wife’s mother who was very sick with Tuberculosis.
His wife was not exactly healthy either, and they had lots of young children so one of his wagons was two storied, it was so big that is needed 4 teams of oxen to pull it. All this to give his family a place to ride.
He also had hired helpers, extra cows to give fresh milk, a couple of expensive horses, and tons of supplies.
He was very rich and would often ride his prized horse (Glaucus) around and show-off.

8. The Wagon Train
At first Donner and Reed were simply travelling along with a larger group of people moving west.
They had a great time except that Granny Reed died. She was old and sick, and even though it was sad, no one was really surprised.
Then one day a rider showed up with some flyers.
The flyers suggested a new trail that had been forged by Lansford Hastings .

9. The Decision
Donner and Reed who were travelling together read the flyer.
They were excited about the idea of arriving in California weeks ahead of everyone else.
As far as they were concerned Hastings could be trusted. He was a well known and educated man. He had written their book about travelling to California.
The men decided to take the new trail.
To make for a stronger wagon train they recruited others to go with them.

10. The Parting of the ways.
A few weeks later they reached the fork in the road that take them down the new road.
Some were worried about taking a new road.
What the decision makers didn’t know was that Hastings had only taken the road once. He was hoping to make it a useful road, get money from people that would buy his guidebooks, and become more famous.

11. The Parting of the ways.
Mountain man and explorer Jim Bridger built a fort in Southwest Wyoming.
The next year a new trail opened that took most of the emigrants 30 miles north of his fort.
One trail went straight west towards Oregon or California.
The other swung southwest along the old trail to Fort Bridger, after that was Hastings’ new trail which was all but unknown.
The Donner’s and Reeds said goodbye to the rest of the Wagon train, and went down the old road, that would lead them to the new Hastings’ route after a stop at the fort.

12. Why they didn’t worry…much
Hastings was on the new trail himself going back to California. He had heard about the group coming to take his trail and decided to escort them personally.
The Donner – Reed party was excited about this.
If the man was going to take the trip with them then everything would be fine.
They were to meet at Fort Bridger, just a little ways down the new road.

13. 87 people
After saying their goodbyes the group started down the old trail.
In addition the to the Donners and Reeds there were other families. Here is a quick summary
Murphy
Foster
Breen
Eddy
Keseberg
Wolfinger
MacCutcheon
There were also some single folks that were travelling with the group to start a life in California

14. At Fort Bridger
Hastings was indeed at Fort Bridger, but he had convinced some other pioneers to go down his trail, and they had already left a few days before.
This did not worry the Donners and Reeds because they hoped to catch up to him, or simply follow his trail just a few days behind.
Jim Bridger himself talked with the pioneers. He hoped that the new path would be successful because if it was then people would once again be passing by his fort, and he could make money. He encouraged them to travel into the unknown wilderness.

15. A bad omen and a bad trail.
The first day on the trail a young boy fell and broke his leg. Since the fort was only a few miles back the wagon train stopped and riders went back to the fort for help. The wagon train lost a day.
The trail swept over windy grasslands for a few days and then entered a wild canyon that echoed the sound of their wagons. The pioneers named it Echo Canyon.
Then they arrived at the Weber River near what is now Echo Reservoir.
They started down the river before realizing that the trail was going to be almost impossible to follow.

16. A trip to see Hastings
James Reed struck out alone on his horse to catch up to Hastings and seek his advice. He was gone a week, the wagon train did not move.
Reed could see that the trail through Weber Canyon would be all but impossible to follow.
When Reed caught up to Hastings the man told him not to go through Weber canyon, but push up over the mountains and use one of the better canyons to the south.

17. The wagon train moves…slowly
Reed scouted a route through a better canyon, and returned to the wagon train.
The group started along the back side of the Wasatch mountains. There was no trail. There were lots of bushes and trees that had to be cut down to make a trail.
All of the work chopping out a trail slowed the train down to two or three miles a day. The stumps left behind by the bushes also thrashed the hooves of the oxen and damaged many of the wagons.
It took the Wagon Train nearly a month to reach the place where Reed had talked to Hastings (near what is now Magna Utah).
The trail they hacked through the mountains ended up being used the next year by the Mormon Pioneers.

