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The Donner Party: The Trail of Death · Ghost stories and the Unusual Paranormal podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: There are stories everywhere you go, some more horrifying than others.
0:05
Speaker 1: We're here to investigate the stories. This is Ghost Stories
0:10
Speaker 1: and Nothing Unusual Paranormal Podcasts with your host, Joe the
0:15
Speaker 1: Ghost God.
0:18
Speaker 2: Last episode of Ghost Stories and the Paranormal Podcast, Joe
0:22
Speaker 2: the Ghost Guy and the crew travel to Alcatraz Island
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Speaker 2: to visit with the ghost that resides there. This week's
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Speaker 2: episode takes them on a pass where danger and death
0:30
Speaker 2: met up with the last group who traveled this past.
0:33
Speaker 2: Will the crew experience the same fae tune and as
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Speaker 2: they traveled a historical and deadly dinner pass.
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Speaker 3: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Where we are across
0:46
Speaker 3: the country and around the world. You are listening to
0:50
Speaker 3: Ghost Stories and the Unusual Paranormal Podcast. I am indeed
0:55
Speaker 3: your host with the Ghost Show, the Ghost Guy. Hope
1:00
Speaker 3: everyone's having a good weekend and enjoying the football season.
1:05
Speaker 3: Would it be the NFL, or it would be the
1:10
Speaker 3: euro League, the Premier League? And hope all your guys
1:15
Speaker 3: as their teams are winning. I know some of mine
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Speaker 3: one and some of mine lost, but I'm still a
1:24
Speaker 3: fan no matter what. And hope everyone's enjoying it. And
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Speaker 3: on today's episode, we're going to travel a certain paths
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Speaker 3: or used to be a pass. Now it's a highway
1:46
Speaker 3: into the Sierra Nevadas called the Donner Pass. And to
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Speaker 3: everyone's discretion, the following episode may contain some graphic stories
2:09
Speaker 3: about tantalismum and other frightful stories that may not be
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Speaker 3: suitable for young listeners. Viewers' discretion is advice, and now
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Speaker 3: on today's story. The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donna
2:35
Speaker 3: Reed Party, where a group of American pioneers who immigrated
2:41
Speaker 3: to California in a wagon train from Midwest to Midwest.
2:48
Speaker 3: Delayed from the multitude of mishaps, they spent the winner
2:54
Speaker 3: of nineteen forty six nineteen forty seven snow bound in
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Speaker 3: the Sierra Nevadas. Some of the immigrants resorted to cannibalism
3:04
Speaker 3: to survive, mainly eating the bodies of the of those
3:09
Speaker 3: who had succumbed to starvation, sickness, or extreme cold, but
3:17
Speaker 3: in one case, two Native American guides were murdered and eaten.
3:24
Speaker 3: The Donner Party or obtained or originated from Springfield, Illinois,
3:35
Speaker 3: and departed ill Independence, Missouri on the Oregon Trail in
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Speaker 3: the spring of eighteen forty six. The journey west usually
3:48
Speaker 3: took between four six months. The Donner party was slowed
3:53
Speaker 3: after elected to follow the new route called the Eastings
4:00
Speaker 3: cut Off, which bypassed established trails and instead crossing the
4:10
Speaker 3: Rocky mountains was Such Range and the Great Salt Lake
4:16
Speaker 3: Desert in present day Utah. The desolate and rugged terrain
4:23
Speaker 3: and difficulties day later encountered while traveling along the Humboldt
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Speaker 3: River in present day Nevada resulted in the loss of
4:36
Speaker 3: many cattle and wagons, and diversions soon followed when they
4:42
Speaker 3: are within the group. By the early November, the irant
4:48
Speaker 3: the migrants had reached the Sierra Nevadas, but came trapped
4:54
Speaker 3: by an early heavy snowfall near Trucky Lake now it's
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Speaker 3: called the Donner Lake. High in the mountains. Their food
5:05
Speaker 3: supplies ran dangerously low, and in mid December some of
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Speaker 3: the groups set out on foot to obtain help. Rescuers
5:14
Speaker 3: from California attempt to reach the migrants, but the first
5:19
Speaker 3: relief fire did not arrive until mid mid of February
5:25
Speaker 3: of eighteen forty seven, almost four months after the wagon
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Speaker 3: trip came trapped. Of the eighty seven members of the
5:34
Speaker 3: party forty eight survived. Historians have described the episode as
5:41
Speaker 3: one of the most fascinating tragedies in California history and
5:47
Speaker 3: in record of the American westward migration. During the eighteen forties,
5:54
Speaker 3: there was a dramatic increase in settlers leaving the East
5:59
Speaker 3: to settle in organ territory or in California, which at
6:04
Speaker 3: the time were accessible only by a very long sea
6:09
Speaker 3: voyage or detained overland journey. Some, such as Patrick Breen,
6:19
Speaker 3: saw California, then a part of the part of Mexico,
6:24
Speaker 3: as a place where they should be free to live
6:27
Speaker 3: in a fully Catholic culture. Others were attracted to the
6:33
Speaker 3: West veraging economic opportunities, or impoured by manifest destiny. The
6:47
Speaker 3: brief the belief was that the land between the Atlantic
6:53
Speaker 3: and Pacific Oceans belonged to the European Americans that they
6:59
Speaker 3: should it. Most of the wagon trains followed the Oregon
7:05
Speaker 3: Trail route from starting point Independence, Missouri, to the Continental Divide,
7:13
Speaker 3: traveling about fifteen miles or twenty four kilo miles a
7:18
Speaker 3: day on a journey that usually takes between four to
7:22
Speaker 3: six months to travel. The trail rigially flowed rivers into
7:32
Speaker 3: the South Pass, a mountain pass and present day Wyoming,
7:37
Speaker 3: which is relatively easy for wagons to navigate. From there,
7:44
Speaker 3: Pioneers had a choice of routes to their destinations. Lansford Hastings,
7:52
Speaker 3: an early immigrant from Ohio to the West, published the
7:57
Speaker 3: Immigrant Skye to What to Oregon and California to engage
8:04
Speaker 3: settlers as an alternative to the Oregon's Trails standard route
8:11
Speaker 3: through the Idaho Snake River Plain. He proposed that the
8:16
Speaker 3: mirror direct route was actually increased the trips collage by
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Speaker 3: twenty by one hundred and twenty five miles to California
8:26
Speaker 3: across the Great Basin, which would take the travelers through
8:32
Speaker 3: Wassatch Range across the Great Salt Lake Desert. Hastings had
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Speaker 3: not traveled any part of this proposed shortcut until early
8:45
Speaker 3: eighteen forty six, on a trip to California to Fort
8:49
Speaker 3: Bridger and sent a scent supply station run by Jim
8:56
Speaker 3: Bridger at Black Four, Wyoming. Hastings stayed at the fort
9:05
Speaker 3: to pursue travelers to turn south on his route. As
9:12
Speaker 3: of eighteen forty six, Hastings was a second person documented
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Speaker 3: to have crossed the southern part of the Great Salt
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Speaker 3: Lake desert, but neither have been accomplished by wagons. Arguably
9:30
Speaker 3: the most difficult part of the journey to California was
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Speaker 3: at least one hundred miles or one hundred and sixty
9:40
Speaker 3: kilograms are killed miles across Sire in Nevada. This mountain
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Speaker 3: range has five hundred direct peaks over twelve thousand feet
9:52
Speaker 3: or three thousand, seven hundred meters high, and because of
9:59
Speaker 3: its high height and approximately of the Pacific Ocean, the
10:04
Speaker 3: range receives more snow the most ranges in North America.
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Speaker 3: The eastern side of the range to sere ex treatment
10:18
Speaker 3: is notable noticely steep. After a wagon train left Missouri
10:26
Speaker 3: for Oregon for California, time was crucial encounter would not
10:31
Speaker 3: be bogged down by mud created by the spring rains
10:35
Speaker 3: or massive snow drifts in the mountains from September onward,
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Speaker 3: and that horses and oxen had enough spring grass to eat.
10:48
Speaker 3: In the spring of eighteen forty six, almost five hundred
10:51
Speaker 3: wagons headed west from Independence to the nearer The train,
10:58
Speaker 3: a group of nine wagons contained thirty two members of
11:02
Speaker 3: the reb and Donner families and their employees, left on
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Speaker 3: May's twelve. George Donner was about sixty years old and
11:14
Speaker 3: living near Springfield, Illinois. With him was his forty four
11:18
Speaker 3: year old wife Camsman and three daughters, Francis who was six,
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Speaker 3: George who was four, and Eliza was three, and George's
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Speaker 3: daughters from the previous marriage, elitha fourteen and Leanna twelve.
