Donner Party
The Donner Party (from English party 'travel group' ) was a group of 87 settlers who were on their way to the western United States in 1846 . The name is derived from George Donner , who was elected leader of the trek on July 19, 1846.
After wrong decisions, the travelers in the eastern mountains of the Sierra Nevada were surprised by the winter. In the following four months, 34 of the original 81 settlers captured in the mountains died. According to the diaries, some of the survivors were only able to survive the journey through cannibalism .
history
The core of the group consisted of the families of George Donner, his brother Jakob, and James F. Reed from Springfield , Illinois , as well as some recruited helpers, a total of 33 people. The group set out for California in mid-April 1846 and arrived in Independence , Missouri , on May 10, 1846 , from where they continued two days later.
On May 19, the Donner and Reed families joined a major trek led by William H. Russell. Many of the later members of the Donner Party were already in this group. The group followed the California Trail for the next two months until they finally reached Little Sandy River in what is now Wyoming , where they camped with several other groups. There the settlers, who decided to follow the new route (“Hastings Cutoff”, named after Lansford Hastings), founded a new group and appointed George Donner to lead the Donner Party.
The Donner Party continued west towards Fort Bridger , where the abbreviation "Hastings Cutoff" began. On July 31st, she began her journey on the new route. She had to overcome some serious obstacles and problems traversing the Wasatch Range and the Great Salt Flats, left a few cars on the way, and hit the California Trail again on September 26 near present-day Elko , Nevada . The “short cut” had extended their trip by three weeks. On the onward journey along the Humboldt River , there were repeated delays and incidents. James Reed killed a man in self-defense in an argument and was expelled from the trek. He then rode up with another man to get supplies. The older settler Hardcoop was left exhausted. None of the other settlers were ready to ride back to help him.
When the group finally reached the Sierra Nevada in late October , they got caught in a snow storm that made it impossible for them to continue their journey. Three-quarters of the group camped by a lake now named after the Donner Lake group , the Donner family and a few others camped six miles away on Alder Creek, where one of the wagons had a broken axle. George Donner injured his hand while trying to repair it.
The settlers slaughtered their oxen, but they could not provide enough meat for so many settlers. From the other side of the mountains Reed, who had meanwhile reached Sutter's Fort, tried to get to the settlers to take care of them. However, he also failed because of the bad weather.
On December 15, Baylis Williams died as the first victim in the camp by the lake.
In mid-December, 18 of the settlers (13 men and 5 women) set out to reach Sutter's Fort, 160 km away , and to get help there. However, three of the men turned back after a short time. One had to be left exhausted. The others soon got lost and used up the last of their supplies. Without shelter in a blizzard , four other members of the group died, who were eaten by the survivors after they could no longer find the dead cattle under the snow. The group then continued on the journey, killing three other members - two of them, the Indians Luis and Salvador, were shot and also served as food. Close to death, the seven survivors finally reached the west side of the mountains on January 18th.
In the meantime, four more people, including Jakob Donner, died in Donner camp. "Dutch Charley" Burger who had returned from the search team died in the camp by the lake.
Search teams were set up on the west side of the mountains to look for the remaining members of the settler trek. By the time the first team reached the camp, 14 settlers had already died there. The survivors had fed on the cooked ox skins and were extremely weak. Some rescuers also went to Donner camp on Alder Creek. The first search party picked up 21 settlers and left the camps on February 22nd.
When the second search party, led by James Reed, reached the camps, they found that the remaining settlers in both camps had started to eat the dead. The crew took another 17 settlers with them. On the way back, the crew was surprised by a storm and had to leave some of the rescued in an "exhausted camp". One of the rescued was dead after the storm.
When the third search team finally found the "exhausted camp" five days later, two more people lost their lives. The survivors ate them.
The team split up, some led the rest of the members to safety, while a few more marched on to the actual camp. The team finally left the camp on the lake with four settlers. George Donner, who was weak from an infection in his injury, stayed behind. His wife refused to leave him and stayed in the camp with a few others, five in all.
When the fourth crew finally reached camp a month later, only one man, Louis Keseberg, was still alive. The last members of the Donner Party arrived at Sutter's Fort on April 29th.
The Donner Memorial State Park near the eastern shore of Donner Lake is reminiscent of the disaster. The place where the Donner family camped on Alder Creek has been declared a National Historic Landmark .
Thunder pass
The Donnerpass (39.3 ° N; 120.3 ° W) was named after George Donner. The pass is located at an altitude of 2200 m. The first transcontinental railway line of the Central Pacific Railroad runs over it . The Interstate 80 from Sacramento in California to Reno in Nevada runs close to the pass. One exit is named after the pass.
Others
- The events at the Donnerpass served the author Frank Schirrmacher as a starting point for his best-selling non-fiction book Minimum , published in 2006 . It addresses the social superiority of families, as family members survived significantly more often than individuals on the trek.
- The events influenced Charlie Chaplin in the making of his film Gold Rush : In one famous scene, his tramp eats his shoes out of hunger, as did some trapped people at Donner Pass.
- Even Luis Trenker processed in his novel The Emperor of California (1961) the events at Donner Pass.
- The story of the Donner group is also mentioned in Stephen King's novel The Shining and in the film adaptation of the same name by Stanley Kubrick .
- The 1999 film Ravenous is about similar events.
- The novel The Way West by Robert Ullman deals with the experiences of the Donner Party.
- The author Alma Katsu wrote the novel "The Hunger - The Last Journey", which is based on the events of the Donner Party. However, reality is supplemented by a supernatural force.
- In the Warehouse 13 series , a Thunder Party glass jar turns those who touch it into cannibals.
- In Kurt Vonnegut 's novel "Hocus pocus or where in such a hurry?" the Donner Party is mentioned several times.
- The incident is also mentioned in the film The Russian Bride - Until Death Do Us Part (2019)
- The novel Old Bones by the authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child describes a fictional archaeological excavation of the remains of the Donner Party.
literature
- Frank Schirrmacher : Minimum. About the passing away and emergence of our community. Karl Blessing Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-89667-291-6 .
- Charles McGlashan: History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra Nevada. 11th edition. A Carlisle & Company, San Francisco 1918.
- Kelly Dixon, Shannon Novak, Gwen Robbins, Julie Schablitsky, Richard Scott, Guy Tasa: Men, Women, and Children are Starving: Archeology of the Donner Family Camp. In: American Antiquity. Volume 75 (3), 2010. pp. 627-656
- Kelly Dixon (Ed.): An Archeology of Desperation: Exploring the Donner Party's Alder Creek Camp. University of Oklahoma Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-8061-4210-4 .
- Donald Hardesty: The Archeology of the Donner Party. University of Nevada Press, 1997, ISBN 0-87417-290-X .
Web links
- “New light on The Donner Party” (historical sources on cannibalism at Alder Creek) (English)
- Living Through the Donner Party (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Vonnegut, Kurt, 1922–2007 .: Hokus pokus or where in a hurry? Novel . German First published, 1st edition Goldmann, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-442-41155-6 .