Nov. 3, 2025

Terrifying & True | Donner Party Cannibalism: Gruesome Story Survival

Terrifying & True | Donner Party Cannibalism: Gruesome Story Survival
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Terrifying & True
The true story of the Donner Party—cannibalism and survival in the Sierra Nevada. In winter 1846–1847, nearly 90 pioneers were snowbound at Truckee/Donner Lake after betting on the Hastings Cutoff and losing critical weeks in the Wasatch Mountains and Great Salt Lake Desert. What followed—starvation, the Forlorn Hope snowshoe escape, and cannibalism—became America’s most infamous saga of westward migration.

This documentary-style episode of Terrifying & True traces the route from Springfield, Illinois to the blizzards that sealed the pass by Nov 4, 1846, the collapse of order on the Humboldt, and the desperate rescue missions that fought 30-foot drifts, Starved Camp, and the scandal that haunted Lewis Keseberg for life.
Inside this episode
  • The “shortcut” that killed. Lansford Hastings pushes an untested route; weeks are lost in the Wasatch and on the salt flats.
  • Pass closed, hope fading. Wagons reach Truckee Lake (Oct 31, 1846); an eight-day storm buries the Sierra Nevada by Nov 4.
  • “Hungry times.” Cabins sink under snow; families boil rawhide and tallow as game vanishes and deaths mount.
  • The Forlorn Hope. On Dec 16, fifteen leave on crude snowshoes; starvation, whiteout, and an unthinkable choice decide who lives.
  • Rescues through hell. Relief parties attack the pass; John Stark drags children from Starved Camp two at a time.
  • Aftermath & stigma. Keseberg, rumors, lawsuits—and the lasting warning from Virginia Reed: “Never take no cut-offs and hurry along as fast as you can.”

A clear, date-driven reconstruction of choices, storms, and survival.

 We’re telling that story tonight.

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👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
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WEBVTT

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Snow seals the cabins to their rooms. The first storm

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of eighteen forty six hits and doesn't let go inside.

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Family simmer raw just to survive. Outside the pass is gone,

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nothing but white and wind. By spring, rescuers will learn

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what hunger left behind. This is the Donner Party. What

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you were about to beat you is believed to be

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based on witness accounts, testimonies, and public record. This is

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terrifying and truth. Truth. Before we sink our teeth into

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Tonight's terrifying and true, I want to say a huge

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Tonight winter slams shut on the Sierra Nevada and an

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American dream turns feral. It's eighteen forty seven. Lured by

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the Hastings, cutoff families reach Truckey or Donner Lake on

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October thirty first. By November fourth, a blizzard seals the pass.

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Cabins vanish under the snow. Meat is all but gone,

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rawhide boils, while the wind screams and people begin to die. Desperate,

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A group of them, known as the Forlorn Hope, step

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into the white on December sixteenth, sporting crude improvised snow shoes.

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Rescuers later fight thirty foot snow drifts and stumble onto

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the scene, a scene they'll never forget. Tonight we explore

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human choices in impossible cold. This is the stark truth

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of the Donner Party. In the spring of eighteen forty six,

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nearly ninety American pioneers, men, women, and children set out

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in covered wagons from Springfield, Illinois, bound for the fertile

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promise of California. They were ordinary families chasing an American

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dream of new land and a better life, a part

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of the Great Overland migration sweeping the eighteen forties. Among

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them were George Donner, a sixty year old farmer leading

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his family west, and James Reed, a prosperous forty five

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year old businessman with a young family. They joined a

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larger wagon train on the now infamous Oregon Trail. Full

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of optimism as they rolled out of Independence, Missouri in May.

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The journey was arduous but familiar, follow the wagon rutted

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trail across prairies and over the Continental Divide before winter.

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Through the early months, the Donner and Reed families enjoyed

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the adventure. Twelve year old Virginia Reed later recalled riding

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her pony across the Platte River valley, gathering wildflowers by

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day and singing around campfires at night. By summer, the

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wagon train had made steady progress into what is now Wyoming.

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Reaching Fort Laramie, spirits were high to t The endless

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plains and towering rockies beyond felt like entering a new

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world full of wonder Yet ominous signs of trouble lay

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ahead on the unmapped frontier. As the group pressed on

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toward the Continental Divide, they faced a fateful decision. A

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self styled trail guide named Lanceford W. Hastings was promoting

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a new short cut route to California that year, Hastings

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claimed his Hastings cut off could save hundreds of miles

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by veering south of the usual trail. On July twelfth,

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the Donner Party received a letter from Hastings urging them

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to take his new trail and warning of difficulties ahead

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on the old route. At Fort Bridger, a remote trading

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post in Wyoming, the party had to choose stick to

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the proven path north via Fort Hall, or gamble on

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hastings untested cutoff through Utah's unmapped wilds. In a cruel

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and tragic turn of events, Hastings had never actually taken

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wagons over his own shortcut. Unbeknownst to the emigrants, he

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was using them as guinea pigs. Jim Bridger, the fort's proprietor,

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had financial interest in the new route and downplayed its risks,

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even hiding letters from earlier travelers that warned the cutoff

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was impassable. Persuaded by hastings glowing promises and Bridger's assurances,

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the Donner Party elected to try the short cut on

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July thirty first. It was a decision that would doom

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them almost immediately. The Hastings cut off proved far more

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difficult than advertised. The trail west of Fort Bridger vanished

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into a maze of canyons and mountains. Hastings himself had

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ridden out ahead guiding another group, leaving only handwritten notes

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tacked to trees for those behind. One such note told

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the Donner party to wait for Hastings to show them

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a better path. James Reid rode ahead with two others

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and caught up to Hastings, only to have him point

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vaguely toward a dauntingly high ridge as the way forward.

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The short cut led the wagons into the rugged Wasach

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mountains of Utah, forcing the emigrants to literally carve a

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road as they went. Progress slowed to a crawl, sometimes

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only a mile and a half per day, as all

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able bodied men hacked through the dense brush, felled trees,

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and heaved rocks to clear a passage. Precious weeks ticked

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by while the party labored through the Wassach ranges tortuous canyons.

