Legends of the Old West - FRONTIER TRAGEDY Ep. 2 | Donner Party, Part 2

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

The Donner-Reed caravan passes the halfway point of its journey to California, and now the real problems begin. After meeting legendary mountain man, Jim Bridger, the caravan chooses to take an unproven road across central Utah. They believe it is a shortcut which will save them hundreds of miles. It turns out to be a disaster, and the trip across the Great Salt Lake Desert leads to a heartbreaking decision. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In late June 1846, the Donner-Reed Party left the comfort and safety of Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and headed into virtually uncharted territory. and safety of Fort Laramie, Wyoming, and headed into virtually uncharted territory. It didn't surprise any of them when the stress of the next three months spurred violence among them. They just didn't expect a murder. On Monday, October 5th, 1846, the Reed, Donner, and Kiesberg families arrived at a very steep sandbank about 200 miles northeast of Reno, Nevada. Also with them was a family headed by a man named Patrick Breen and one headed by Franklin Graves, both from Illinois. The wagons lined up at the bottom of the steep grade.

The first three wagons to go up belonged to the Graves family. Though exhausted and irritated by recent catastrophes in their journey, all the men helped to get the first two wagons to the top using a double team of oxen. John Snyder, a teamster with the Graves family, was ready to go at the bottom of the hill with the third Graves wagon. Snyder had a team of oxen yoked up, but he didn't want to lose time waiting for one of the others to be brought down and attached. He cracked his whip on the existing team. They moved forward, but it was clear that the steep grade was too much for the animals. Other wagons behind him were already double-teamed and ready to go. Tempers flared. Time was running

out to get over the Sierra Nevada mountain range before the first heavy snowfall. Another teamster lost his patience with Snyder. He maneuvered his wagon around Snyder's to go up the hill. The ox teams became entangled, and Snyder lost all control. He started to beat the poor animals with a heavy wooden whip handle. Just then, James Reed rode up after a failed hunt. Reed was angry and scared. They'd already lost several oxen over the disastrous months between Laramie and now. To beat these valuable animals was insane. Reed tried to calm Snyder down. In return, Snyder whacked Reed over the head with his whip handle. Reed stood there, stunned, as blood poured over his

eyes from the gashes on his head. Margaret Reed, James' wife, ran to the two men. Snyder hit her with the handle. James Reed pulled out his hunting knife and plunged it into Snyder just below the collarbone. The dagger punctured Snyder's left lung, but he managed to hit Reed two more times before he collapsed to the ground and died. James Reed's actions could have been considered self-defense, but by that point, the strain on the members of the wagon train was immense. Some said they should hang James Reed. Others said he should be exiled.

Weighing the choices was crazy. They were talking about hanging or banishing one of the leaders of the group, the head of one of the founding families. There were probably those who couldn't imagine that they would be pushed to make a choice between such extremes. When it was all said and done, the choice would be mild when compared with those to come. From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer.

This season, we're bringing you the disturbing stories of the Donner Party and the Bender family, a murderous clan who were known as the Bloody Benders. This is Episode 2, The Donner Party, Part 2 of 4, Losing Time. Two of Four. Losing Time. Westbound pioneers knew two basic truths. One, they needed to get to California's Sacramento Valley or Oregon's Willamette Valley before winter. Two, in order to do so, they needed to reach a place called Independence Rock by the 4th of July at the absolute latest. Independence Rock is a huge and distinctive granite mound about 170 miles west of Fort Laramie.

It's almost right in the middle of the modern-day state of Wyoming. But on the 4th of July, 1846, the Donner-Reed party was enjoying a long period of rest at Fort Laramie. They had purchased supplies at a smaller fort nearby, where the goods were cheaper, but Laramie was the last large depot before heading into the no-man's land of central Wyoming. From Laramie, they could mail letters, get information, and socialize with other people. Though time was of the essence to reach the Sierra Nevada mountains before the first serious snow, they dallied in Laramie. They made repairs, washed clothes and bedding, and let the kids play in the grassy meadows. The party even prepared a day-long celebration for the holiday, the Fourth of July, topped off with an alcoholic bender by the men led by James Reed. The party didn't roll out until July 6th.