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Speaker 3: George's younger brother, Jacob fifty six during the party with
11:44
Speaker 3: his wife Elizabeth, who was forty five, stepsons Solomon Hook
11:53
Speaker 3: which is fourteen, and William Hook which was twelve, and
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Speaker 3: five children and children. George was nine, Mary of seven,
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Speaker 3: Isaac was six, Elis is four, and Samuel was one.
12:09
Speaker 3: Also traveling the Donner parties with the Donners brothers and
12:14
Speaker 3: teamsters Ohiram o'miller twenty nine, Samuel Shoemaker twenty five, Noah
12:22
Speaker 3: James sixteen, Charles Berger thirty, John Dayton twenty eight, and
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Speaker 3: Augustus Spritzer thirty. James F. Freed forty five, was accompanied
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Speaker 3: by the on the journey by his wife Margaret thirty two,
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Speaker 3: stepdaughter Virginia h thirteen, daughter Martha Jane Patty h eight,
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Speaker 3: sons James and James and Thomas five and three, and
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Speaker 3: Sarah Keys Margaret's other Margaret's mother Keys, was in advanced
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Speaker 3: stages of tuberke osis and had died at campsite. They
13:10
Speaker 3: named all close springs. She was buried nearby outside the
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Speaker 3: trail with a gray rock. Inscribe Missus Sarah Keys died
13:22
Speaker 3: May twenty ninth, eighteen forty six, aged seventy. An additional
13:27
Speaker 3: leaving financial worries behind, Reid hoped that the California's climate
13:34
Speaker 3: would help Margaret, who had a long suffer from the
13:38
Speaker 3: ill health. The Reids hired three men to drive the
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Speaker 3: team by the Tima boxing Milford or Milt Elliott h.
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Speaker 3: Twenty eight, James Smith aged twenty five, and Walter here
13:56
Speaker 3: In h. Twenty five I suppose and Williams a virus.
14:02
Speaker 3: Williams h. Twenty four went along the handyman and his
14:07
Speaker 3: sister Eliza h. Twenty five at the family's crook as
14:14
Speaker 3: the family's cook. But then a week of leaving Independence,
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Speaker 3: three Donners were joining the group of fifty wagons, normally
14:24
Speaker 3: led by William H. Russell. By June sixteenth, the company
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Speaker 3: was traveled had traveled one hundred and forty five miles.
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Speaker 3: I'm sorry traveled four hundred and fifty miles or seven
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Speaker 3: hundred and twenty kilogram kill miles, with two hundred miles
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Speaker 3: or three hundred and twenty kill miles to go before
14:48
Speaker 3: Fort Laramie. He had been delayed by rain and rising river.
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Speaker 3: But the Thamesen Donner wrote to a friend in Springfield, Indeed,
15:02
Speaker 3: if I do not experience something far worse than I
15:07
Speaker 3: have done yet, I shall say that in trouble is
15:15
Speaker 3: trouble is all in getting started. Young Virginia Reed recalled
15:22
Speaker 3: years later that during the first part of the trip
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Speaker 3: she was perfectly happy. Several other families joined the wagon
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Speaker 3: train along the way. Levia Murphy H. Thirty seven, a
15:38
Speaker 3: widow of Tennessee and a family of thirteen. Her five
15:43
Speaker 3: youngest children were John Laterum sixteen, Mariam or Mary H. Fourteen,
15:53
Speaker 3: Lemuel twelve, William ten, and Simon eight. Two married daughters
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Speaker 3: and their families also came along. Sarah Murphy's foster aged nineteen,
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Speaker 3: her husband William M. Age thirty, and son Jeremiah George
16:14
Speaker 3: age one, Parrett Murphy Pike age eighteen, her husband William M.
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Speaker 3: Thirty two, and the other daughters, Naomi three and Kathleen
16:25
Speaker 3: aged one. William H. Eddie twenty eight, a carriage maker
16:32
Speaker 3: from Illinois, taught his wife Eleanor twenty five and their
16:37
Speaker 3: two children, James three and Margaret won. The Bean family
16:43
Speaker 3: consists of Patrick Bean aged fifty one, a farmer from Iowa,
16:50
Speaker 3: and his wife, Margaret or Peggy, aged forty seven children,
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Speaker 3: John h fourteen, Edward thirteen, Patrick Jr. Nine, Simon nine,
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Speaker 3: James five, Peter three eleven month old Isabelle, their neighbor
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Speaker 3: four you old bachelor Patrick Dolan. Dolan traveled with them.
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Speaker 3: German immigrant Lewis kick Hitsenberg thirty two joined along with
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Speaker 3: his wife Elizabeth Phillippe of Filippine twenty two and daughter
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Speaker 3: Edna h.
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Speaker 1: Two.
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Speaker 3: Son Lewis Junior was born on the trail. Two young
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Speaker 3: single men named Spitzer and Ryan Hoold traveled with another
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Speaker 3: German couple and wolf wolfingers who were were were more
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Speaker 3: to to a wealthy They also were hired driver Dutch
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Speaker 3: Charlie Berger. An older man named Hardcoop rode with them
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Speaker 3: with uh Luke hole run and young man a young
18:14
Speaker 3: man with tuberculos is cold no longer who rides rode horseback,
18:21
Speaker 3: and the families had been traveling no longer than resources
18:26
Speaker 3: could care. I care for them. He was taken in
18:31
Speaker 3: by George Donner and Little Sandy River and rode their wagon. Well,
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Speaker 3: that's a lot of groups, folks, a lot of names.
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Speaker 3: Sorry if they end up uh stomball across those names.
18:48
Speaker 3: Those were long names in that party. To promote his
18:55
Speaker 3: new route, the Hastings cut Off, lands Ford, Hastings sent
19:02
Speaker 3: writers to deliver letters to the traveling migrants. On July twelfth,
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Speaker 3: the Reeds and Donners were given one Hastings Warren of
19:13
Speaker 3: the immigrants they could respect opposition from the Mexican authorities
19:21
Speaker 3: in California, and advised them to bend together in large troops.
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Speaker 3: He also claimed they have worked out a new and
19:30
Speaker 3: better road to California and said that they were waiting
19:35
Speaker 3: at Fort Bridger to guide the immigrants along the new
19:38
Speaker 3: cut off. On July twentieth, the Little Sandy River most
19:44
Speaker 3: of the wagon train op to follow the established travel
19:49
Speaker 3: via Fort Hall. A smaller group up to head Fort
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Speaker 3: Bridger and needed a leader. Most of the younger men
19:58
Speaker 3: in the group. Where you're he immigrants, I cannot consider
20:04
Speaker 3: ideal leaders. James Reed. I lived in the US for
20:09
Speaker 3: consistible time but was older than and had military experience.
20:16
Speaker 3: But his a music attitude had rubbed many parties the
20:21
Speaker 3: wrong way. They saw him as egoistic. Egotistic, that's the
20:33
Speaker 3: word I'm trying to read. Erotistic, impompreous, and contenctious. Mean
20:43
Speaker 3: he was full of himself and he was paying the ass.
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Speaker 3: That's what it primis falls down to. By comfort, by
20:53
Speaker 3: the composition of nature experience of American board Donners peaceful
21:00
Speaker 3: and charitable nature made him the group's first choice. While
21:05
Speaker 3: the members of the party were comfortably well up by
21:13
Speaker 3: contrary standards, most of them were experienced in long, difficult
21:19
Speaker 3: and overland travel. Additionally, the members of the party had
21:24
Speaker 3: little knowledge about the how intract how to interact with
21:32
Speaker 3: the North Americans or the Native Americans. Journalists Edward Bryant
21:40
Speaker 3: reached Blacks Four the week it had the Donner party.
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Speaker 3: He saw the first part of the trail was concerned
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Speaker 3: that it could be difficult for the wagons and the
21:52
Speaker 3: Donner's group, especially with so many women and children. He
21:57
Speaker 3: returned to the Blacks Four to have to leave letters
22:01
Speaker 3: warning several members of the group not to take Caston's shortcut.
22:07
Speaker 3: By the time the Donner party reached Fox four on
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Speaker 3: July twenty seven. Hastings had already left, leeing the forty
22:17
Speaker 3: wagons of the Harlan Young Group because of Jim Bridger's
22:25
Speaker 3: trading posts of wood Fair substanutely better people use the
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Speaker 3: Hastings cutoff. Bridger told the party that the shortcut was
22:38
Speaker 3: a smooth trip. Well, of course, George, if everyone ends
22:44
Speaker 3: up knowing that Jim Bridger and is and is if not,
22:55
Speaker 3: Jim Bridger likes to tell long tails and exaggerates the
23:02
Speaker 3: truth a lot, and uh, a lot of them didn't.