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When the exhausted families emerged from the mountains, they faced

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the next ordeal, the Great Salt Lake Desert. In late August,

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they found another tattered note from Hastings warning of a

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stretch ahead, with two days of difficult travel with no

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water or even grass. In reality, the barren salt flats

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were far wider than Hastings admitted. The Donner party pressed

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into the white desert, hoping to cross in forty eight hours.

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It took five hellish days. Blistering sun by day and

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freezing cold by night tortured them on the Alkali plane.

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Thirst crazed oxen collapsed in their yokes. Some wagons had

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to be abandoned mid desert, left to sink in the salt.

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Nine of James Reed's ten oxen ran off into the mirages.

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Maddened with thirst. Cattle and horses died or vanished by

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the dozen. When emigrants finally staggered to the next water source,

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they were backed, uttered, demoralized, and nearly out of supplies.

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Any faith in hastings easy route had evaporated. Their shortcut

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had become a devastating detour. By the time the Donner

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party straggled out of the desert and rejoined the main

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California trail near the Humboldt River on September twenty sixth,

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they had lost at least a month of time. Winter

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was closing in and they still faced three hundred plus

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miles and the Sierra Nevada ahead. Quote never take no

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cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can, Young

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Virginia Read would later implore to others. A hard lesson

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wrung from bitter experience. Now dangerously behind schedule, the party

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hurried along the Humboldt River in present day Nevada. The

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strain of the journey began to unravel the group's unity.

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Food was running low, and tempers flared. Along the Humboldt,

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an elderly Belgium emigrant named hard Coop was forced out

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of a wagon by the hard edged Louis Kesberg, told

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to walk or die soon. Hard Coop, his feet swollen

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and bleeding, fell behind and was left sitting by a stream,

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never to be seen again. The others, desperate to save themselves,

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refused to turn back. For the old man, it was

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a chilling abandonment, a sign of vanishing social order. Other

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human decencies soon gave way to suspicion and violence. One

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day in early October, as tensions spiked, James Reed quarreled

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with a teamster, John Snyder, who was savagely beating Reed's oxen.

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When Snyder turned his whip on Reed. Reed stabbed him

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in the chest with a knife, killing him in front

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of the train. The only law on the trail was

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the emigrant's own, and the wagon company meted out judgment.

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Some cried for Reed's hanging on the spot. In the end,

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they decided on exile. Reed was banished, forced to ride

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ahead alone in the wilderness without his family. Reid's wife

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and children, now without their patriarch, continued onward in the

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Donner party's care, a fragile arrangement as food grew scarce. Meanwhile,

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rumors of murder swirled. A traveler named Wolfinger had lagged

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behind to cash his wagon, accompanied by two acquaintances. Those

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men returned alone, claiming Piute warriors had killed Wolfinger, but

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months later one would confess on his deathbed that Wolfinger

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had been murdered for his money by his own companions.

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Such was the breakdown of trust. Even before reaching the Sierra,

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comrades had turned on each other for survival and greed.

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By late October, the Donners, Reeds, Graves, Breen, and other

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families trudged on with whatever Oxen remained, nervously eyeing the

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looming Sierra Nevada Ahead, the air was cooling, the nights

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grew bitter. Winter was on the doorstep at last. On

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October thirty first, eighteen forty six, the Donner Party reached

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the foot of the Sierra Nevada at Truckey Lake, which

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now is known as Donner Lake. Terribly late in the season,

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a few sparse cabins built by earlier travelers stood near

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the lake at six thousand feet elevation. If the party

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could cross the high pass just a few two miles beyond,

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they would descend to the safety of California's Bear Valley.

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They attempted the ascent immediately, only to be met by

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a sudden, blinding blizzard. An eight day snow storm blew

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in and buried the mountains in deep snow, blocking the trail.

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The emigrants, with wagons and exhausted oxen, could not break

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through the snow pack. After several desperate tries, they had

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to turn back to the lake. Winter had trapped them.

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It was November fourth, and snow already lay five to

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ten feet deep in some drifts, a harbinger of the

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brutal months to come. The party hunkered down by Trucky

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Lake to wade out the winter. Utterly unprepared for what

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lay ahead, they hastily built camp three primitive cabins of

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pine logs with dirt floors and thin canvas or ox

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hide roofs. Holes in the walls served as doors. One

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cabin was occupied by the Breen family, another by the

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Eddies and Murphy's, the third by the Reeds and Graves.

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Louis Kesberg cobbled together a lean to against the Breen

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cabin for his family. Five miles back at Alder Creek,

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the Donner families, who had fallen behind, set up a

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separate camp, fashioning tents out of wagon covers. Even as

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they built these shelters, snow continued to dump relentlessly, powering

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higher with each storm. Before long the cabins were buried

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to their roofs. To enter or exit, the emigrants had

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to dig tunnels through snow or climb out of holes

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in the drift. The world became silent and white. Outside

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was a frozen wasteland of drifts. Inside the dark, smoky shanties,

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hunger and fear set in game was nonexistent. The deep

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snow had driven off any deer within a few weeks,

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all of the oxen and horses were slaughtered for food.

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They butchered the animals and rationed out thin strips of beef,

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trying to make the meat last. There was no salt

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or season. They even tore apart their wagons for firewood,

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burning everything that could possibly feed a flame. Children went

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to bed crying in hunger. Mothers grew gaunt and hollow eyed,

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unable to feed their babies. As November passed into December,

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meat ran out. The only food left was what one

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man grimly referred to as poor beef without bread or salt,

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and soon not even that. Snowstorms pummeled the lake camp

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one after another. By mid December, snow lay eight to

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ten feet deep around truck Ye Lake. It was, in

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the words of one survivor's letter, the camp of Death.

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The emigrants were starving, entombed in snow, and utterly isolated.

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Weeks had passed with no word from the outside world.

