The Donner Party
The Donner Party was not the Donner Party when it headed west. It was part of a much larger emigrant train that split and joined many times. While crossing the Continental Divide at South Pass, Wyoming, the train got word of a new route to California. Lansford W. Hastings had written a book describing the route to California, and he recommended a cutoff through Fort Bridger that would save over 300 miles.
George Donner was elected captain of the train. He was accompanied by his family and his brother's family. Also joining the train, were the Reed family, the Murphy family, the Breen family, several hired hands, and a few German families. The party headed out from the Little Sandy River on July 20, 1846. After 28 uneventful days, they reached Fort Bridger.
Hastings was not there to meet them, but had already gone on with another wagon train. The Donner Party decided to go on, but rested for four days, feeding the cattle and making minor repairs. They left on July 31.
Almost right away they came to an impassable canyon. They had to take an alternate route across the Wasatch Mountains. It took several days of hacking through brush up and down several slopes and then through several canyons. Each small distance had to be hacked through. They finally made it over the first mountain on August 20. It took another week to hack their way over another mountain. By then it was dangerously late in the season and supplies were already running low.
Then they came to the "dry drive." They spent the next day preparing, with a long rest for the cattle, filling every container with water, cooking in advance, and cutting grass for the animals. They started out on September 3. It was a very hard drive. Several times they had to cross bare volcanic mountains. They had to plow through sand dunes horribly hard for the oxen. Many had to abandon their wagons. Some lost cattle and oxen. Some supplies had to be transferred to other wagons.
Two men, Stanton and McCutchen were sent ahead to Sutter's Mill for help. They didn't realize how far from California they still were. On September 30, the Donners finally reached the Humboldt River and joined the main California Trail. The water didn't taste very good, but any water was preferable. Grass was scanty this late in the season. Game was less plentiful. A disagreement between Reed and John Snyder led to Reed killing Snyder. As punishment he was banished from the train and sent ahead.
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