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Show The Donner Party Released through courtesy of the Utah Historical Landmarks Association, As-sociation, 806 Newhouse Building, Salt Lake City, Utah Py Charles Kelly, Trustee Independence, Missouri, ten miles east of Kansas City, was in 1846, the gathering place for emigrants bound for Oregon, California, oi Santa Fe. Independence, at present pres-ent a quiet rural town, was in those days a "great Babel" on the edge of a wilderness. Here might be seen Mexicans, Spaniards, trappers, trap-pers, traders, Indians, Santa Fe wagons, oxen mules, horses and almost al-most every sort of people, and equipment. equip-ment. The Donners were originally from Illinois but like others reorganized at Independence and made that place their starting point for California Cali-fornia in 1846. There was no particular discussion discus-sion regarding the route to bfc taken until Old Fort Laramie was reached. At this point and along the road farther west the party debated whether they should go by Fort Hall or follow the Hastings Roiute, as it was called. Clyman and others advised them to go by the regular route via Fort Hall but in spite of all tnese warnings, a portion of the Donner party decided decid-ed to try the new route. Lansford W. Hastings left Independence Inde-pendence a week or ten days 'ahead of the Donner Party, acting as a guide to the Russell and Bryant Party. The Donner Party hurried on with all possible speed, following follow-ing Hastings' trail from Fort Bridger through Echo Canyon; the trail apparently led through Weber Canyon. In the last named canyon, can-yon, however, a note from Hastings was found advising emigrants not to proceed by way of Weber Canyon Can-yon and vaguely outlining another route. The information, however, was so indefinite that three men, Reed, Stanton and Pike, hurried cn and overtook Hastings at the south end of Great Salt Lake. Hastings refused to go back and act as a guide but did take Reed, a member of the Donner Party, to the summit of the Oquirrh Mountains Moun-tains and pointing to Pilot Peak indicated the route which must be taken across the desert. In the meantime, the horses used by Reed, Stanton and Pike had given out; these men returned to the Donner Party more dead than alive; the Donner Party had no hope of ever seeing them again. .The Donner Party then turned off at Henefer and mae a road through Main Canyon and over Big Mountain into Salt Lake Valley. Val-ley. They reorganized their forces on the present site of Salt Lake City and thought their troubles were over but, in reality, they had just begun. Near the present site of Garfield death visited the party and tooK from its midst Luke Halloran, a consumptive who "went west for his health." Halloran was a member mem-ber of the Masonic Lodge at St. Joseph, Missouri; some others of the Donner Party were also members mem-bers of the ' Order. Halloran was very popular and out of respect to his memory the wagons were arranged ar-ranged in respectful formation and an impressive but sad ceremony was conducted. Halloran was buried beside the grave of John Hargrave, a member of the party just ahead which was guided by Hastings. On the 6th of September they reached Twenty Wells, near Grants-ville, Grants-ville, where they found good water and giass. Near Timpe they turned turn-ed south and again west near Iosepa, crossed Skull Valley and pulled over Hastings Pass. In the mountains they picked up a mutilated note from Hastings which indicated that two days and two nights of hard traveling would carry car-ry them across the Salt Desert. On September 8th the Donner Party rested and fed their animals and early on the 9th they began what they thought was a drive of fifty miles. At this time the company numbered eighty-seven, about half of whom were women and small children. Those in advance ad-vance traveled all day and all night of the 9th. 10th and 11th and until ten o'clock on the night of the 12th before Pilot Peak was reachod. The presumed forty-eight hours lengthened into sixty-four and the distance seventy-five miles instead of thirty as indicated by Hastings or fifty as some of them had cal-culaed. cal-culaed. Less fortunate members of Lhe party were behind them on the Salt Desert without water and with exhausted or dead oxen. Reed's cattle stampeded and were never seen again. The "Pioneer Palace Car," a magnificent emigrant wagon wa-gon belonging to Reed, was left In the mud. . Jacob Donner and Kcs-eberg Kcs-eberg also left one wagon each on the desedt. After heroic effort and great suffering the entire party was brought safely to Pilot Peak. From Pilot Peak the party turned south and struck Humboldt Wells. At Gravelly Ford, a six mile favorable stretch of the Humboldt near the present town of Beowawe, dissen-tion dissen-tion occurred and one of their members killed another. After numerous other misfortunes, misfor-tunes, including trouble with the Indians, the party passed close to the present site of Reno and over the pass to Donner Lake. With Sutter's Fort as the objective, an attemnt was made to reach the summit but the party returned to their camp at Donner Lake to reorganize. reor-ganize. When they awoke the following fol-lowing morning a snowfall had occurred; notwithstanding this, another an-other attempt was made to cross which resulted in another failure. A very heavy snowfall occurred on the third day and the party was marooned for the winter without supplies. Some of the members made an attempt to reach Fort Sutter and of these a considerable number perished in the snow between Donner Lake and Fort Sutter. Sutter made heroic attempts and organized expedition after expedition expedi-tion for their relief and was able to supply them with many provisions. Only fortyfour of the eighty-seven who crossed the Salt desert lived to see the El Dorado of their hopes. It would be preposterous to presume pre-sume that Hastings was not moved by the suffering and death of these people and their failure, since it was his ambition to settle California Califor-nia with adherents guided by him. Hastings was obsessed with the idea of establishing an "empire" on the coast with himself at the head. His Judgement regarding the practibil-ity practibil-ity of the route was faulty and af. ter the Donner tragedy it was no longer followeu. The scene of the tragedy of death was laid at Donner Lake but the troubles experienced before r j'iiwiii'i ".wirm n in wMinn. reaching Salt Lake Valley and those which occurred on the Sail Desert were the underlying causes for the delay. No party of emi-wrants emi-wrants wasa entirely free from misfortune mis-fortune and many or them suffered severely. The advertising and promotion pro-motion work of Hastings, the prominence prom-inence of the members of the party stories cf cannibalism, the persecution persecu-tion of Keseberg and the enterprise 0;' McGlashan of Truckee, California, Cali-fornia, in collecting relics and publishing pub-lishing accounts of the tragedy have made it, from the romantic viewpoint, the most noted party of 'lS3Ai dltf paSjaABJ Oq.Kl S'jtI3.i;biU.C I |