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With no reason to believe help would come, they began

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to consider unthinkably desperate measures. Inside the cabins, the pioneers

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began to eat anything remotely edible. They boiled strips of leather,

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ox hide, strips, shoe leather, even boiled cowhide rugs into

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a glue like soup. To gag down. They gnawed on

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bones and bark. Mice were caught and eaten. Candles made

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of tallow were consumed when nothing else was left. In

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his diary, Patrick Breen described these quote hungry times in

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camp on January seventeenth, eighteen forty seven. He noted that

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quote provisions scarce hides are the only article we depend on,

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and prayed, quote may God send us help. By that point,

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rawhide strips simmered into a foul jelly was truly all

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they had. Breen recorded that one neighbor, missus Elizabeth Graves,

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had plenty of boiled hides, but quote refused to give

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any to Missus Reed. Even when Reed's four young children

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were on the brink of starvation. Charity was dying along

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with hope. Frigid weather and malnutrition took their toll. Deaths

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became frequent. One by one, weakened emigrants succumbed to starvation

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and illness. The first to die at the Lake camp

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00:21:21.160 --> 00:21:26.799
was sixty year old Bayliss Williams in mid December. Others

214
00:21:26.920 --> 00:21:33.799
soon followed Franklin Graves, Lavina Murphy's little Son and Moore.

215
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The living had no strength to bury the dead in

216
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the frozen earth. Instead, corpses were dragged into the snow

217
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and lightly covered. All around the cabins were the loosely

218
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buried bodies of those who had been friends and fellow travelers.

219
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Imagine the psychological horror of that scene. The survivors could

220
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see where the bodies lay under the snow, grim mounds

221
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that tempted and repelled them in equal measure. Isolation preyed

222
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on their minds. Trapped and cramped filthy shelters, gnawing on

223
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boiled hide strips, Some pioneers fell into despair and delirium.

224
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Patrick Breen wrote on Christmas Eve that the prospect is appalling,

225
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though he still hoped Almighty God would deliver them. Christmas

226
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Day came and went without celebration, as there was nothing

227
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to celebrate. New Year eighteen forty seven dawned bleakly. Breen

228
00:22:56.160 --> 00:23:00.279
noted that quote, we pray the God of Mercy to

229
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deliver us from our present calamity. Still the snow fell

230
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and no help came. Inside one cabin, fifteen year old

231
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Mary Graves watched her mother and siblings slowly waste away

232
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years later, she described how the cries of hungry children

233
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tortured the parents, who could do nothing but whisper comforting

234
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lies that food would come tomorrow. In another cabin, Louis

235
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Kesberg's wife gave birth prematurely. The infant died, mercifully spared

236
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from this world. Antonio, a young Vacquero traveling with the Reeds,

237
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died of malnutrition. Franklin Graves, the family patriarch who had

238
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helped build the cabins, lay down and never woke. With

239
00:24:06.480 --> 00:24:12.519
each death, the survivors confronted an unthinkable question that had

240
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been approaching for weeks. Would they eat the bodies of

241
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their dead to survive. Patrick Breen's diary entry of January

242
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twenty sixth, eighteen forty seven hints at the desperate, dark atmosphere.

243
00:24:38.759 --> 00:24:44.039
Quote people are getting weak living on short allowance of hides,

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he wrote, Peggy, his wife, very uneasy for fear we

245
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shall all perish with hunger. By early February, even the

246
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boiled hides were nearly gone. Our hides are nearly all

247
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eat up, Breen recorded on February tenth, starvation loomed. It

248
00:25:10.400 --> 00:25:14.200
was around this time that some of the emigrants began

249
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to talk openly of cannibalism. Breen noted on February fifteenth

250
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that Missus Graves not only hoarded her hides, but she

251
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refused to let Missus Reed have any, and even stashed

252
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rawhide strips on her roof to keep them from others.

253
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Self preservation had overridden community. Each family now looked out

254
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for itself. Dignity, morality, humanity. All were in deadly peril

255
00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:58.079
as much as the people themselves. Unbeknownst to those huddled

256
00:25:58.119 --> 00:26:02.759
at Trucky Lake, a brave subset of their party had

257
00:26:02.799 --> 00:26:07.839
already made the awful choice to survive at any cost.

258
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Back in mid December, with food almost gone, fifteen of

259
00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:19.440
the strongest emigrants, ten men and five women, had snow

260
00:26:19.519 --> 00:26:25.680
shoot out in a desperate bid to find help. This party,

261
00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:32.559
later dubbed the Forlorn Hope, included Mary Graves, her newlywed

262
00:26:32.599 --> 00:26:39.720
sister Sarah Faustick, William Eddie, the pregnant Isabella Breen, and others.

263
00:26:40.960 --> 00:26:46.759
They fashioned crude snowshoes from oxbows and rawhide, and set

264
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off on December sixteenth over the pass. They had no

265
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real option. It was escape or die in camp. The

266
00:27:05.480 --> 00:27:11.640
Forlorn Hope soon found themselves in an almost unimaginable hellscape

267
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atop the Sierras. The snow drifts rose up to thirty

268
00:27:16.920 --> 00:27:21.519
and fifty feet in places. The air was thin and frigid.

269
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The sun's glare off endless snow fields burned their eyes blind.

270
00:27:29.119 --> 00:27:34.720
Stumbling over the high pass, they became lost in deep

271
00:27:35.000 --> 00:27:41.799
mountain wilderness. Within days, their meager rations were gone, and

272
00:27:41.880 --> 00:27:48.039
they began to collapse from hunger and exhaustion. One by one,

273
00:27:48.799 --> 00:27:55.160
members of the Forlorn Hope dropped dead from cold and starvation.

274
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The survivors, driven mad with hunger, faced the ultimate taboo

275
00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:09.440
around Christmas. They set aside their revulsion and consumed the

276
00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:15.440
flesh of their fallen companions in order to stay alive.

277
00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:21.720
Mary Graves later recounted cutting up the bodies of her

278
00:28:21.759 --> 00:28:27.759
own father and brother after their deaths with numb horror.