18. Where they should have stopped for winter.
Once the ordeal in the Wasatch was over the Wagon Train arrived in The Salt Lake Valley. Travelling through the open desert prairie was much easier, and they again made good time. It only took them a few days to cross all the way to an area near Grantsville Utah. The area had plenty of fresh water, there was grass for animals to graze on, and room to spread out. If they knew what was going to happen to them further down the trail they would have stopped here for the winter because they were already way behind the rest of the wagon train.

19. The Dry Drive
When they left the water at Grantsville they found a note left weeks before by Hastings. The note was damaged, but after some work they were able to figure out what it said.
“Two days, two nights hard drive to next water.”
They now had the desert crossing. They knew it was coming, so they stopped for the day, cut extra grass for the oxen, stocked up on extra water, and prepared for a long way with no water.
An oxen travels 8-10 miles a day, so the pioneers estimated that 2 days and 2 nights with no stops would be miles. What they did not know was that the real distance was closer to 80, and there were two mountain ranges to climb over.

20. Water troubles – A math problem
Oxen need tons of water. For 80 miles (a week’s worth of travel) a family like the Reeds with dozens of oxen, cows, and horses would need at least a thousand gallons.
Water weighs 8 ½ pounds for every gallon. A wooden wagon usually can’t handle more than about pounds of supplies.
Reed’s wagons, and everyone else’s are packed with supplies.

21. The First Day / The Second Day
The wagon train strikes out across a ten mile desert valley. At the far end of the valley they are forced to climb over a ridge of mountains that looked much smaller from far away.
What they see on the other side terrifies them.
They see nothing but desert sand stretching for 30 miles and then more mountains.
With no other choice they keep going into the night.
The group discovers that the desert floor is only a salty sandy crust.
The thin wagon wheels break through to a sandy slushy saltwater goo underneath.
The lighter wagons are able to keep going, but the huge wagons are left behind.
By the end of the second day most of the men have unhooked the oxen and begun to drive them towards water.
Reed rides ahead on his horse to the next mountain range only to find no water, on the other side, another 10 miles of desert. He takes up another night crossing the desert and finally finds water.

22. After Effects The dry drive turned out to be more than 70 miles.
Huge numbers of animals died without water.
Many animals wandered away as men and beast became more desperate to reach the water on the far side of the desert.
All in all the group spent nearly a week at the next spring. Each day men would travel on horses back into the desert to try and bring the wagons that had been left behind.
They also searched for animals, but many were never found.
Reed’s double-decker wagon, and tons of supplies were left in a desert sink hole with a tarp tied down over it, he hoped to come back the next year and get it.

23. Hard Choices / Bad Roads
With so many animals gone, the wagon train was forced to cut down on the number of wagons.
People who could barely walk now had nowhere to ride.
Much of the supplies had to be left behind. Many families had to share wagons, or purchase room for their supplies to be carried.
Many people in the grouped cached their belongings, hoping to come back for them in the spring.
The trail left by Hastings began to look like a wandering trail left by a man who had no idea where he was or what he was doing (which is exactly the truth).

24. The true enemy
Hot deserts, forest covered mountains, and no water was bad enough, but the real enemy that surfaced in the desert was hostility.
It became apparent that many people in the wagon train did not like each other. This rang true when people refused to share water, or began to charge each other for things like a ride in a wagon.
James Reed was the target of most of the hate. He was the rich guy that always showed off on his prized horse. He was the man that led them through the forest maze in the Wasatch, he was the one that convinced them to go down this dumb trail in the first place.
This hostility, bitterness, and hatred will only get worse as the group gets more desperate and they “ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” the worst is yet to come.

25. Reaching the Humboldt
The Humboldt River travels west across Nevada. It carries so little water that it never drops into a lake, it simply gets smaller and smaller until it dries up and sinks into the sand.
The group wanders in the desert following Hastings’ terrible trail until one day they find wagon tracks.
They have finally returned to the original trail, but it is late September, and the trail has grown cold.
The people they said goodbye to, the people that the new trail was supposed to help them get ahead of were months ahead of them instead. In fact, many of them had already arrived in California.
At this point they send two men ahead to get food and supplies to bring back for them.