23:06
Speaker 3: A lot of people didn't like Jim Bridger because like
23:10
Speaker 3: like you said, oh, yeah, it's it's smooth, it'll it'll go,
23:14
Speaker 3: you know, it'll you know, drive ight by there and
23:18
Speaker 3: it be you know, he won't be rocky, it'd be
23:21
Speaker 3: smooth party and kind of find out that it wasn't.
23:27
Speaker 3: And all through a lot of us it was a
23:32
Speaker 3: mountain man. A lot of the mountain men pretty much
23:36
Speaker 3: hated him, and most of them wanted to kill him
23:40
Speaker 3: because he never told the truth, and if he did,
23:45
Speaker 3: you wouldn't could you couldn't tell what the truth was
23:48
Speaker 3: or the life is. But he told him the short
23:52
Speaker 3: cut was smooth and and devoted a rugged country a hostile.
23:58
Speaker 3: A rugged country a hostile Nati Americans would shorten their
24:02
Speaker 3: journey by three hundred and fifty miles or five hundred
24:06
Speaker 3: and sixty killo miles. Well, our water would be easy
24:11
Speaker 3: to find along the way, although a couple of days
24:14
Speaker 3: crossing a thirty to four mile or forty eight to
24:18
Speaker 3: sixty four kill miles dre leaked bed lake bed was dry,
24:26
Speaker 3: would be necessary. Reed was very impressed with his information
24:31
Speaker 3: and evinced the Hastings cutoff. None of the party receive
24:36
Speaker 3: Berlin's letters in the In the Diary account, Berland states
24:42
Speaker 3: the conviction of the Bridge or Bridger just liberty concerned
24:49
Speaker 3: to letters. Well, Bright wasn't pret pret much. He wasn't
24:59
Speaker 3: like Bridge or how he ended up. He end up
25:03
Speaker 3: concealed the letters and a view shortened by Reed. In
25:09
Speaker 3: his later testimony at Fort Larami, Read met an old friend,
25:15
Speaker 3: James Clayman, who was coming from California. Claimant warned Read
25:21
Speaker 3: not to take the Comings cut off, telling him that
25:27
Speaker 3: the wagons were not able to make it, that the
25:30
Speaker 3: Hastings information was inaccurate. Somebody tried to tell him don't
25:36
Speaker 3: go there. Uh, you know, the Hastings cutoff is not
25:41
Speaker 3: a cutoff. It's it's not a short cut. It's a
25:44
Speaker 3: long cut, and you can get yourself in a lot
25:48
Speaker 3: of trouble. Don't take it, you know, go back to
25:51
Speaker 3: the you know, the Organ trail or or whatever trail.
25:56
Speaker 3: You know, it's easy for you guys.
26:01
Speaker 1: Well.
26:01
Speaker 3: Phil pioneer Jesse Quinn Tomlin traveled part of the way
26:08
Speaker 3: of the Donner read Party and from his book from
26:13
Speaker 3: Oregon and California Oregon. In California in eighteen forty eight,
26:20
Speaker 3: he claimed Hastings and Baron Muchison travelers in these countries.
26:30
Speaker 3: Cousband Donner, according to her, According to Thornton, was gloomy,
26:38
Speaker 3: set and dispirited that the thought of turning off the
26:45
Speaker 3: main trail in advance of Hastings, whom had considered a
26:51
Speaker 3: selfish adventure. You and you know, missus Donner say no,
26:59
Speaker 3: I'm not really like this. Uh, you know, we're I
27:04
Speaker 3: have a bad point about this right and taking this
27:09
Speaker 3: road is it selfish adventure? I should have learned, should
27:15
Speaker 3: have listened to a premonition. On July thirty first, eighteen
27:20
Speaker 3: forty six, the Donner Party left blax four after four
27:25
Speaker 3: days of rest and Wagner repairs, seven days behind the
27:30
Speaker 3: leading Herolin Young group. Donnor had hired replacement driver, and
27:37
Speaker 3: the company was joined by mc cut glenn, family assistant
27:43
Speaker 3: of William aged thirty, his wife Amanda twenty four, and
27:48
Speaker 3: their two year old daughter Harriet, and sixteen year old
27:53
Speaker 3: named Jean baps s baps Tit Trebruzzo from New Mexico,
28:02
Speaker 3: who claimed to have knowledge of the Native Americans and
28:06
Speaker 3: terrain to have to the way to California. The party
28:13
Speaker 3: turned south to follow the Hastings cut off. Within days,
28:17
Speaker 3: they found the train to be much more difficult than described.
28:23
Speaker 3: Travelers were forced to lock the wheels and their wagons
28:26
Speaker 3: to prevent them from rolling down the steep inclines. Your
28:31
Speaker 3: years of traffic on the main Oregon trail had left
28:35
Speaker 3: the easily and oblous path, whereas the cutoff was more
28:41
Speaker 3: difficult to find. The Hastings wrote decoration, Hastings wrote directions
28:50
Speaker 3: and left letters doctor Trees. On August sixth, the party
28:55
Speaker 3: found a letter from him ever advising them to stop
29:01
Speaker 3: and could uh show them the alternate route and they
29:08
Speaker 3: could be taken by the hern Young party reads Charles T.
29:17
Speaker 3: Stutton and William Pike road head to the Hastings. They
29:24
Speaker 3: encountered uh exceedingly difficult canyons on their on their bowlders
29:34
Speaker 3: and boulders to be removed, and walls cut off precisely
29:40
Speaker 3: into a river below, and route likely to break wagons
29:46
Speaker 3: and his letter Hastings had offered to guide the dinner
29:50
Speaker 3: party around were more difficult. Around the more difficult areas,
29:56
Speaker 3: but the road he by he rode back only part
30:01
Speaker 3: in came the general direction to follow. Stratton and Pike
30:06
Speaker 3: stuffed the rest and re returned alan to the group,
30:11
Speaker 3: arriving four days after the party's departure without the guide
30:16
Speaker 3: of they had been promised. The group had de cited
30:20
Speaker 3: whether to turn back and rejoin the traditional group. All
30:25
Speaker 3: the tracks left by the Carolyn Young party, all though difficult,
30:31
Speaker 3: train of Weber Canyon and forded their own trail in
30:36
Speaker 3: the direction of the Hastings that had recommend at Reid's Burging. Urging,
30:44
Speaker 3: the group chose to the new Hastings route. There are
30:50
Speaker 3: progress slowly, but with one and a half miles two
30:57
Speaker 3: point four kill miles a day, all able bodied men
31:02
Speaker 3: were required to clear bush for all the trees heavy
31:07
Speaker 3: rocks to make room for the wagons. As the Daughter
31:11
Speaker 3: Party made its way across the westside range of the
31:15
Speaker 3: Rocky Mountains, the Graves family, who had set off to
31:20
Speaker 3: find them, reached them. They concerned of Franklin war Graves
31:25
Speaker 3: fifty seven, his wife Elizabeth forty five, their children, May
31:30
Speaker 3: Mary H twenty, Jim William age eighteen, Eleanor H. Fifteen,
31:38
Speaker 3: Levin Lovina H. Thirteen, Nancy nine, Jonathan seven, Franklin Junior
31:45
Speaker 3: h five, Elizabeth Ie and married daughter Sarah twenty two,
31:51
Speaker 3: a son in law j. Crosstic h. Twenty three, and
31:57
Speaker 3: a copher old teamster John Snyder, traveling together three wagons.
32:05
Speaker 3: The arrival brought the Donner party to eighty seven members
32:11
Speaker 3: on the in sixty to eighty wagons. That's a lot
32:16
Speaker 3: of people. They kept growing and growing. The Greys family
32:24
Speaker 3: have been part of the last group to leave Missouri,
32:28
Speaker 3: confirming that the Daughter Party was at the back of
32:32
Speaker 3: the year's western exodus. It was August twentieth by the
32:39
Speaker 3: time that they reached the pass of the mountains where
32:42
Speaker 3: they could see the Great Salt Lake. It took almost
32:46
Speaker 3: another two weeks travel out of the Wahsatch range. The
32:51
Speaker 3: main began arguing, and doubts were expressed about the wisdom
32:59
Speaker 3: of who had chosen this route, in particular read food
33:05
Speaker 3: and supplies began to run out for some of the
33:08
Speaker 3: less efficient CIS efficient families. Yeah, I wonder why Stanton
33:16
Speaker 3: and Pike had written out with all red but became
33:24
Speaker 3: lost on their way back. By the time the party
33:27
Speaker 3: found them, there were a day away from eating their
33:30
Speaker 3: own horses.
33:33
Speaker 1: Not good.