When the wagon train reached Independence Rock on July 11th, it encountered a lone eastbound rider. Rock on July 11th, it encountered a lone eastbound rider. He had a letter from none other than Lansford Hastings. Hastings had written a book about the roads to California that was being used by some of the members of the Donner-Reed party as a guide. In the letter, Hastings encouraged all immigrants who were now on the road to meet him at Fort Bridger in what is now the southwest corner of Wyoming. Hastings wrote that because of the ongoing war between the United States and Mexico, various companies should merge for safety so they could repel any attacks by Mexicans.

He also said that his shortcut from Fort Bridger to the California Trail would shorten their trip by more than 200 miles. And best of all, he promised to meet immigrant parties at Fort Bridger. He would personally guide them across the dry and mountainous terrain of the future states of Utah and Nevada, and then into California. After spending a couple days at Independence Rock, the Donner-Reed party left there on July 13th. They pushed on toward the Big Sandy River, a long tributary in southwest Wyoming and an important water source for westbound travelers.

Along the way, they passed a milestone. They were at the midway point of their journey. They were about 1,000 miles from their starting place of Independence, Missouri, and they were about 1,000 miles from their starting place of Independence, Missouri, and they were about 1,000 miles from California. They all agreed they had to make up for lost time, but the next day brought more trouble. Some of their oxen drank stagnant alkali water, and three of the animals died. That night, despite their loss, most in the wagon train were in pretty good spirits. They thought about the shortcut they were going to take and looked forward to the final leg of their journey. Tamsin Donner, wife of George Donner, the leader of the Donner Group, was an

exception. A fellow traveler wrote that she was disheartened that her husband and others could even consider leaving the old, proven road. She felt they knew nothing of Lansford Hastings, the explorer who had written a book about a shortcut to California. She thought he might be some sort of selfish adventurer, and she wasn't sure about his supposed shortcut. But James Reed, the leader of the other half of the Donner-Reed party, was convinced. He wanted to take the so-called Hastings Cut-Off.

Three weeks earlier, all the groups in the wagon train had made their choice. In southwestern Wyoming, the caravan would essentially split in half. The current captain of the wagon train, Lilburn Boggs, would lead several groups along the traditional proven trails. They would follow the Oregon Trail up into Idaho, go around the Great Salt Lake by a northern route, and then take the California Trail down through Nevada toward California. The rest of the groups would follow the lead of James Reed and George Donner and try the unproven Hastings Cut-Off. The Hastings Cut-Off led travelers south of the Great Salt Lake. It cut straight across Utah before joining the California Trail on the other side of the lake. It was definitely shorter than following

the traditional trails, but the families had been warned that it was extremely tough terrain and would be incredibly difficult with wagons. Many, like Thames and Donner, were worried about the cutoff. But they were committed, and only time would tell. As a podcast network, our first priority has always been audio and the stories we're able to share with you. But we also sell merch. And organizing that was made both possible and easy with Shopify. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell and grow at every stage of your business.

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And it's not just us. Shopify powers 10% of all e-commerce in the U.S. Shopify is also the global force behind Allbirds, Rothy's, and Brooklinen, and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across 175 countries. Because businesses that grow, grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com slash realm, all lowercase. Go to shopify.com slash r-e-a-l-m now to grow your business no matter what stage you're in. shopify.com slash realm. On July 20th, at their camp on the Big Sandy River, the Donners, the Reeds, and the other families said their official and tearful goodbyes to the Boggs Group. The Boggs Group went one way, the Donners, Reeds, and everyone else went another. But with the Boggs Group gone,