26. Down the Humboldt
The group was sad to find out from some Indians that they were still 200 miles from the Humboldt sink.
All they could do was continue on, the same Indians that were friendly during the day, would come and steal things at night. Sometimes they would try to stampede the animals hoping some would run away. Or they would shoot arrows at the animals hoping they would die and have to left behind.
The wagon train split up with Donner and some others running one day ahead of Reed and the rest.

27. Knife - Fight
One day on the trail a guy named Snyder was riding behind another wagon going up a sandy hill.
The animals in the wagon ahead of his were having a hard time, so he jumped out and ran up to the next wagon and began whipping the animals.
James Reed ran up to try and stop him and Snyder hit him with the butt of the whip.
Snyder kept pounding on Reed, so Reed pulled a knife. The men wrestled around in the sand and when it was over Reed was bruised and bleeding, but Snyder was dead.

28. What to do with Reed
The group stopped, made camp and tried to decide what to do with Reed.
Many of them wanted to Hang him for murder. Keseberg even upturned his wagon tongue to do the hanging.
Snyder as he was dying realized that the fight was stupid and tried to forgive Reed, but many still wanted him dead.
In the end they spared his life, and decided to kick him out of the wagon train with no weapons.
He took his horse, and left, but not before some friends snuck him a pistol. He rode ahead and found a friend in the front group, and decided to go ahead to California for extra supplies because everyone was getting low, but his family was in really bad shape for food and supplies.

29. The Humboldt Sinks
Where the river dries up and disappears is called the Humboldt Sinks, because the water pretty much sinks into the sand.
After this there is one more 40 mile stretch of open desert to cross before arriving at the Truckee River.
This desert was well known, and there would be no surprises, but the group still barely made it. The Indians that were still following them, had taken many of their last animals.
By the time they reached the Truckee river some children were sucking on rocks to keep their mouths wet because no one would share water. Parents had to carry babies because the few that had wagons insist that other families pay for a ride.
William Eddy had to threaten a man with his life if he dared hold back water from his dying babies.
Understand that this was not just people looking out for their own families, this was wanton disregard for the welfare of others. These people were jealous and mean. They were looking for ways to get ahead of others and hold them back.

30. “Heaven” at the Truckee River
The Pioneers made it through the desert and found a mountain river.
The water was clear, cold, and refreshingly clean.
Along the bank of the river tasty green grass grew for the animals to eat.
It seemed that The nightmare was almost over. One last mountain chain, a well beaten road, no deserts, and only about 200 miles left to go with plenty of water, fish, grass, and animals to hunt.
To make things better Stanton, who had been sent ahead, returned from California, with two California Natives (Indians), a few mules and loads of supplies. McCutcheon had gotten sick and had to stay in California.

31. Should we stay or should we go?
The animals were nearly starved.
It was only the first days of November.
According to their guidebook (written by Hastings) snow was common in the mountains, but the road over the pass should stay open until at least the middle of December.
The group decided to stay for a few days, rest, and let the last few animals regain some strength for the final section of their journey.
It was Stanton who helped them decide to stay.

32. On the road again
After waiting a few days the group started on their way.
To make sure that the animals had enough food (and because most members of the group hated each other) they decided to spread out.
The Breens were out in front, and the Donners were in back.
Donner’s wagon broke during a stream crossing. To replace the axle, Donner and some others went into the forest to cut some wood.
While chopping wood, George Donner cut his hand open.
The group stopped. Noticing that they were now only one day from the top of the climb, they made camp early.
As they made camp the snow began to fall.

33. Getting over the pass
In the morning the snow dusted the area along the lake, but up on the pass, the snow laid at least 3 feet deep.
Afraid of being stuck, the pioneers made an attempt on the pass, only to find that the weak animals could not drag the wagons through the deep snow.
Even once they got over the pass, the mountains sloped down very slowly, and the snow only seemed to get deeper.
They turned back hoping that the next major storm would be weeks away, and the snow would melt enough to get through.