279
00:28:28.880 --> 00:28:33.160
They dried strips of human flesh in the sun in

280
00:28:33.319 --> 00:28:37.960
order to preserve them. As Patrick Breen would later write

281
00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:43.440
in his diary about the scene, quote, the Donners told

282
00:28:43.480 --> 00:28:47.559
the California folks that they commenced to eat the dead

283
00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:53.920
people once all else was gone. The act of cannibalism

284
00:28:54.519 --> 00:29:00.279
gave the snowshoe survivors a brief strength to continue, but

285
00:29:00.440 --> 00:29:06.759
it also broke something inside them. Shortly after, one member,

286
00:29:07.440 --> 00:29:14.319
William Foster, proposed an even worse crime, killing the two

287
00:29:14.440 --> 00:29:21.200
native guides who had accompanied them from California, Luis and Salvador,

288
00:29:22.519 --> 00:29:28.720
for food. These Miwok men employed by John Sutter, had

289
00:29:28.759 --> 00:29:34.759
been helping the party, but they refused to partake in cannibalism.

290
00:29:36.240 --> 00:29:41.480
When they learned the others were contemplating murdering them, they

291
00:29:41.599 --> 00:29:48.400
quietly slipped away into the woods. Horrified for days, the

292
00:29:48.519 --> 00:29:54.960
seven remaining emigrants staggered on. When another man, j Faustick,

293
00:29:56.039 --> 00:30:03.680
died at night, the survivors cut and ate him too.

294
00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:09.839
After more agonizing days, with nothing else to eat, they

295
00:30:09.920 --> 00:30:15.519
came across the two meewalk guides, Luis and Salvador, who

296
00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:20.160
were they themselves on the brink of starvation. After nine

297
00:30:20.319 --> 00:30:28.440
days alone, In a moment of human darkness, on January ninth,

298
00:30:29.079 --> 00:30:35.160
William Foster raised his rifle and shot both Louis and

299
00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:42.279
Salvador in cold blood. The others butchered the bodies and

300
00:30:42.480 --> 00:30:49.640
consumed their flesh, committing outright murder as well as cannibalism

301
00:30:50.400 --> 00:30:55.759
for survival. The killing of the Meewok men was not

302
00:30:55.839 --> 00:31:00.599
even hidden or punished. Later, as one has the Storian

303
00:31:00.720 --> 00:31:06.960
noted Foster quote was not greatly blamed for it, a

304
00:31:07.039 --> 00:31:11.960
grim reflection of the eighteen forty's attitude that Native American

305
00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:18.400
lives seemed to matter little. Such was the moral collapse

306
00:31:18.559 --> 00:31:25.480
wrought by desperation as well as prejudice. In a tragic irony,

307
00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:33.359
Miewok villagers ultimately saved the Forlorn Hope. On January twelfth,

308
00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:39.319
eighteen forty seven, the half dead survivors stumbled into a

309
00:31:39.440 --> 00:31:45.160
native camp in the foothills. The indigenous people recoiled at

310
00:31:45.160 --> 00:31:50.640
the sight of these gaunt specters. The pioneers were so

311
00:31:51.039 --> 00:31:56.920
ragged and frostbitten that the Meewalk initially fled, thinking they

312
00:31:57.079 --> 00:32:06.000
were evil spirits. Gaining compassion, the villagers cautiously approached again

313
00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:14.559
and offered the starving strangers some food acorns, pine nuts, grass,

314
00:32:15.640 --> 00:32:21.599
whatever they had. This simple charity likely saved the last

315
00:32:21.640 --> 00:32:28.319
seven of the Forlorn Hope. Mary Graves, William Eddy, and

316
00:32:28.440 --> 00:32:33.000
the others owed their lives to the very people. One

317
00:32:33.039 --> 00:32:40.359
of their party had slain. On January seventeen, Rescuers, guided

318
00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:45.920
by the meewalk found the emaciated, forlorn Hope survivors and

319
00:32:46.079 --> 00:32:51.160
helped carry them to a ranch in California. It had

320
00:32:51.240 --> 00:32:57.880
taken thirty three ghastly days, but against all odds, they

321
00:32:57.960 --> 00:33:03.759
made it out, and now at last the alarm was raised.

322
00:33:04.759 --> 00:33:08.480
The rest of the Donner Party was still trapped in

323
00:33:08.559 --> 00:33:20.960
those mountains, if any of them were even alive. News

324
00:33:21.079 --> 00:33:25.960
of the starving emigrants in the mountains spread rapidly through

325
00:33:26.039 --> 00:33:30.960
the settlements of northern California. Though it was the dead

326
00:33:31.000 --> 00:33:34.440
of winter and the nation was at war with Mexico,

327
00:33:35.240 --> 00:33:41.400
several rescue parties formed to save the Donner Party. The

328
00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:47.240
first Relief group, seven hardy frontiersmen, set out from Sutter's

329
00:33:47.279 --> 00:33:53.960
Fort on February fourth, eighteen forty seven. They struggled through

330
00:33:54.160 --> 00:34:00.279
rain swollen rivers and chest deep snows. Two men turned back,

331
00:34:01.000 --> 00:34:06.000
but the rest pushed on. Climbing The snow choked pass

332
00:34:06.279 --> 00:34:12.119
was arduous in places, drifts had reached over thirty feet tall,

333
00:34:12.760 --> 00:34:19.159
and the rescuers themselves were near collapse. On February eighteenth,

334
00:34:19.719 --> 00:34:25.480
eighteen forty seven, the First Relief finally crested what is

335
00:34:25.559 --> 00:34:30.800
now known as Donner Pass and approached the camps at

336
00:34:30.840 --> 00:34:38.159
Truckey Lake. What they found defied belief. As the rescuers

337
00:34:38.280 --> 00:34:44.199
neared the cabins, they began shouting and were met with

338
00:34:44.440 --> 00:34:52.360
eerie silence at first. Finally, a gaunt woman emerged from

339
00:34:52.440 --> 00:34:57.079
a hole in the snow. It was missus Lavina Murphy,

340
00:34:58.119 --> 00:35:02.719
so skeletal and ragged that the men were taken aback.