33:36
Speaker 3: Luke Horan died of tuberculosis on April twenty fifth. On
33:43
Speaker 3: August twenty fifth, a few days later, the party became
33:48
Speaker 3: across a tathered letter from Hastings. The pieces indicated that
33:55
Speaker 3: there were two days and two nights of difficult travel
33:59
Speaker 3: had without or water. The party rested their oxen and
34:03
Speaker 3: prepared for the trip. After thirty six hours they set
34:08
Speaker 3: off to Travelers. A thousand a thousand foot or a
34:15
Speaker 3: three hundred meters mountain in their path. From its peaks
34:19
Speaker 3: they saw had a dry, barren plane, perfectly flat and
34:27
Speaker 3: covered with the white salt, linger larger than one they
34:34
Speaker 3: could just cross, and one of the most impossible places
34:41
Speaker 3: on Earth going to to rod Rick. Their oxen were
34:47
Speaker 3: already fatigued and their water was nearly gone. The daughter
34:52
Speaker 3: party pressed forward on August thirtieth, having no alternative. In
34:59
Speaker 3: the heat of the day and the moisture underneath the
35:02
Speaker 3: salt crust rose the surface that turned into be gummy mass.
35:09
Speaker 3: The wagon will sink into it, and some cases up
35:14
Speaker 3: to the hubs. Basically they were it was getting mugged down.
35:20
Speaker 3: The days were brutally hot, and the knights were frigid.
35:27
Speaker 3: Several of the group saw visions of lakes and wagon trains,
35:34
Speaker 3: believed that they had finally overtooken Hastings. Ah, that's called mirage,
35:40
Speaker 3: and that will get you in trouble more. After three
35:44
Speaker 3: days the water was gone. Some of the party removed
35:48
Speaker 3: their removed their oxen and wagons to press ahead to
35:55
Speaker 3: find more. Some of the animals were so weakened they
35:59
Speaker 3: were left yoke and the wagons abandoned. Nine of the
36:04
Speaker 3: reeds ten oxen broke free, crazed with thirst, and bolted
36:11
Speaker 3: off to the desert. Many of the families, cattle, and
36:15
Speaker 3: horses went missing. The journey apparently damaged some of the wagons,
36:22
Speaker 3: and no human lives were lost. Yet, instead of the
36:28
Speaker 3: promised two day journey, over forty miles or sixty four
36:33
Speaker 3: killed miles. The journey cross eighteen miles or one hundred
36:37
Speaker 3: and thirty killed miles of the streat Saltway desert took
36:41
Speaker 3: six None of the party and many None of the
36:47
Speaker 3: party had any remain in faith and hastings cut off
36:52
Speaker 3: as they received at the springs on the other side
36:56
Speaker 3: of the desert. They spent several days trying to recover cattle,
37:00
Speaker 3: retrieved the wagons up to the desert and transfer their
37:04
Speaker 3: food and splice to another wagons. Reed's family occurred the
37:11
Speaker 3: heaviest losses, and Red became more aggressive, asking all the
37:18
Speaker 3: families to smit an inventory of their goods and food
37:22
Speaker 3: to him. He suggested that two men should go to
37:28
Speaker 3: Sutler's four in California. He had heard that John Suttler
37:34
Speaker 3: was extremely generous the way where pioneers could assist them
37:39
Speaker 3: to extra provisions. Charles Stratton and William mccut mccutton volunteered
37:47
Speaker 3: to undertake the dangerous trip. Remain in Sourcable. Successful wagons
37:56
Speaker 3: were pulled by mongrel, tears of cows, oxen, and mules.
38:03
Speaker 3: It was middle of September and two young men who
38:08
Speaker 3: went to search for a mission. Oxen reported that other
38:14
Speaker 3: reported that another forty miles or eighty four kill miles
38:19
Speaker 3: of desert of desert laid ahead. Their cattle and oxen
38:25
Speaker 3: now exhausted and leaned, but the donner part across the
38:29
Speaker 3: next stretch of desert reluckily unscathed. The journey seemed to
38:35
Speaker 3: get easier approximately through the valley next to the Ruby Mountains,
38:41
Speaker 3: despite the near hostile, near hated of hastings they had
38:49
Speaker 3: no choice to call its tracks each were a week old.
38:55
Speaker 3: In September twenty sixth, two months after embarking the cutoffs,
39:00
Speaker 3: the party rejoined the traditional trail along the stream that
39:07
Speaker 3: became known as the Humboldt River. The short cub was
39:11
Speaker 3: apparently delayed them by another month. Along the Humboldt River,
39:19
Speaker 3: the group met Payu Native Americans who joined a couple
39:26
Speaker 3: of days but stole and shot several of the oxen
39:30
Speaker 3: and horses whoops. By now it was well into October,
39:37
Speaker 3: the daughter family split off to make better time. Two
39:41
Speaker 3: wagons and the remaining group became tangled, and John Snyder
39:47
Speaker 3: arguably beat the oxen of Reed's hired teamster mil Elliott.
39:54
Speaker 3: When red intervened, Snyder rained, blew was into his head
40:01
Speaker 3: and with they would handle. When Reid's wife and attempted
40:08
Speaker 3: to intervene, she was too struck. Reid was recited reluctant
40:16
Speaker 3: by fatally stabbing Snyder probably well it was self defense.
40:24
Speaker 3: But that evening at the campfire, the witnesses gathered discussed
40:31
Speaker 3: what was what was to be done. American laws were
40:36
Speaker 3: not uh what a cannibal west of the Continental Divide.
40:47
Speaker 3: It was was Mexican territory then, and wagon trains often
40:54
Speaker 3: desmise their own justice. But George Donnard party's leader was
41:00
Speaker 3: at full they head of the main wagon train with
41:04
Speaker 3: his family. Seinner had been Sneyner had seemed to hit Reed,
41:13
Speaker 3: and some claim he had also hit his wife, but
41:16
Speaker 3: Snyder had been popular and Reed was not. Pinkenberg suggests
41:22
Speaker 3: that Red should be hanged, but an eventual compromise was allowed.
41:29
Speaker 3: Reed was to leave the camp without his family was
41:33
Speaker 3: to be taken care by others. Reed was re departed
41:39
Speaker 3: alone the next morning, unarmed, but with his stepdaughter Virginia
41:48
Speaker 3: rode ahead and secretly provided him with the rifle and food.
41:54
Speaker 3: Smart girl, good job, Virginia. That really helped him the
42:00
Speaker 3: trails that the daughter party had had so far endured
42:08
Speaker 3: resulted in splintered groups such as such, looking out for
42:15
Speaker 3: themselves and distrustful of others. The grasp became scarce and
42:23
Speaker 3: the animals were steadily weakened. Two were by the animals load.
42:30
Speaker 3: Everyone had to I was experienced to walk. Kensburg rejected
42:42
Speaker 3: the heart group with his wagon, telling him that the
42:46
Speaker 3: elderly man he had to walk or die. A few
42:51
Speaker 3: days later our group sat next to a stream. His
42:56
Speaker 3: feet were so swollen that they had split open. Was
43:00
Speaker 3: not seen again. William Entley pleaded with the others to
43:06
Speaker 3: find him, but they were all refused, swearing they would
43:11
Speaker 3: waste no more resources than a man almost seventy years old. Yeah,
43:19
Speaker 3: that's terrible for me. Meanwhile, we caught up with the Donners.
43:30
Speaker 3: It persisted with one of the teamsters, Walter Herron, and
43:37
Speaker 3: the two shared a horse well, able to cover twenty
43:41
Speaker 3: five to twenty five to forty miles forty sixty four
43:45
Speaker 3: kill miles per day. Rest of the party rejoined the Donners,
43:50
Speaker 3: but their hardship continued and Americans chase away all of Greeves.
43:56
Speaker 3: Horses and other wagons were left behind with brass and
44:01
Speaker 3: short supply, the cattle spread out more each allowed the
44:06
Speaker 3: Payutes to steal eighteen more during one evening. Ope it
44:11
Speaker 3: goes that much survival, as several mornings later they shot
44:18
Speaker 3: another twenty one. So far the company had lost nearly
44:23
Speaker 3: one hundred oxen and cattle, and their rations were almost
44:28
Speaker 3: completely depleted. With nearly his cattle gone, Wolfinger stopped at
44:35
Speaker 3: the Humboldt scene to to cachet or bury his wagon,
44:44
Speaker 3: run roll or Reinhold, and Splitzer stayed behind. To hell
44:50
Speaker 3: they returned without him or they have been attacked by
44:54
Speaker 3: payutes and had been killed. One more stutch of desert
45:01
Speaker 3: lay ahead. Eddies ox had been killed by Nai Americans
45:06
Speaker 3: and they were forced to abandon their wagon. The family
45:10
Speaker 3: had been The family had eaten all their stores, but
45:15
Speaker 3: another family refused to assist their children. Eddies were forced
45:20
Speaker 3: to walk here of the children and miserable with thirst.