the Donner-Reed Group needed a captain. It elected George Donner. James Reed was younger and healthier, and at this point he seemed to know more about traveling. But everyone liked George and felt more comfortable with his even-tempered personality. The Donner party was officially born, and they continued their march along the Big Sandy River. born, and they continued their march along the Big Sandy River. In late afternoons and evenings, the wagon train noticed chilly winds and sometimes freezing temperatures. A man named Charles Stanton wrote how strange it was to travel during the boiling hot days of summer and yet to see snow on the tops of the distant Wind River Mountains. It was a stark reminder that Mother Nature waited for no one. On July 22nd, the party lost three steers to the same alkali puddles that had killed some of

their oxen. Thankfully, the party soon found better camping and even accelerated their pace a little bit, putting them just below Fort Bridger in the southwest corner of Wyoming on July 27th. The next morning, James Reed and George Donner raced ahead to the fort, excited to meet the illustrious Lansford Hastings, who had said in his letter that he would be there. But Hastings wasn't there. He had been there a week earlier, but there were so many impatient travelers at the fort that he decided to get started.

Instead of Hastings, Jim Bridger, the legend himself, welcomed the Donner crew. Bridger was 41 years old and already known as the King of the Mountain Men. He was a trapper, a trader, and had mastered several languages, including those belonging to several Native American cultures. Bridger and his business partner built his fort in 1843 on a fork of the Green River. It was a

popular stop for mountain men who wanted to trade. Bridger offered food, clothing, and shelter to the Donner train. James Reed and George Donner quickly rode back and accompanied their families and friends to the fort, where they stayed for three days. That three-day stopover was when another controversial moment in the story of the Donner party happened. There were two problems, both of which were unknown to the Donners. There were two problems, both of which were unknown to the Donners. The first was that Jim Bridger and his business partner were losing money. A new road had opened two years earlier that allowed travelers to skip Fort Bridger while still following the Oregon Trail. The Boggs Group was on that road right now.

As a result, Bridger and his business partner weren't selling as many goods as they used to. The two men had a vested interest in keeping travelers on a southern course, and they were eager to keep the Donner Party in their neck of the woods. The second problem was the weather. Eleven days before the Donner Party arrived, there had been rain in the morning, but it stopped in mid-afternoon. arrived, there had been rain in the morning, but it stopped in mid-afternoon. When the clouds broke, the clear sky revealed snow across the peaks of the Wasatch Mountain Range to the west in Utah. The temperature fell from 82 degrees Fahrenheit to 44, from 27 degrees Celsius to 6. Winter was arriving fast.

The shift in temperature worried journalist Edwin Bryant and former wagon train captain William Russell. They were already at Fort Bridger when the shift happened, and they were nervous about how late in the season it was for travel. They were still technically part of the wagon train, but they could move faster because all of their possessions were strapped to pack mules instead of loaded into wagons that were pulled by oxen. A month earlier near Fort Laramie, when the groups debated the choice between the traditional Oregon Trail and the Hastings Cut-Off, several men who were unmarried or traveling without

families made a different choice. They sold their oxen, their wagons, and most of their possessions. They bought mules and strapped the rest of their belongings to the faster-moving animals. They had committed to trying the Hastings Cut-Off, but they were going to ride ahead of the Donner Party and move as fast as possible. They had been at Fort Bridger for more than a week, and they had interviewed other men at the fort. Lansford Hastings and Jim Bridger said good things about the Hastings cutoff, but a different guide disagreed. He discouraged them from trying the cutoff. In the end, they chose to go with Lansford

Hastings and the other travelers who were anxious to get moving. But after everything Bryant had heard at the fort, he felt he should warn the Donner Party. He wrote detailed letters that told the group not to try the Cut-Off. He instructed them to follow the Old Oregon Trail. He and Russell could move faster with their mules, so the experiment with the Cut-Off was less risky and they were willing to chance it. Bryant gave the letters to Jim Bridger, who promised to give them to Bryant's friends when they arrived. But Bridger broke his promise. The words of caution and advice never reached the Donner Party.