341
00:35:04.079 --> 00:35:10.079
Staring at the strangers, Her first words were recorded as quote,

342
00:35:11.159 --> 00:35:14.719
are you the men from California? Or do you come

343
00:35:14.760 --> 00:35:20.519
from Heaven? To the dying survivors, the relief party must

344
00:35:20.559 --> 00:35:27.039
indeed have looked like angels or apparitions. When the rescuers

345
00:35:27.119 --> 00:35:31.480
began distributing food, they had to do so in very

346
00:35:31.559 --> 00:35:36.719
small portions, for the emigrants were so starved that a

347
00:35:36.800 --> 00:35:43.559
normal meal could kill them by refeeding shock. All around

348
00:35:43.559 --> 00:35:48.679
the cabins were buried in snow. The stench of decomposed

349
00:35:48.800 --> 00:35:55.519
hides and filth was overpowering. Inside one cabin, the men

350
00:35:55.639 --> 00:36:02.559
saw human remains evidence that cannibalism had already occurred at

351
00:36:02.599 --> 00:36:08.639
Truckey Lake. Thirteen people had died and lay in makeshift

352
00:36:08.719 --> 00:36:13.400
graves in the snow near the cabins. Many of the

353
00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:20.639
survivors were mentally unstable, blankly stammering or weeping. The Murphy

354
00:36:20.760 --> 00:36:25.400
children told rescuers how their mother had been boiling ox

355
00:36:25.480 --> 00:36:31.679
hide into a disgusting jelly to feed them. Tamsen Donner,

356
00:36:32.239 --> 00:36:37.000
still stranded at Alder Creek with her husband, had carefully

357
00:36:37.159 --> 00:36:42.599
maintained an illusion for her little girls, telling them the

358
00:36:42.679 --> 00:36:47.760
boiled hides were milk porridge so they would eat it

359
00:36:48.440 --> 00:36:54.199
without crying. The rescuers urgently tried to lead as many

360
00:36:54.320 --> 00:37:00.000
survivors as possible back over the pass. Twenty three weeks

361
00:37:00.199 --> 00:37:05.519
and skeletal people left with the first relief, including the

362
00:37:05.599 --> 00:37:10.400
Red children and the Donner girls, but many others were

363
00:37:10.440 --> 00:37:15.440
too feeble to travel. About twenty one people remained at

364
00:37:15.480 --> 00:37:21.239
Truckey Lake Camp and another dozen at Alder Creek. With

365
00:37:21.360 --> 00:37:26.800
the Donners knowing more help was behind them, the first

366
00:37:26.880 --> 00:37:31.280
relief promised to return and hurried back down the mountain

367
00:37:31.679 --> 00:37:40.239
with their charges. Tragically, even this salvation was perilous. Several

368
00:37:40.280 --> 00:37:45.039
of those being rescued died on their way out, too

369
00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:51.360
far gone to recover. Among them was William Hook, a

370
00:37:51.480 --> 00:37:56.519
twelve year old who over eagerly ate too much and

371
00:37:56.679 --> 00:38:03.159
died on the trail, the others struggled down, half conscious

372
00:38:03.360 --> 00:38:08.519
and snowblind. The Reed children, saved by their father's return,

373
00:38:09.159 --> 00:38:14.880
had survived without ever resorting to cannibalism. As Virginia Reed

374
00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:21.079
proudly noted, hers was the only family that did not

375
00:38:21.400 --> 00:38:27.119
eat human flesh. In early March, a second relief expedition,

376
00:38:27.320 --> 00:38:32.280
led by none other than James Reed himself, finally arrived

377
00:38:32.360 --> 00:38:36.760
at the camps. Reed had raised funds and volunteers in

378
00:38:36.880 --> 00:38:42.000
California after fighting off sickness and even joining a battle

379
00:38:42.400 --> 00:38:46.599
in the Mexican American War, and now charged into the

380
00:38:46.679 --> 00:38:52.480
mountains to save his family. Reed found that many survivors

381
00:38:52.519 --> 00:38:59.400
had descended further into desperation during the interim. Human remains

382
00:38:59.440 --> 00:39:03.840
were found in the cabins, confirming that those left behind

383
00:39:04.440 --> 00:39:09.840
had eaten the dead indeed. On February twenty sixth Patrick

384
00:39:09.920 --> 00:39:14.920
Breen noted, matter of factly in his diary quote, the

385
00:39:15.039 --> 00:39:19.000
Donners told the California folks that they commenced to eat

386
00:39:19.079 --> 00:39:23.920
the dead people. Four days ago at the Alder Creek camp,

387
00:39:24.360 --> 00:39:29.480
George Donner was dying from an infected wound, and Tamsen

388
00:39:29.639 --> 00:39:34.760
Donner was tending to him faithfully. She could have left

389
00:39:34.800 --> 00:39:39.519
with Reed's party, but refused to abandon her husband. In

390
00:39:39.599 --> 00:39:45.280
his final hours, Reed evacuated his own wife, Margaret, and

391
00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:51.599
their children, along with many others seventeen people in all.

392
00:39:53.079 --> 00:39:58.320
The March trek down was catastrophic. Caught in yet another blizzard,

393
00:39:58.840 --> 00:40:05.679
Reid's second relief became scattered in what became called Starved Camp.

394
00:40:06.440 --> 00:40:11.199
A group of refugees was accidentally left behind in the snow,

395
00:40:12.400 --> 00:40:18.199
mostly children. When Reed realized not all had kept up,

396
00:40:18.800 --> 00:40:23.880
it was too late to turn back. Fourteen people, including

397
00:40:24.039 --> 00:40:29.639
five children, were stranded left in the storm, with only

398
00:40:29.760 --> 00:40:35.440
two of Reed's men, Charles Katy and Charles Stone, to

399
00:40:35.559 --> 00:40:40.280
help them. Those two men soon abandoned the children to

400
00:40:40.360 --> 00:40:45.840
save themselves, each carrying one child and leaving the rest.