45:27
Speaker 3: Margaret Reed and their children were also without were also
45:32
Speaker 3: now without a wagon. But the desert soon came to
45:35
Speaker 3: an end. The party found the Truckree River, a beautiful
45:42
Speaker 3: lush country. The company had a little time to rest.
45:49
Speaker 3: They pressed across this Here in Nevada's before the snow game, Stratton,
45:56
Speaker 3: one of the two men who had left a month
45:59
Speaker 3: earlier seek and Assistants in California, found the company. He
46:04
Speaker 3: brought mules and food for the settlers from Settler's Fort
46:08
Speaker 3: and two Native American guides, Implored by John Suffer. These
46:17
Speaker 3: millwalk men from the Costs Cossonnuleius River area were known
46:26
Speaker 3: by their Catholic invention names Lewison's Salvador. Stratton also brought
46:35
Speaker 3: news that the Reed and Herrington, although haggard and starving,
46:41
Speaker 3: had reached a Suffers Fort by this time. Accord to Rodrick,
46:50
Speaker 3: to the uh big ragged, fed, dragged, half starved members
47:00
Speaker 3: of the Donner Party, it wasn't seemed to be that
47:04
Speaker 3: the worst that problems had passed. Must have seen that
47:08
Speaker 3: the worst of their problems had passed. Not quite, of course,
47:14
Speaker 3: with the one last push over the mountains that was
47:19
Speaker 3: described such worse than any wassa trained the Donner Party
47:24
Speaker 3: had described whether to forge your head the rest of
47:28
Speaker 3: their cattle. It was October twentieth I had been told
47:32
Speaker 3: the pass was no also known now as the Donner
47:36
Speaker 3: passed would be snowed. It would not be snowed until
47:40
Speaker 3: mid and November, William Pike was killed with a gun
47:45
Speaker 3: that belonged to William Foster. As discharge it started to
47:53
Speaker 3: I guess it discharged a neck gently. I mean, I
47:59
Speaker 3: guess William Pike was cleaning his gun and accidentally went
48:03
Speaker 3: off and shot William Foster and oops, I'm sorry. Events
48:09
Speaker 3: seemed to make this discussion for them. Bliving by family,
48:15
Speaker 3: they resumed their journey most of the beams. Then the
48:20
Speaker 3: Kissenbergs shotten with the Reeds raised with and the Murphy's.
48:26
Speaker 3: Donner's traveled last with her a few miles of cute
48:31
Speaker 3: a rough train and exiled. An axle broke on one
48:35
Speaker 3: of the wagons. Jacob and George went into the woods
48:39
Speaker 3: to fashion replacement. George Donner siced open or siced to
48:45
Speaker 3: open his hand while chiseling the wood that seemed seemed
48:51
Speaker 3: to be an artificial wound. The snows began to fall.
48:56
Speaker 3: Beams made up to the massive nearly vertical slope one
49:04
Speaker 3: thousand feet three hundred million meters to custody at truck
49:11
Speaker 3: re Lake now knows don don't donner ly yeah, three
49:18
Speaker 3: miles or three point eight kil miles from the Donner
49:22
Speaker 3: summit and Captain near the cabin I've been built two
49:26
Speaker 3: years earlier by members of Stephens Townsend Murphy party. Eddie's
49:32
Speaker 3: in Kingsburg joined the Rings attempting to make over the past,
49:41
Speaker 3: but they found that five to ten foot or one
49:46
Speaker 3: point five or three point oh meter snow drifts were
49:51
Speaker 3: unable to find the trail and turned back or truck
49:57
Speaker 3: Ree Lake and with the in the day of the
50:00
Speaker 3: families were camps there except for the Donners, who were
50:06
Speaker 3: five miles or half a day's journey below them. Sixty
50:13
Speaker 3: sixty members the associate of the Brain's, Graves, Reed, Murphy
50:17
Speaker 3: Kittsburgh and Eddie families set up for the winner that
50:21
Speaker 3: Tusky Lake. Three of the widely separated cabins time locks
50:27
Speaker 3: served as their homes, you know, with third floors and
50:32
Speaker 3: poorly constructed flat roofs that leaked like when it leaked
50:37
Speaker 3: like a cid when it rains. The Beans occupied one cabin,
50:43
Speaker 3: the Eddies and the Murphy's another, and the Reeds and
50:46
Speaker 3: the Graves of third. Yesper but the lean to for
50:50
Speaker 3: his family against the site of the Beans cabin. The
50:54
Speaker 3: families used cavs or oxside to uh to pitch the
51:02
Speaker 3: faulty roots. Cabins had no windows or doors, only large
51:07
Speaker 3: holes to allow intrigue. Of the sixty at a truck
51:14
Speaker 3: u late nineteen were men over eighteen, twelve were women,
51:19
Speaker 3: twenty nine were children, six of whom where tallers or younger.
51:24
Speaker 3: Further down the trail, those Alder Creek Donner families hastily
51:29
Speaker 3: constructed tents to house twenty one people, including Missus Wolff,
51:37
Speaker 3: her children and Donners drivers six men, three women, and
51:42
Speaker 3: twelve children in all. It began to snow again, and
51:47
Speaker 3: evening of November fourth begin in an eight day snowstool.
51:54
Speaker 3: By the time that the party were made through the
51:57
Speaker 3: camp great little food who remained from the supplies. As
52:02
Speaker 3: Stratton had come back from Sutler's Fork, the oxen began
52:07
Speaker 3: to die, and their carcasses were frozen and stacked. Truckrey
52:13
Speaker 3: Lake was not yet frozen, but the pioneers were unfamiliar
52:19
Speaker 3: with catching lake trout. Eddie, who most experienced hunter skilled,
52:25
Speaker 3: I killed a bear, but the he had little luck.
52:29
Speaker 3: After that, the Reed and Eddie families had lost most
52:33
Speaker 3: of everything. Margaret Re promised to pay double when they
52:38
Speaker 3: go to California if he used three oxen from the
52:43
Speaker 3: Graves and Breen party. Graves charged Eddie twenty five dollars
52:49
Speaker 3: normally costs two of too healthy oxen, for the carcasses
52:57
Speaker 3: of the oxen had starved to death. The depression grew
53:05
Speaker 3: in the camp, and reason and individuals right succeeded negatively
53:18
Speaker 3: the past where the wagons did not could not In
53:23
Speaker 3: small groups. They made several attempts, but each time returned defeated.
53:31
Speaker 3: Another severe storm, lasting more than a week, covered the
53:36
Speaker 3: area so deeply that the cattle and horses, their only
53:40
Speaker 3: remained food, died and were lost in the snow. Patrick
53:45
Speaker 3: Breen began to keep in a diary on November twentieth.
53:49
Speaker 3: He considered himself primarily the primarily with the weather, marking
53:56
Speaker 3: the storms and how much snow had fallen, but gradually
54:01
Speaker 3: began to interclude religious references in his intrigues. Life at
54:12
Speaker 3: a truck ye Lake was miserable. The cabins were cramped
54:16
Speaker 3: and filthy, and it snowed so much that people were
54:19
Speaker 3: unable to go out outdoors for days. They soon considered
54:24
Speaker 3: oxide chips were boiled and make this this disagreeable blue
54:34
Speaker 3: like jelly ox and horse bones were boiled repeatedly to
54:39
Speaker 3: make soup m and became so brittle they would grumble
54:47
Speaker 3: upon chili. Sometimes they were softened by being charred and
54:58
Speaker 3: eat it. I bet Murphy children big part the outside
55:06
Speaker 3: rug and laid in front of their fireplace, roasted in
55:10
Speaker 3: the fire, and ate it. That's crazy. After the party
55:17
Speaker 3: set on the makeshift, the snow shoes that attempt to
55:22
Speaker 3: cross the mountain pass two thirds of their main and
55:25
Speaker 3: at Trucky Lake where children. Missus Graves was in charge
55:33
Speaker 3: of eight and Lavina Murphy and Eleanor Eddie together took
55:39
Speaker 3: care of nine emigrants. Migrants cut eight mice and straight
55:48
Speaker 3: and stayed their cabin many soon weekend and spent most
55:54
Speaker 3: of their time in bed. Occasionally one would be able
55:57
Speaker 3: to make a full day track to see the Donners.
56:01
Speaker 3: News came that Jacob Donner and three hired men had died.
56:07
Speaker 3: One of them, Joseph Reinhold, confessed on his deadt deathbed,
56:14
Speaker 3: that he married that he murdered Wolfinger. George Donner's hand
56:20
Speaker 3: became infected, which left four men to work out the
56:27
Speaker 3: Donner camp. Margaret Reid had managed to save enough food
56:32
Speaker 3: for Christmas, part of soup to the delight of the children.