The Donner Party arrived at Fort Bridger on July 28th and rested for three days. They left on August 1st, and James Reed wrote to a friend that he was excited about the Hastings Cut-Off, which would save hundreds of miles. He expected the road to be level, with plenty of water and grass, except for about a 40-mile stretch through the Great Salt Lake Desert. But all of that information came from Jim Bridger. They would have to see for themselves if it was true. For the first few days, it seemed like it was. Things were going fine. But then, like a bad omen, the problem started. An ox went missing. The road was not smooth and level like Bridger claimed. The party had to ride over hills and then down into shallow valleys and then repeat the process. But those were mild inconveniences compared to what happened next. At camp on the Bear River, 13-year-old Edward Breen's pony stepped in a prairie dog hole and they both took

a hard fall. The boy was knocked unconscious and suffered a compound fracture between his knee and his ankle. Ragged pieces of bone poked through the skin. With no doctor in camp, his father, Patrick Breen, sent a rider back to Fort Bridger. A gnarled mountain man with a bone saw came back with the rider, and his treatment plan was clear. Edward and his parents remembered the ordeal of the boy whose leg had been amputated by Edwin Bryant several weeks earlier. The boy had died two hours after surgery. The Breen's quickly called off the operation. Instead, Breen's mother pushed his bones back into place, dressed the wound, and hoped for the best. His leg ultimately healed, but for now, it was just another delay for a wagon train that

was already very late in getting to the Sierra Nevadas. On August 6th, the group reached the mouth of Weber Canyon, which cut through the Wasatch Mountain Range in the northeasternmost part of modern Utah. There at the mouth of the canyon, secured to a sagebrush, was a note from Lansford Hastings. The group was appalled when they read it. Hastings told them the road ahead was not passable and they should not go forward. Instead, he said they should select a different road over the mountains. He left them a crude outline of how to do it, and he told them to send a messenger ahead so he could advise them. The Donner party had no choice. They appointed James Reed, Charles Stanton, and a man named William Pike to ride ahead to Hastings and bring him back to their own party to find a new road.

On August 7th, the trio set out. They didn't have to ride very far to understand what Hastings was talking about. Weber Canyon was littered with trees and boulders and thick sagebrush. It would definitely be dangerous and time-consuming to try it with wagons. They caught up with Hastings near the Great Salt Lake. No doubt they were angry as hell, but they persuaded him to return to their camp so he could guide them ahead. Reed exchanged his horse for a fresh one so he could ride back with Hastings in a hurry. Stanton and Pike had to ride back more slowly on their tired horses. On the way back, Hastings quit his mission to help the Donner party. He explained that he needed to return

to his other caravan. The best he could do was lead James Reed to a peak called Big Mountain, east of the Salt Lake. At Big Mountain, Hastings pointed out vague directions. Then he rode off to the west, and it was the last time anyone from the Donner Party spoke with the man who had promised to lead them. James Reed rode down the mountain and found an Indian trail. He marked it on the way back to the wagon train. On August 10th, he rode into camp and told them the bad news, but tempered it with news that he'd marked a new route. He qualified his new route with assurances that it wasn't going to be easy, but it would be less dangerous.

Shortly after Reed announced their change of plans, the Graves family joined the Donner Party. They had traveled just behind it for most of the spring and summer, but looking for help and companionship, caught up with it for this last leg of the journey. That would prove to be a terrible mistake, but at the moment, the Donner Party was at its full number, 87 people and 22 wagons, as it headed for its next obstacle, the Great Salt Lake Desert. In mid-August 1846, the Donner Party had 750 miles to travel and two bad choices. 750 miles to travel and two bad choices. They could turn around, go back to Fort Bridger, and then continue on the old Oregon Trail up into Idaho before turning on to the traditional California Trail that led through Nevada. If they did that, they would lose a ton of time.