401
00:40:47.199 --> 00:40:51.719
The little ones were found huddled in the open, half frozen,

402
00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:59.440
eating tattered rawhide strips from a rescuer's snowshoe fringe to survive.

403
00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:12.920
It was an appalling scene of neglect and misery. Then

404
00:41:12.960 --> 00:41:17.719
occurred one of the truly heroic moments of the tragedy.

405
00:41:18.760 --> 00:41:24.039
A third relief party, including a large, strong settler named

406
00:41:24.199 --> 00:41:30.679
John Stark, arrived at Starved Camp in mid March Stark

407
00:41:30.760 --> 00:41:37.360
discovered nine children and two women barely alive, abandoned in

408
00:41:37.480 --> 00:41:42.400
the snow. The other rescuers with him were inclined to

409
00:41:42.519 --> 00:41:47.639
each grab a single child and retreat, possibly leaving the

410
00:41:47.719 --> 00:41:54.719
rest to die. Stark flatly refused. In an extraordinary act

411
00:41:54.800 --> 00:42:00.800
of compassion and strength, he carried the starving children two

412
00:42:01.239 --> 00:42:06.360
at a time on his back, shuttling back and forth,

413
00:42:06.920 --> 00:42:13.679
determined to take everyone to safety. It was painfully slow,

414
00:42:14.199 --> 00:42:18.000
and he was a giant in strength by one account,

415
00:42:19.119 --> 00:42:25.760
but all nine children survived thanks to Stark's resolve. One

416
00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:31.519
rescued child later credited the deliverance to quote nobody but

417
00:42:31.639 --> 00:42:37.000
God and Stark and the Virgin Mary. Such a display

418
00:42:37.039 --> 00:42:42.480
of selflessness and courage stands in stark contrast to the

419
00:42:42.559 --> 00:42:48.639
horrors surrounding the Donner Party in that moment, John Stark

420
00:42:48.760 --> 00:42:55.000
single handedly kept the flicker of humanity alive. By April

421
00:42:55.079 --> 00:42:59.239
of eighteen forty seven, more than four months after the

422
00:42:59.320 --> 00:43:04.480
party became came snowbound, a fourth and final relief mission

423
00:43:05.079 --> 00:43:10.639
braved the mountains. These last rescuers arrived at the camps

424
00:43:10.679 --> 00:43:16.440
to a grizzly tableaux at Truckey Lake. Only one man

425
00:43:17.400 --> 00:43:23.679
was found alive Lewis Kesberg, lying amidst the remains of

426
00:43:24.199 --> 00:43:29.599
his former companions. The rescuers recoiled at the sight of

427
00:43:29.760 --> 00:43:34.960
half consumed bodies and severed limbs scattered around the cabin

428
00:43:35.559 --> 00:43:41.599
where Kesperg lay. They discovered a pot filled with boiled

429
00:43:41.800 --> 00:43:48.119
human flesh on the fire. Kesperg, gaunt and wild eyed

430
00:43:48.519 --> 00:43:55.000
with an injured leg, had been completely alone, literally living

431
00:43:55.079 --> 00:44:01.000
on human flesh for weeks. He had also gathered up gold,

432
00:44:01.079 --> 00:44:07.639
coins and jewelry belonging to the Donners. Enraged, the rescuers

433
00:44:07.719 --> 00:44:12.599
threatened to lynch Kesberg on the spot for murdering Tamsen

434
00:44:12.800 --> 00:44:19.480
Donner and others. Kesperg swore he had not killed anyone,

435
00:44:19.519 --> 00:44:24.639
insisting Tamson had arrived at his camp after her husband died,

436
00:44:25.519 --> 00:44:31.519
only to expire naturally overnight. He admitted he had cashed

437
00:44:31.639 --> 00:44:36.360
some of the Donner's money at her request in order

438
00:44:36.480 --> 00:44:41.840
to deliver to her surviving children. Whether or not this

439
00:44:42.199 --> 00:44:47.559
was true, the men found his story suspicious, but in

440
00:44:47.639 --> 00:44:51.920
the end they spared his life and brought him down

441
00:44:52.039 --> 00:44:58.320
the mountain, the last survivor of the Donner party. Of

442
00:44:58.360 --> 00:45:02.840
the eighty seven men, women and children who had been

443
00:45:02.960 --> 00:45:09.159
snowbound in the Sierra. Only forty eight survived to reach California.

444
00:45:10.360 --> 00:45:16.559
Almost half the party had perished, most from starvation and exposure.

445
00:45:17.920 --> 00:45:22.920
The survivors were primarily women and children, among them all

446
00:45:23.079 --> 00:45:27.440
seven of the Breen children, all four of the Reed children,

447
00:45:28.079 --> 00:45:32.960
and all three of George Donners little girls. The Reed

448
00:45:33.079 --> 00:45:38.960
family remarkably suffered no fatalities. Margaret Reed had kept her

449
00:45:39.079 --> 00:45:46.039
children alive without cannibalism until James Reed's return. The Donner

450
00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:53.360
family tragically was devastated. George and Tamsen Donner both died

451
00:45:53.679 --> 00:45:58.360
in the mountains, leaving their orphaned daughters to be raised

452
00:45:58.800 --> 00:46:03.280
by relatives. When the story of the Donner Party's ordeal

453
00:46:03.519 --> 00:46:07.880
hit newspapers in June and July of eighteen forty seven,

454
00:46:08.639 --> 00:46:14.559
it shocked the nation. Sensational reports focused on cannibalism and

455
00:46:14.679 --> 00:46:20.760
alleged murders. One newspaper described Kesperg as a ghoul who

456
00:46:20.880 --> 00:46:25.559
relished human liver and accused him of killing Tamson Donner

457
00:46:26.320 --> 00:46:32.679
for food. In California, Louis Kesberg became a pariah, widely

458
00:46:32.760 --> 00:46:38.440
reviled as a bloodthirsty cannibal. He actually filed a defamation

459
00:46:38.639 --> 00:46:43.519
suit against one of the rescuers for their accusations. A

460
00:46:43.599 --> 00:46:47.679
court later found no proof of murder, awarding him a

461
00:46:47.760 --> 00:46:53.559
token one dollar in damages, and even one of Donner's daughters,

462
00:46:54.039 --> 00:46:59.719
Eliza Donner Houghton, defended Kesberg's actions as driven simply by

463
00:46:59.719 --> 00:47:05.599
miss necessity, but not evil. Yet Kesberg lived under a

464
00:47:05.679 --> 00:47:09.559
shadow for the rest of his life, shunned as the

465
00:47:09.599 --> 00:47:15.519
man who ate human flesh and quote liked it. History

466
00:47:15.599 --> 00:47:19.480
perhaps unfairly cast him as the villain of the tale.