34. Several Attempts
Unfortunately for the pioneers the storms kept coming.
At first it was rain at the lake with snow on the pass, and then the snow fell at the lake too.
Soon it was many feet deep.
The pass was so tantalizingly close (a few miles) that the pioneers figured that if they could just tough it out, and get through that the snow would be easy to get through on the other side.
A number of groups tried to make it over the pass, but each one was forced to turn back.
They did not know it yet, but they were only 40 or so miles from help.

35. Over the pass
One group even made it over the pass, but they found that the mountains beyond the pass were also buried deep in snow.
At their camp on the first night it began to snow, the snow came hard and fast.
In the morning they decided that they had to turn back.
The storm that had begun snowed for over a week, and by the time it was over, the snow at the lake was deeper than a man is tall.
They were stuck, going back was out, the desert wasn’t much warmer and there was no food or water. Even to reach the warmer desert they would have to travel through deep snow. They were completely stuck!

36. In the meantime
James Reed, who had been banished, rode ahead to California. His trip had not gone well, and he nearly died of starvation.
At Sutter’s fort he met up with McCutcheon who had been sick.
The two of them got supplies and animals together and set out on a rescue trip.
They hoped to find the group bogged down in snow, but over the mountain pass.

37. Reed’s Trip
Reed pushed up the mountains. In a valley, called Bear Valley, they found a man and woman who had fallen behind a different group.
These two had gotten stuck in snow and were also near starvation.
Hoping that Reed would give up his rescue mission and help them, the man and woman may have sabotaged their trip by running off some of their animals during the night.

38. Reed’s Trip
Even though he lost many of his supplies, and some of his animals, Reed decided to continue.
He was forced to stop only 12 miles from the other side of the mountain pass.
He was a short 15 miles from the stranded Donner party, but he could not get to them. The snow was deeper than Reed was tall, so unless he sprouted wings Reed was not getting to his family or anyone else.
Reed and McCutcheon buried their supplies, and marked them with a flag. Then they turned back, brought the couple, and returned to the fort.

39. The situation in the Camp
Donner cut his hand and made camp.
He stopped about 5 miles behind the rest of the group.
The rest were camped at Truckee lake, (now Donner Lake).
If they had rationed their food, and carefully slaughtered their animals and frozen the meat, they might have been lucky enough to make it through the winter.

40. In Camp
Unfortunately the one major storm that had lasted a week dumped several feet of snow. Many animals died, and were buried under the snow. Their bodies could no longer be found
Hunting did not go well, most of the animals had gone to lower elevations to make it through the winter.
The best trip netted a bear, but the animal’s meat did not last very long spread between more than 80 people.

41. The Forlorn Hope
Hoping to make it over the pass, and take the pressure off of the left over food stores, one group decided to make snowshoes and set out without any animals and make a mad dash to the end.
17 left, some of them were fathers leaving their own children, hoping to get help, or something. One was Stanton who had already made it to safety once, and the two California Indians who had come with him. Another important member of the group was William Eddy
The snowshoes were clumsy to walk on, but they did their job.

42. Snowblind
When sunlight falls on white snow, much of it is reflected back.
The sunlight caused many of the group to go snowblind, they could hardly see.
Somewhere, just over the pass, Stanton (who had made it safely through at one time) sat down on a tree branch. He told the group to go ahead without him.
His body was found in the spring on that same pine branch 12 feet off of the ground.
William Eddy was lucky enough to find ½ pound of bear meat that his wife had snuck into his pack to help him survive the trip.

43. Lost
With the trail buried in snow and the group nearly blind they got lost.
One suggested that the next person to die should be used as food by the others.
The first one was Patrick Dolan who went crazy, tore off most of his clothes and went running into the forest.
He died a few hours later, the group found him, and making good on their promise, a few began to nibble meat from his bones.
William Eddy refused, at first but was eating human flesh after a day or two.

44. Food in the packs
4 more died that night, in the morning the survivors stripped the meat from their bodies, dried it, and took it with them.
The only rule was that people were not to eat meat from their own family members.
With the meat of 4 people to sustain them, the group actually had enough meat to last a few days

45. Christmas Just days before Christmas the grouped made camp.
They cut tree branches and made a platform on the snow.
They built the fire on top of the platform.
This kept the snow from dousing the fire, but the fire melted down through the snow until the entire group was sitting in a soggy snow pit.
One of them stood up and bumped into the fire, the whole thing fell over and went out.