56:40
Speaker 3: By January, they were facing starvation and considered eating the
56:45
Speaker 3: oxides that served as their route. Margaret Reed, Virginia Read,
56:52
Speaker 3: Milt Elliott, and the servant girl, Elsie Williams, attempted to
56:58
Speaker 3: walk out.
57:00
Speaker 1: We are.
57:02
Speaker 3: Reasoning that would be better if they tried to bring
57:06
Speaker 3: back food, then sit and watch children starve. They were
57:11
Speaker 3: gone four days and the snow began to put the
57:17
Speaker 3: snow well before they had to turn back. Snow falls
57:21
Speaker 3: so much they had to turn back. Their cabin was
57:24
Speaker 3: now uninhabitable. The ox side roof served as their served
57:34
Speaker 3: as their food supply, and the family moved in with
57:37
Speaker 3: the beans, and the servants went in to live with
57:41
Speaker 3: the other families. One day, the Rivies came to collect
57:47
Speaker 3: when their debt owned by the Reeds and took the
57:51
Speaker 3: oxides and the family had to eat the mountain. The
57:59
Speaker 3: mountains a party at Tusky Lake and to fall. Angus
58:04
Speaker 3: Splitzer and Billius Williams, a driver for the Reeds, had
58:10
Speaker 3: died more than for more ammutilation than starvation. Franklin Greeves
58:18
Speaker 3: fashion fashion fourteen pairs of snow shoes out of hawks,
58:24
Speaker 3: ox bow, ox bows and hides and December sixteenth, the
58:31
Speaker 3: party of seventeen men, women and children sought out on
58:35
Speaker 3: foot attempt to cross the mountain has experienced how grinned
58:40
Speaker 3: their chances were for them. Men were fathers. Three of
58:48
Speaker 3: the women who were their mothers gave their young children,
58:54
Speaker 3: other to other women. The packed silently taken whether it
58:59
Speaker 3: came became six days rations, a rifle, a blanket, each
59:04
Speaker 3: hatchet and some pistols open to make their way to
59:09
Speaker 3: Bear Valley. Historian Charles mc glasson later called the Snowshop
59:17
Speaker 3: Party for the four loom hope to those without snowshoes.
59:23
Speaker 3: Charles Berger and ten year old William Murphy turned back early.
59:30
Speaker 3: Other members of the party fashioned snow shoes porto year
59:35
Speaker 3: Oldlamuel Murphy on the first evening of the pack saddles
59:42
Speaker 3: that they were carrying. The snowshoes provided to be awkward
59:48
Speaker 3: but effective on the Duman's climb. Members of the party
59:56
Speaker 3: will neither were nourished or astonished at the CapMan of
1:00:02
Speaker 3: snow both feet three point seven meters d by the
1:00:08
Speaker 3: By the third day, most of the were snow buying.
1:00:12
Speaker 3: On the sixth day, Eddie discovered his wife had him
1:00:16
Speaker 3: had found bear meat in attack. The group set out
1:00:21
Speaker 3: to sat out again on the morning of the Cember
1:00:25
Speaker 3: twenty first, Straton have been struggling several days, They remained behind,
1:00:31
Speaker 3: saying he would follow the team. Shortly, his remains were
1:00:36
Speaker 3: found in that location. The following year, the group became
1:00:42
Speaker 3: lost confused after two days without food, Patrick Dolan proposed
1:00:49
Speaker 3: one of them shouldn't volunteer to die in order to
1:00:54
Speaker 3: feed the others. Some suggested duel, while other account described
1:01:01
Speaker 3: a tempt of a lottery, and he suggested that they
1:01:06
Speaker 3: keep moving until someone simply fell out of a blizzard
1:01:12
Speaker 3: forced the group to halt. Antonio, the animal handler, was
1:01:18
Speaker 3: the first to die. Dranklin Grays was the next. It
1:01:24
Speaker 3: was the next casualty. As blizzard progressed, Solan began to
1:01:30
Speaker 3: hint previously, stripped off his clothes and ran into the woods.
1:01:35
Speaker 3: He returned shortly afterwards and died a few hours later.
1:01:41
Speaker 3: Not long after, possibly because Murphy was near death son,
1:01:47
Speaker 3: the group began to eat flesh from Don's body. Lemuel's
1:01:54
Speaker 3: sister had to feed him some, but he died shortly afterwards. Eddie,
1:02:01
Speaker 3: Salvadoran and Lewis refused to eat. The next morning, the
1:02:06
Speaker 3: group stripped the muscle and organs from the bodies of
1:02:11
Speaker 3: Antonio Dolan and Graves and Murphy. They dried. They dried
1:02:18
Speaker 3: them into store them for days ahead, taking care of
1:02:23
Speaker 3: their in the word, nobody would have to eat his
1:02:29
Speaker 3: or eat their relatives. Oh it's getting grustle now, making
1:02:42
Speaker 3: like the Jeffrey Dahmer party. After three days rest, they
1:02:51
Speaker 3: set off again, searching the trail. Eddie eventually succumbed to
1:02:57
Speaker 3: his hunger and ate human flesh, but it was soon gone.
1:03:02
Speaker 3: He began to take a part of the snow shoes
1:03:05
Speaker 3: seat the oxide webbing and discussed murdering Lewis or Salvador food.
1:03:14
Speaker 3: Eddie warned the two men that there were but were
1:03:19
Speaker 3: quietly left. Rodick died during the night, leaving only seven
1:03:25
Speaker 3: members of the party. Eddie, Mardy, Graves left a hunt,
1:03:29
Speaker 3: but they returned with the returned with deer meat. Fossick's
1:03:35
Speaker 3: body was already cut apart for food. After several more
1:03:40
Speaker 3: days twenty five since they left Lake Truck you Lake,
1:03:47
Speaker 3: it came across Salvador and Lewis, who cannot who had
1:03:51
Speaker 3: not eaten for about nine days and were probably close
1:03:57
Speaker 3: to death. William Foster shot both men us, realizing his
1:04:03
Speaker 3: plans from before they left. Their bodies were Richard and
1:04:09
Speaker 3: their flash stright and for consumption. Yeah, it sounds like
1:04:14
Speaker 3: the uh Jeffrey Daughter's party there through the manner through
1:04:26
Speaker 3: the murder was not kept secret. Christian Johnson notes that
1:04:31
Speaker 3: Foster was not greatly blamed for it. It's been the
1:04:35
Speaker 3: rest of his life without being troubled by the authorities.
1:04:40
Speaker 3: This can be as tribute to general attitude and expressed
1:04:46
Speaker 3: by Lewis Possovich that the lives of the name Americans
1:04:52
Speaker 3: seemed to matter. It seemed to matter little. Not more
1:04:57
Speaker 3: than a few days later, the group's stumbled into Native
1:05:02
Speaker 3: American settlement, looking disoriented. At the camp's inhabitants initially fled,
1:05:13
Speaker 3: the Americans gave them what they need to eat, cake, corns, grass,
1:05:19
Speaker 3: and pine nuts. After a few days, Eddie continued to
1:05:23
Speaker 3: help the try members to a ranch, the small farming
1:05:29
Speaker 3: community at the edge of Sacramento Valley. A hurd hurriedly
1:05:38
Speaker 3: accumulated rescue party found another six survivors on July January seventeenth,
1:05:47
Speaker 3: a party from Tusty three that had taken thirty three days.
1:05:54
Speaker 3: I've been few attempts rescue, James remade to this Sierra
1:06:03
Speaker 3: Nevada's to Ranchell Johnson. In late October. He was safe
1:06:10
Speaker 3: and recovering at the settler's fort and became more concertain
1:06:18
Speaker 3: the fate of his family and friends. He pleaded with
1:06:22
Speaker 3: Colonel John C. Fremont gathered them men to across the pass,
1:06:30
Speaker 3: and the party returned. Read promised that joined Fremont's forces
1:06:37
Speaker 3: and fight the Mexican American War. He joined by McCutcheon,
1:06:46
Speaker 3: who been unable to return. With Stratton, well were some
1:06:52
Speaker 3: members of the herd and young party. Their wagon train
1:06:59
Speaker 3: uh Uh arrived in Sutler's four on October eighth, the
1:07:06
Speaker 3: last to make it over Sierra Nevadas that season. A
1:07:11
Speaker 3: party roughly thirty horses and a dozen men carried food
1:07:15
Speaker 3: supplies hum such a military at the California engaged the
1:07:24
Speaker 3: American Mexican War. They tried to rescue the daughter. Party
1:07:34
Speaker 3: was laid over to San Josean until February springs because
1:07:42
Speaker 3: of original offsprings in general confusions. He sent Time Speaking
1:07:48
Speaker 3: and other pioneers and compassies to the people of San
1:07:56
Speaker 3: jose report Korean assue in the United States Navy to
1:08:01
Speaker 3: assist people at Trucky Lake. A party included Eddie on
1:08:10
Speaker 3: February fourth at segrament of Valley, rain and swollen rivers
1:08:16
Speaker 3: for several delays. Eddie station himself at Bear Valley and
1:08:24
Speaker 3: the others made steadily process through the storms and passed
1:08:29
Speaker 3: to Trucky Lake, catching their food and stations along the way.