467
00:47:20.280 --> 00:47:24.920
In truth, virtually all the survivors except the Red family

468
00:47:25.199 --> 00:47:29.480
and a few others, had eaten the dead to survive,

469
00:47:30.679 --> 00:47:35.559
as historian George Stewart wrote, an ordeal by hunger. None

470
00:47:35.639 --> 00:47:40.280
of them, not even Kesberg, could be morally condemned for

471
00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:45.159
that final resort quote, for it was the result of

472
00:47:45.320 --> 00:47:51.719
necessity under extreme duress. It is telling that no charges

473
00:47:51.800 --> 00:47:57.119
were ever brought against any Donner Party survivor for cannibalism

474
00:47:57.280 --> 00:48:02.400
or violence. The world under stood on some level that

475
00:48:02.599 --> 00:48:06.760
these ordinary people had been driven beyond the bounds of

476
00:48:06.880 --> 00:48:13.440
sanity by hunger and fear. Public reaction to the Donner

477
00:48:13.519 --> 00:48:19.079
Party was a mix of horror and grim fascination. The

478
00:48:19.119 --> 00:48:25.079
incident quickly became legend a cautionary tale about the dangers

479
00:48:25.159 --> 00:48:31.760
of westward migration. It did not, however, stop the wagon trains.

480
00:48:32.719 --> 00:48:38.800
The California trail only grew busier in subsequent years, though

481
00:48:39.039 --> 00:48:43.880
no emigrant ever dared take the Hastings cut off again.

482
00:48:44.960 --> 00:48:50.440
In fact, the Donner disaster likely saved later lives by

483
00:48:50.559 --> 00:48:56.079
starkly illustrating the importance of sticking to known trails and

484
00:48:56.360 --> 00:49:02.320
hurrying along to beat the snow. Emigrant guide books thereafter

485
00:49:02.920 --> 00:49:08.599
all warned of the fate that befell the Donner Read party.

486
00:49:15.280 --> 00:49:19.280
In the aftermath, the survivors tried to put their shattered

487
00:49:19.360 --> 00:49:25.639
lives back together. Virginia Read later wrote to her cousin, quote,

488
00:49:26.079 --> 00:49:29.239
thank God, we have got through, and we have got

489
00:49:29.280 --> 00:49:33.159
through with our lives. She ended her letter with the

490
00:49:33.280 --> 00:49:38.320
hard earned advice quote, never take no cut offs and

491
00:49:38.480 --> 00:49:43.360
hurry along as fast as you can. Virginia and the

492
00:49:43.440 --> 00:49:47.840
Read family settled in San Jose, California, and went on

493
00:49:48.039 --> 00:49:54.280
to prosper, their terrible winter becoming just one chapter in

494
00:49:54.400 --> 00:50:00.719
a long life. The Breen family also survived, intact, all

495
00:50:00.880 --> 00:50:06.119
nine of them. Little Isabella Breen, an infant during the ordeal,

496
00:50:06.760 --> 00:50:11.039
lived to be ninety years old, the last survivor of

497
00:50:11.159 --> 00:50:16.920
the Donner Party, passing away in nineteen thirty five. Many

498
00:50:17.000 --> 00:50:22.159
of the orphans were adopted by California families. The legacy

499
00:50:22.199 --> 00:50:29.320
of trauma, however, lingered. The survivors had faced unspeakable choices

500
00:50:29.800 --> 00:50:35.679
that haunted them in nightmares. Years afterward. Mary Graves, who

501
00:50:35.719 --> 00:50:39.280
had eaten human flesh out on the forlorn Hope track,

502
00:50:39.920 --> 00:50:45.119
wrote quote, I often dream of the dead. They do

503
00:50:45.199 --> 00:50:50.760
not disturb me as they used to. The experience marked

504
00:50:50.800 --> 00:50:57.199
them forever. Today. A stone monument stands at Donner Lake,

505
00:50:57.920 --> 00:51:02.199
its pedestal base twenty two feet high, the height of

506
00:51:02.280 --> 00:51:07.800
the snow pack that terrible winter. Nearby. Tree stumps cut

507
00:51:07.920 --> 00:51:12.440
by the emigrants at head height above the ground, visible

508
00:51:12.519 --> 00:51:17.119
once the snow melted, silently testify to the depths of

509
00:51:17.199 --> 00:51:24.079
the snow and desperation of that camp. The very landscape

510
00:51:24.079 --> 00:51:30.000
bears their story. Historians have identified the shallow graves the

511
00:51:30.039 --> 00:51:36.280
camp site, even recovered physical artifacts like bones with cut marks.