46. A Storm The dousing of the fire came at the worst time.
A storm was just setting in, and they were all weak.
William Eddy helped the others climb out of the hole.
Using their blankets they tied them together, and pulled them over themselves.
The snow then buried the entire thing.
For three days (including Christmas Day) the group cowered inside of their blanket snow cave until the storm finally ended.

47. Every Man for himself
After the storm a real sense of “Every Man for Himself” crept into the camp.
They stayed together only in hopes of being around for the next to die.
Very few, if any, were motivated by actual friendly feelings toward anyone else.
One guy named Foster even began to propose killing the weakest members of the group
Foster slowly went more and more crazy until the group was forced to make someone stay up and keep watch in case he got hungry in the middle of the night.

48. Cannabalism
After being stuck in the snow cave for that long the food was once again gone.
In the evening the members of the group discussed murdering and eating the California Indians who had come from Sutter’s fort to rescue the group back when they were at the Truckee River.
Foster was really in favor of the plan, and got the gun ready for the deed.
The two Indians, Luis and Salvador, were warned by William Eddy, and they took off in the middle of the night. Of 17, only 9 remained.

49. The Indians
Just days after they ran for it, the group came across the Indians.
They were near death, and even though William Eddy, tried to save them, they two were shot, and chopped up.
Some historians claim that the Indians were actually rather healthy when they were killed.
Either way, they had been murdered by those they had once saved.

50. The Foster Couple
Mr. Foster and his wife slowly fell behind the rest of the group.
Some of the rest of the other decided to go back to find them because they had heard that the Fosters had lots of money, and they wanted to rob the corpses. They also hoped for more food from their bodies.
They found Mrs. Foster alive, but they cut the meat from Mr. Foster while she watched.

51. Safety
After a few more days of wandering the 7 remaining snowshoers found the snow to be much shallower.
They made better time, until finally they stumbled into an Indian camp.
The Indians, terrified at first of these starving white people, fed them, and then led them to a white settlement that was still 50 miles from Sutter’s fort. Their ordeal was over, they were saved, it had taken them 33 days to travel a distance that should have been covered in 7-8 days.

52. William Eddy
Mr. Eddy was obviously the unofficial leader of the snowshoers.
As soon as he was healthy enough to stumble he told his rescuers that he had to get to Sutter’s Fort.
Upon reaching Sutter’s fort he met with Captain Sutter and begged him to send people into the mountains to rescue his family and the others.

53. Captain Sutter responds
The Donner Party picked a bad time to get stuck because America was right in the middle of the Mexican-American war.
All of the able bodied men were involved in the war.
James Reed had even had to help in a few battles in exchange for securing help from a couple of men.
When William Eddy told his story the people of California responded with money, men, and supplies.
On February 4th they were ready to go.
Heavy rains in the valley and incredibly deep snow kept them from getting to the camp until February 18th.

54. Caching food
As the rescue party was climbing up the mountains they were burying caches of food.
The main reason was so that they would not have to carry all of the food all the way to the camp.
They also wanted the food available for the trip home, and they were afraid that the starving people would tear into all of the food like animals.

55. The first rescue group
On February 18th the rescuers finally reached the snow cabins.
They were greeted by Mrs. Murphy who said “Are you men from California, or from heaven.
They passed out small amounts of food and also went to visit the Donner’s who were down the trail a ways.
Over the next few hours they collected 23 people who were healthy enough to travel. 29 more were left behind with supplies.

56. If you never see me again, do the best you can.
Upon starting up the pass, it quickly became apparent that some of the little kids were too weak to climb the trail.
Two of the Reed children were sent back to live with the Breens who refused to let them in. After being given extra food they allowed them.
Margaret Reed was forced to leave 2 of her children behind. Her 10 year old daughter Patty told her mom, “Well, Mother, if you never see me again, do the best you can.

57. No Food, again
At the first cache the rescuers and the victims found out that animals had broken into the cache and eaten most of the food.
Two people died that night. One of the Keseberg children, and John Denton.
As they began walking again the next day little children began nibbling on the dear-skin pants of one of the rescuers.