Or they could continue on their current course and try to navigate an uncharted route that they hoped would lead them to the California Trail on the other side of the Great Salt Lake. There's no evidence to suggest the Donner Party considered backtracking to Fort Bridger. They were already the very last of the very last wagon trains on the trail. For westward travelers in the 1840s, there was really no way to pivot so drastically. There were few places to rest and regroup, or to take shelter while they re-evaluated their plans. So, in the middle of August, they began bushwhacking a trail through the Wasatch By all accounts, it was awful. They spent weeks cutting underbrush to get through a segment of the mountains. Then they had to navigate a treacherous descent on the other side.

They also had to send a search party after Stanton and Pike, who had not been seen since Reed had raced ahead of them. not been seen since Reed had raced ahead of them. The party finally found their friends, half-starved after several days of struggling through the confusing mountain terrain. The biggest challenge thus far came on August 22nd, when they made it to within a mile of the Salt Lake Valley. They needed to climb over a hill so steep that it required 10 to 12 pair of oxen to draw each wagon up to the summit. It took five days of alternating between cutting a road and traveling, but they managed to zigzag to the top. At least the slope on the opposite side was gradual, and on August 27th, they managed to get down the other side. The next morning, they crossed the river that flowed from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake. There, they were heartened to find the trail

of the Hastings Party. But as Eliza Donner, the youngest Donner child, recalled later, it had taken them 30 days to reach that point, which they'd hoped to make in 10. Back at Fort Bridger, James Reed had estimated it would take them seven weeks to reach California. It took them four weeks just to get to central Utah. They still had 600 miles to go. And there were more problems. A young man in their party died from tuberculosis. Then they found another note from Hastings. It was terse, but suggested that travelers could get through the upcoming desert in two days and two nights. He said nothing about mileage, but they recalled he had been telling people that the desert would

be about 40 miles without water. The party spent most of August 28th and 29th cutting grass for their livestock and gathering as much water as they could. On August 30th, they departed Redlam Spring, the last source of water for what they thought was a two-day trek across the Great Salt Lake Desert. On day three, the party was out of water. They'd had little sleep or rest. Most of them experienced the phenomenon of mirages, and they couldn't keep pulling their wagons. Not only were the poor animals too tired and thirsty, but moisture underneath the sand bubbled up and turned it into a sort of slime. Mud sucked down the wagon wheels all the way to the axles. Some of the animals dropped dead in their tracks.

Finally, the party combined only the most basic of their belongings into fewer wagons and unhitched their animals. James Reed rode ahead until he reached water 20 miles up the trail. He left his horse there and started back on a borrowed horse with water for his stranded family. On the way, he met up with teamsters who had gone ahead with all the cattle and horses. He warned them to hold the animals tight on the road, or they would smell water and stampede. And of course, that was what happened. What was supposed to be a two-day, 40-mile trek ended up being five days and 80 miles. They crossed the western part of Utah,

and the half-dead party reached Pilot Peak just inside the modern border of Nevada in the early hours of September 5th. They'd lost at least 40 cattle and oxen and all but their most basic belongings. They finally had a water source, but then they discovered they didn't have enough food to get to California. The Donner party spent a few days camped along the base of Pilot Peak. They were alive, but in bad shape.

Once revived, some of the men were able to go back and retrieve some of the wagons they'd left behind. They repaired the damaged ones, but soon realized it was a pointless exercise, since they didn't have enough animals to pull them. Finally, on September 10th, they got back on the trail. They made it just six miles before a severe snowstorm hit them. They eventually passed through the storm, but it gave them a taste of what was to come. They were extremely low on food, so Charles Stanton and a man named William McCutcheon offered to go ahead to John Sutter's fort in California. Sutter was a Swiss immigrant who had persuaded the Mexican government to let him establish a colony in California's Central Valley.

He spent two years building a tiny settlement in the area that is now the city of Sacramento. Sutter's fort was a beacon for wagon trains headed to California. They needed to make it to his outpost before winter snowstorms blocked the passes of the Sierra Nevadas. Charles Stanton and William McCutcheon were proposing a desperate plan. They would ride ahead, cross the mountains, make it to Sutter's Fort, buy provisions, then ride all the way back to the wagon train. It had very little hope of success, but they had to try. Meanwhile, the wagon train pressed on.