1:08:35
Speaker 3: They cannot have to carry it. All three of the
1:08:39
Speaker 3: rescue parties turned back, but sever coursed on they On
1:08:54
Speaker 3: February eighteenth, the rescue parties skilled Fremont passed Daughter pass
1:09:02
Speaker 3: as near where Eddie saw the cabins were. They began
1:09:08
Speaker 3: to shoot, a shoot and hunt. They began to shoot,
1:09:15
Speaker 3: a haggard missus Murphy appeared from the hole in the snow.
1:09:25
Speaker 1: Oh.
1:09:25
Speaker 3: They began to shout. Okay. The people began to shout,
1:09:31
Speaker 3: and a haggard Missus Murphy appeared from the hole from
1:09:36
Speaker 3: the snow, startled them and asked are the men in?
1:09:43
Speaker 3: Are you the men from California? Or do you come
1:09:46
Speaker 3: from heaven? The relief party halted out of food and
1:09:52
Speaker 3: small portions to some that might kill them if they
1:09:58
Speaker 3: assimilated the uh immigrants um hm ok. If they if
1:10:06
Speaker 3: they accumulated. Migrants are all right over like assume that
1:10:17
Speaker 3: they would die if they ate over, if they ate
1:10:21
Speaker 3: it all at once. All the counts were buried in
1:10:24
Speaker 3: the snow. Some oxide roofs had began to rot smell
1:10:31
Speaker 3: overpowering thirteen people. The counts were dead. Their bodies been
1:10:37
Speaker 3: loosely buried in snow near the cabin roofs. Some of
1:10:41
Speaker 3: the migrants seemed, ah, I mean mostly unstandable. Uh hum.
1:10:56
Speaker 3: These three rescue parties uh to track to Donner's pass
1:11:02
Speaker 3: uh brown chicken and bread out back, four grandchildren and
1:11:10
Speaker 3: free adults. The Lord Donner had particular difficulty walking up
1:11:18
Speaker 3: the steep incline from Alder Creek the truck re Lake,
1:11:23
Speaker 3: later writing so much pain misery as I endured that
1:11:28
Speaker 3: day beyond description. George Donner's arm was so dangerous he
1:11:38
Speaker 3: cannot move. Probably had they get choked off because our
1:11:45
Speaker 3: twenty three people were chosen with rescue the party, twenty
1:11:51
Speaker 3: one Kevin's and we're at the truck ree lake and
1:11:58
Speaker 3: twelve at the creek. But yeah, they they pretty much
1:12:07
Speaker 3: they had sent like three relief teams out and they
1:12:16
Speaker 3: made sure, you know, they ate and everything and they
1:12:22
Speaker 3: rescued a lot of them. The news of the Daughters
1:12:28
Speaker 3: Party his fate was spread eastward by journalists Samuel Brennan
1:12:35
Speaker 3: who ran and the Savage Party was came down from
1:12:39
Speaker 3: the past. The King accounts for Real Ordeal first reached
1:12:45
Speaker 3: New York City on July eighteen forty seven, reported on
1:12:50
Speaker 3: instant across the US was heavily inflicted by a natural
1:12:55
Speaker 3: enthusiasm for westward and migration, and some papers news papers
1:13:03
Speaker 3: were trasually was buried in small bodographs des by the
1:13:10
Speaker 3: controversy of techno entry just senulize stories selling newspapers included
1:13:20
Speaker 3: those California wrote about the cannibalism in graphic acculized detail.
1:13:28
Speaker 3: Some of the some accounts the member of the donor
1:13:32
Speaker 3: parties were this were we're called heroes and someone mourning
1:13:44
Speaker 3: and uh.
1:13:47
Speaker 1: Were so.
1:13:51
Speaker 3: Badly off that a lot of them didn't to talk
1:13:54
Speaker 3: about it. Of the eighty seven people that were were
1:14:02
Speaker 3: entered the Wassatch Mountains, only eight forty eight survived. Only
1:14:09
Speaker 3: read and Uh read and read and bringing families remain intact.
1:14:16
Speaker 3: The children of Jacob Donner, George Donner, Franklin Graves were orphaned.
1:14:23
Speaker 3: William Eddie was alone. Most of the Murphy family had died.
1:14:29
Speaker 3: Only three mules reached California and the remaining animals parish.
1:14:34
Speaker 3: Most of the Dinner Party members possessions were deceased or desecrated.
1:14:45
Speaker 3: A lot of people didn't want to talk about it.
1:14:47
Speaker 3: They didn't want to keep it behind them. But it
1:14:54
Speaker 3: was crazy. And there's also a uh, there's a statue
1:15:00
Speaker 3: on Donner Memorial site. It's the top of the twenty
1:15:04
Speaker 3: two foot I still indicated how deep the snow was
1:15:11
Speaker 3: during the winter nineteen forty six and nineteen eighteen forty seven.
1:15:19
Speaker 3: But and that's that's crazy how they end up had
1:15:25
Speaker 3: to endure all that. There was a comment that one
1:15:31
Speaker 3: of the one of the people end up commented on it.
1:15:39
Speaker 3: It's uh, yes, it was a ghost of the Donner past.
1:15:45
Speaker 3: There's been a lot of scene, a lot of paranormal
1:15:51
Speaker 3: on it. She reads. Last night, I experienced something very
1:15:58
Speaker 3: disturbing at Donner Pass in Truck, California. The area is
1:16:03
Speaker 3: known for being haunted because it's rich history of death
1:16:07
Speaker 3: and violence aka the Daughter Party named the Biggest One.
1:16:14
Speaker 3: But being born and raised in Reno, I've been to
1:16:19
Speaker 3: Truck eight hundreds of times and have never experienced something
1:16:24
Speaker 3: quite this disturbing. My fiancee and I went to the
1:16:28
Speaker 3: northern California to visit family for Christmas, and we didn't
1:16:34
Speaker 3: We didn't leave his family's house until about six six
1:16:40
Speaker 3: thirty at night, and we had about a five hour
1:16:44
Speaker 3: drive ahead of us to get home. By the time
1:16:48
Speaker 3: we got close to a trucking, I had realized that
1:16:53
Speaker 3: I had made a mistake not taking a bathroom break
1:16:59
Speaker 3: that last gas station we stopped at Yuba City because
1:17:04
Speaker 3: my bladder was going to explode in my body if
1:17:06
Speaker 3: we didn't stop. I was experiencing I have to wait
1:17:11
Speaker 3: until we got to Arco at the bottom of the past.
1:17:15
Speaker 3: But to my surprise, there was a big rest stop
1:17:18
Speaker 3: at the top of the past. I mean reminded everyone
1:17:22
Speaker 3: I have to I have driven through the past hundreds
1:17:26
Speaker 3: of times. I never noticed his rest stop. As soon
1:17:30
Speaker 3: as we pulled off the stop, I merely felt uneasy.
1:17:35
Speaker 3: I felt a fight or fight instinct kick in that
1:17:39
Speaker 3: I never felt in trucky before. I've gone to the
1:17:43
Speaker 3: trucky too investigate paranormal activity multiple times, but need to
1:17:54
Speaker 3: use the restroom over outweighed my uneasily feeling and the
1:18:01
Speaker 3: parking lot was what our parking lot was one car,
1:18:06
Speaker 3: a blue car, and I've been it could have been
1:18:09
Speaker 3: a Honda, but honestly I could have. I couldn't make
1:18:14
Speaker 3: it too closer because the man standing next to the car,
1:18:18
Speaker 3: although looking comes completely normal, harmless, made me feel like
1:18:23
Speaker 3: a rabbit, an offensive a wolf, a face of a wolf.
1:18:28
Speaker 3: I could figure out why I was so scared of
1:18:31
Speaker 3: this man and dismissed the late night paranoia, paranomia, paranoia
1:18:38
Speaker 3: and got out of my car and I had to pass.
1:18:41
Speaker 3: I had to pass the man get to the bend
1:18:44
Speaker 3: in the bathroom, but in the closer I got to him,
1:18:49
Speaker 3: and more panic. I felt the point where I stopped
1:18:53
Speaker 3: in my tracks and waited to for my fiance to
1:18:56
Speaker 3: walk in front of me. He stopped when I said through,
1:19:01
Speaker 3: seemingly because they he caught me the same creepy vibe
1:19:07
Speaker 3: from the guy that I did. But when I walked
1:19:11
Speaker 3: in front of me anyways, he was a real sweetheart.