58. A happy reunion
A few days into the hike the group came upon another rescue crew coming up the mountains.
This group was led by James Reed himself.
When Margaret heard her husband’s voice for the first time in months she simply sat in the snow and sobbed.
She then gave him the news that 2 of their kids were still back at camp. James decided to go on to the camp and rescue his kids.
Throughout the entire ordeal, not a single Reed family member died.

59. Second Relief
James Reed arrive at the camp and there was evidence of cannibalism everywhere.
The remaining people were in bad shape.
He continued down the stream to check on the Donners who have also begun to eat the dead.
He is of course disgusted by what he sees and begins to put together a group to walk out.

60. 17 more people leave
Reed gathers 17 people to leave. Those remaining behind are little children or others who are too sick to leave.
The Donners stay behind. At the other camp everyone is gathered into one cabin with Keseberg.
Reed guides his 17 survivors, but they are caught in a blizzard after leaving camp and a few more people die before the storm is through with them. They are actually rescued by the next group of rescuers led by William Eddy.
Reed and his men inform Eddy that his wife had died. He now only has one son. That son was alive and relatively healthy a few days before when they had left.

61. If I ever see you again… I’ll kill you
James Reed left the camp on March 3, William Eddy arrived on March 13 (ten days later).
The first thing he does is go to the cabin where his son is supposed to be.
When he arrives he finds only one person still alive, Keseberg.
Keseberg, is not exactly physically fit, but he is very healthy. He is well fed and a pot of human- stew is boiling over the fire.
William Eddy instantly realizes that Keseberg probably killed his son (and a few other people) and has been feasting on their bodies.
In anger he grabs Keseberg, lifts him off the floor and is about to kill him.
At this point the other men in the group restrain him, and Eddy says to Keseberg “If I ever see you again in California, I will kill you!”

62. Left for the winter
The men next check on the Donners. Tamsen is in good health, but her husband is dying from the infection in his hand.
She refuses to leave him, but everyone else who had been at their camp is sent out with the rescuers.
When William Eddy’s group leaves only three people are left behind.
Louis Keseberg, Tamsen Donner, and George Donner

63. In the Spring
No one else goes to the camp until April 17th. When they get there only Louis Keseberg is still alive.
George Donner had died of his hand infection and Tamsen was nowhere to be found.
History does not tell us what happened to Tamsen Donner, but let me give you my theory.

64. My Theory, and most everybody else’s
George Donner was a rich man. It was well known that we was travelling with quite a bit of money.
George Donner was sick, nearly dead. His wife Tamsen was healthy enough to survive the winter, but not in great shape.
Louis Keseberg was healthy after feasting on human flesh and loads of supplies left by the rescuers.
Louis Keseberg was not a good man!
I’m sure you can figure out the rest!!!
Keseberg is rescued by the last group, he reaches Sutter’s fort on April 29th.

65. A Nation Reacts
The rest of the country was terrified by what they heard. The miserable Donner party tale scared people away from moving to California for a few years until they found gold there.
One group who did benefit from the Donner-Reed party was the Mormon pioneers. They were able to use the road that the Donner party cut through the Wasatch the very next year in This road made it much easier to reach Salt Lake City.

66. Patty Reed’s Doll
When the Reed family had to leave their wagon behind near the Great Salt Lake the children were told by their dad that they could not bring anything.
Little Patty Reed had a doll. Her dad told her that she would have to leave it behind.
She disobeyed him and hid it in the ruffles of here dress.
That same doll was with her for the rest of the horrible journey and is now on display in a museum in Northern California

67. Back to Life
For most of the group life slowly returned to normal. They moved on with their lives.
In 1848 and 1849 hundreds of thousands of people began travelling the same trail the Donners had used.
These folks were looking for gold. Many people who had survived the Donner tragedy became rich when they opened businesses to supply the gold diggers
William Eddy never hunted down Keseberg.
James Reed started a town south of San Fransisco called San Jose. Many of the town’s streets are named after his children.

68. Donner Lake A statue was placed at Donner lake as a memorial.
The line shows how deep the snow got that winter.