Finally, mercifully, the wagons reached the South Fork of the Humboldt River. They were officially back on the established California Trail. Whether they knew it or not, the Hastings Cut-Off and then the detour around Weber Canyon had added 125 miles to their journey, rather than being at least 200 miles shorter than the well-traveled California Trail. at least 200 miles shorter than the well-traveled California Trail. A few days later, the party was greeted by two seemingly friendly men from the Paiute tribe who spoke a little English. The men camped with the party that night, and when a campfire ignited some brush, the

Paiutes helped put out the blaze. When everyone woke up the next morning, the Paiutes were gone, and so were a yoke of oxen and some clothing. Shortly afterward, on October 1st, one of the Graves family's horses was stolen. The travelers had no time to go look for lost animals. They knew they were extremely late in reaching the Sierra Nevada mountains, and all they could do was try to make up for lost time. Given the circumstances, extreme hunger, extreme stress, and lack of sleep, it should have been no surprise that James Reed

and wagon driver John Snyder came to blows on October 5th. They were 200 miles northeast of the modern city of Reno, Nevada, and at that point, the wagon train was moving as two separate groups. The Donner family and some others were several miles out in front, and the Reed family and a few others were behind. The Donner group had navigated their wagons over a steep sandbank and had moved on ahead. Now it was the Reed group's turn to get over the hill. John Snyder, a teamster with the Graves family, struggled to get his oxen to pull his wagon up the steep,

sandy hill. His oxen became tangled with the team from another wagon, and Snyder ruthlessly whipped his team. When James Reed tried to stop the abuse, Snyder beat Reed with the handle of his whip. Then Snyder hit Reed's wife, Margaret. When Snyder turned the whip back to James Reed, Reed stabbed Snyder with a knife. John Snyder died on the sandhill. Even though Snyder was clearly in the wrong, Reed's reaction was too much. The Reed group held a council that night. They discussed a number of options. Louis Kiesberg demanded that they hang Reed from a tree. While that seemed

outrageous, others understood Kiesberg's feelings. Reed was a hard man with a bad temper, and he'd treated Kiesberg poorly at times because of Kiesburg's German heritage. In the end, the group decided to exile James Reed. His family could stay with the wagon train, but he had to go. They allowed him to take his horse, but nothing else except the clothes on his back. They wouldn't kill him outright, but by banishing him, they were giving him the slimmest chance to survive.

Before he left, he secured a promise from the group that they would care for his family, though his circumstances might not have been as dire as they seemed. The Donner group was two days ahead of the Reed group, and the Donners knew nothing of the situation with the Reeds. James Reed could probably survive until he reached the Donner group. And then, one of his daughters snuck out of camp and caught up with him. She gave him a little food and his rifle, pistols, and ammunition. With that, he was in much better shape to reach the Donners.

Two days later, Reed found the Donner wagons and offered a sanitized version of what had happened. A man named Walter Heron offered to ride with James Reed to California. They would follow in the footsteps of Charles Stanton and William McCutcheon. They would hurry to Sutter's Fort and hopefully hurry back. On October 7, 1846, the Donner Group was about 140 miles from the California border, and the rest of the wagon train was about 170. James Reed and Walter Heron were about to head out on their own. The days were noticeably cooler, and the nights were bitterly cold. They were about to enter the heart of Paiute territory, but the threat of war parties was the least of their worries. The deaths that were about to happen

would not be at the hands of the Paiutes. Next time on Legends of the Old West, the Donner Party fights through another desert, suffers more losses within the wagon train, but finally arrives at the Sierra Nevada Mountains, just in time to get slammed by early winter blizzards. That's next week on Legends of the Old West. Thank you. episodes. Sign up now through the link in the show notes or on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com. This series was researched and written by Julia Bricklin. Original music by Rob Valliere. I'm your host and producer, Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show, please leave us a rating and

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