1:19:15
Speaker 3: I'm so lucky. The entire walk in the car could
1:19:18
Speaker 3: be I could not been right that I did. I
1:19:30
Speaker 3: am in front of in front of me anyways, was
1:19:33
Speaker 3: tired car, a building, The man looked almost through my
1:19:37
Speaker 3: fiancee and made me really creepy smile on his face
1:19:42
Speaker 3: entire time and made my fiance say, I'm uncomfortable. That
1:19:49
Speaker 3: he put his keys between his knuckles in case of
1:19:53
Speaker 3: he had to fight this guy. When he walked into
1:19:56
Speaker 3: the building. Things got really weird, really fast. As soon
1:20:00
Speaker 3: we opened the doors, my vision came strange. I tried
1:20:06
Speaker 3: to focus my eyes and the signs of the building
1:20:10
Speaker 3: there were to matter where I heard, I tied my
1:20:15
Speaker 3: eyes just kept on focusing themselves. It freaked me out right,
1:20:22
Speaker 3: but I dismissed along dark drive, assisting in the bright
1:20:27
Speaker 3: lights of the building, and walked forwards the women's restroom.
1:20:32
Speaker 3: When the men's restroom was on the left, women's is
1:20:36
Speaker 3: on the right. Both were two sides of two sides
1:20:41
Speaker 3: to choose from. My fiance needed to use the bathroomself,
1:20:47
Speaker 3: so I assumed that we're going to separate ways and
1:20:52
Speaker 3: run into the left side and women's on the right restroom.
1:20:56
Speaker 3: As soon as I turned the corner, as merely even
1:21:00
Speaker 3: more creeped out because there on the toilet all over
1:21:04
Speaker 3: the floor. It looked up like oh there was there
1:21:13
Speaker 3: was totpaper all the floor. It looked like three or
1:21:16
Speaker 3: four rolls have been unraveled over the place, but again
1:21:21
Speaker 3: dismissed it.
1:21:23
Speaker 1: I was.
1:21:26
Speaker 4: It was, I was.
1:21:29
Speaker 3: Tweakers, throwing weird weird ship at the At the rest stop,
1:21:34
Speaker 3: I took a deep breath and opened my opened my
1:21:38
Speaker 3: first stall clogged and disgusting. So then I moved to
1:21:43
Speaker 3: the second stall, clogged in disgusting. Then I moved the
1:21:47
Speaker 3: third stall. I was reached for the door. I got
1:21:51
Speaker 3: thinking feeling as someone was behind the door, and backed up.
1:21:57
Speaker 3: I looked underneath the stall, all women's feet. She was
1:22:03
Speaker 3: wearing black, small heeled shoes with weird looking silver buckles
1:22:08
Speaker 3: on and under feet that looked a puddle of water.
1:22:14
Speaker 3: It looked like this woman that's so wet, ripping water
1:22:18
Speaker 3: over the floor and spooke to me. So I turned
1:22:22
Speaker 3: around and went other side of the bathroom and those
1:22:26
Speaker 3: to those stalls, and I got to the other side.
1:22:30
Speaker 3: I was passing the mirrors that towards them, and saw
1:22:34
Speaker 3: the women's women facing me in reflection. She was about
1:22:41
Speaker 3: my height on five two, maybe a little taller, black hair.
1:22:46
Speaker 3: She was wearing a white turtleneck button up a shirt
1:22:50
Speaker 3: and black skirt was long enough to reach below the mirrors.
1:22:56
Speaker 3: She was soaking wet and could me up and had
1:23:03
Speaker 3: me up on her that she looked like she's painted
1:23:07
Speaker 3: by someone else. But the creepiest future I saw in
1:23:11
Speaker 3: her eyes. I'm not I'm not new seeing the dead,
1:23:16
Speaker 3: but since but the smutarily sensitivity runs into my family.
1:23:23
Speaker 3: But I never received I've seen a ghost more years
1:23:29
Speaker 3: or years ago. But this is the only person I
1:23:34
Speaker 3: really knew that looked like it looked like that. Usually
1:23:37
Speaker 3: when I see ghosts, I have normal eyes. Hers were different.
1:23:42
Speaker 3: They were there, they were wrong. It scared the scared
1:23:46
Speaker 3: me to death, and I ran into the stall, locked
1:23:49
Speaker 3: the door. I heard her footsteps come to the stall,
1:23:54
Speaker 3: and I saw the shoes as I saw another from
1:23:58
Speaker 3: another stall, from other stall. I cannot make this ship this,
1:24:07
Speaker 3: I cannot make this up. This woman started aggressively trying
1:24:11
Speaker 3: to open the stall. I was pulling back to the
1:24:17
Speaker 3: inside of the pulling back inside the forest, leaving the women.
1:24:23
Speaker 3: Suddenly it stopped and out said out loud an initial fuck,
1:24:32
Speaker 3: and took a deep breath and settled. Finally used the
1:24:36
Speaker 3: damn bathroom when I heard loud, fast footsteps came from
1:24:42
Speaker 3: the outside bathroom sorry, folks, I have a hard time
1:24:52
Speaker 3: reading this. Let's say bathroom and her outside was on
1:24:59
Speaker 3: the side leather sway boots running into the bathroom and
1:25:05
Speaker 3: towards my stall. At this point, I had I had
1:25:10
Speaker 3: had the ghost crap. So I stood up, closed my eyes,
1:25:14
Speaker 3: and ran out of the bathroom. My parents say stood
1:25:18
Speaker 3: outside the bathroom, apparently waiting for me because the guy
1:25:23
Speaker 3: outside creeped him out so bad they he couldn't feel
1:25:28
Speaker 3: like I was safe going to the bathroom. He told
1:25:32
Speaker 3: me that it was standing there entire time waiting for me.
1:25:36
Speaker 3: I told him that get the let's get the fuck
1:25:40
Speaker 3: out of here that building. Then I wanted to go home.
1:25:45
Speaker 3: He asked me that what happened and who he hurt?
1:25:51
Speaker 3: And who was he hurt in the bathroom with me?
1:25:54
Speaker 3: I said, what the actually, what the actual fuck? I
1:26:02
Speaker 3: drone down that it was it was not something that
1:26:07
Speaker 3: only experience but also hurt something. So I told him
1:26:14
Speaker 3: to take it. I thought a ghost that I just
1:26:20
Speaker 3: wanted to leave. When we walked out of the building,
1:26:24
Speaker 3: the same guy were standing in his car watching us.
1:26:28
Speaker 3: I looked down at his shoes. I was wearing the
1:26:31
Speaker 3: same swing brown boots as I thought I had seen
1:26:34
Speaker 3: in the bathroom when I drove away. My fan say
1:26:38
Speaker 3: that guy gives gave me a serial killer vibes and
1:26:43
Speaker 3: was looking at you like it was hunting you, and
1:26:46
Speaker 3: initially freaked me out. I wanted to I want to
1:26:50
Speaker 3: be shocked if I saw the man again in the news.
1:26:53
Speaker 3: And when I told him about my experience in the bathroom,
1:26:57
Speaker 3: he felt that it was possible that he could hurt
1:27:00
Speaker 3: someone before that she was trying to warn me. He
1:27:06
Speaker 3: also expressed that he would be the same experience with
1:27:11
Speaker 3: the weird change envision when he walked in. However, again,
1:27:17
Speaker 3: he could have been changed from the dark to the
1:27:21
Speaker 3: bright to the bright room. I didn't get her face.
1:27:25
Speaker 3: I could not get her face out of my head.
1:27:28
Speaker 3: I'm worried that if the guy had hurt her, he
1:27:32
Speaker 3: would do the same thing to me as someone else.
1:27:36
Speaker 3: I fancy it was the marine veteran and he could
1:27:39
Speaker 3: not spoke easily, and he met a lot of violent murderers.
1:27:47
Speaker 3: So when he says he recognized him as someone he
1:27:51
Speaker 3: could want to hurt me, I believe him so cold heartily. Well,
1:27:59
Speaker 3: that's a that's a very unique, uh ghost story and MH.
1:28:12
Speaker 1: And uh I.
1:28:14
Speaker 3: I would scare the crap out of me at me.
1:28:19
Speaker 3: Oh well, I hope everyone enjoys this wonnerful story. Sorry,
1:28:26
Speaker 3: I end up sorrow, I feel of home and uh.
1:28:32
Speaker 3: I hope everyone has a good weekend and a good
1:28:35
Speaker 3: work day. And until next time, keep it spooky my friends.
1:28:46
Speaker 3: Good night.
1:28:52
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