512
00:51:37.599 --> 00:51:41.679
The tale of the Donner Party endures as the most

513
00:51:41.719 --> 00:51:47.639
haunting episode in the history of the Westward migration, a

514
00:51:47.679 --> 00:51:55.079
story of ordinary people driven to extraordinary extremes. What makes

515
00:51:55.119 --> 00:52:00.480
the Donner Party story so terrifying is not just the cannibalism,

516
00:52:01.000 --> 00:52:07.079
but the slow unraveling of all moral certainties. These were devout,

517
00:52:07.639 --> 00:52:13.119
hard working Americans, people with children, who believed in God

518
00:52:13.320 --> 00:52:17.920
and civilization. In the span of just a few months,

519
00:52:18.440 --> 00:52:23.599
they went from singing hymns around campfires to considering murder

520
00:52:24.320 --> 00:52:29.480
for a few strips of flesh. As Patrick Breen wrote

521
00:52:29.679 --> 00:52:36.000
on February twenty six, eighteen forty seven, quote Hungry Times

522
00:52:36.079 --> 00:52:40.960
in camp, Missus Murphy said here yesterday that she thought

523
00:52:41.079 --> 00:52:45.960
she would commence on Milt and eat him. I don't

524
00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:51.920
think she has done so yet. It is distressing. The

525
00:52:52.039 --> 00:52:56.119
very fact that such words appear in a pioneer's diary

526
00:52:56.920 --> 00:53:01.880
chills the soul. Missus Murphy was a widow and mother.

527
00:53:02.760 --> 00:53:06.119
Hunger had pushed her to the verge of killing a

528
00:53:06.159 --> 00:53:12.360
young man for food. This is the true horror of

529
00:53:12.480 --> 00:53:17.400
the Donner Party, the way desperation can erode the bonds

530
00:53:17.480 --> 00:53:23.159
of kinship and conscience. And yet, remarkably, even in this

531
00:53:23.400 --> 00:53:30.639
horror we find acts of tremendous bravery and decency. Missus

532
00:53:30.719 --> 00:53:36.119
Murphy did not ultimately harm Milton Elliott. The rescue parties

533
00:53:36.159 --> 00:53:40.360
did not abandon the most hopeless, and people like John

534
00:53:40.519 --> 00:53:46.519
Stark emerged as heroes. The Donner tragedy forces us to

535
00:53:46.599 --> 00:53:52.280
ask how thin the line is between civilization and savagery,

536
00:53:52.960 --> 00:53:57.639
and it shows that even in humanity's darkest hours, light

537
00:53:58.079 --> 00:54:03.840
and virtue can flick back to life in the end.

538
00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:09.559
The Donner Party story is terrifying and true in equal measure.

539
00:54:10.519 --> 00:54:15.840
It's a cautionary saga of hubris taking an unproven shortcut

540
00:54:16.119 --> 00:54:20.800
and of nature's unforgiving power. It's a tale of human

541
00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:26.559
beings pushed to the brink, confronting the prospect appalling of

542
00:54:26.639 --> 00:54:32.199
their own extinction. We remember the Donner Party for the cannibalism,

543
00:54:32.920 --> 00:54:36.039
but we should also remember it for the courage of

544
00:54:36.119 --> 00:54:40.800
those who endured, and for the lessons their experience taught.

545
00:54:41.719 --> 00:54:47.000
As survivor. Virginia Read reflected years later, quote, I have

546
00:54:47.119 --> 00:54:50.960
not written you half of the trouble. Thank god we

547
00:54:51.039 --> 00:54:57.159
are alive. Her family salvation came at a terrible price,

548
00:54:58.239 --> 00:55:03.079
the loss of friends, the loss of innocence. But they

549
00:55:03.119 --> 00:55:09.519
did survive, as did nearly half of those snow bound emigrants.

550
00:55:10.960 --> 00:55:14.199
So when we think of the Donner Party, we should

551
00:55:14.199 --> 00:55:19.400
look beyond the gruesome headlines of cannibalism. We should picture

552
00:55:19.559 --> 00:55:24.800
families huddled together in the dark, a mother giving the

553
00:55:24.880 --> 00:55:30.400
last scrap of dried hide to her crying child, a

554
00:55:30.480 --> 00:55:34.400
father saying prayers over the body of a child he

555
00:55:34.519 --> 00:55:40.760
couldn't save. Picture the moment when rescue finally arrived, the

556
00:55:40.800 --> 00:55:47.239
gaunt figures emerging into the blinding light, weeping with relief.

557
00:55:48.079 --> 00:55:52.280
The story of the Donner Party is a human story,

558
00:55:52.920 --> 00:55:58.360
not a horror movie. It is about ordinary people facing

559
00:55:58.880 --> 00:56:03.960
the endurable, in that it speaks to the depths of

560
00:56:04.119 --> 00:56:10.000
human endurance and the will to live. As the snow

561
00:56:10.159 --> 00:56:14.320
thawed in the spring of eighteen forty seven, the pass

562
00:56:14.480 --> 00:56:18.800
opened and the tragedy in those mountains came to an end.

563
00:56:19.920 --> 00:56:24.239
But the tale of the Donner Party remains evergreen in

564
00:56:24.320 --> 00:56:30.400
American memory, a testament to the extraordinary resilience of the

565
00:56:30.480 --> 00:56:37.000
human spirit. Terrifying and true. Indeed, the Donner Party's ordeal

566
00:56:37.159 --> 00:56:43.559
reminds us that under extreme conditions, moral norms can crumble,

567
00:56:43.920 --> 00:56:50.239
yet even then, acts of love and sacrifice can shine through.

568
00:56:51.800 --> 00:56:57.400
It's a story we recoil from, yet we cannot forget it.

569
00:56:58.360 --> 00:57:03.320
And when future pioneers headed west, they heeded the Donner

570
00:57:03.400 --> 00:57:10.079
Party's legacy, never delay, never stray from the path, and

571
00:57:10.280 --> 00:57:17.559
never underestimate the wilderness. Terrifying and True is narrated by

572
00:57:17.639 --> 00:57:21.400
Enrique Kuto. It's executive produced by Rob Fields and bobble

573
00:57:21.440 --> 00:57:25.320
Toopia dot com and produced by Dan Wilder, with original

574
00:57:25.360 --> 00:57:28.280
theme music by Ray Mattis. If you have a story

575
00:57:28.320 --> 00:57:31.159
you think we should cover on Terrifying and True, send

576
00:57:31.239 --> 00:57:34.840
us an email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com,

577
00:57:34.880 --> 00:57:36.400
and if you want to support us for as little

578
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as one dollar a month, go to Weeklyspooky dot com

579
00:57:39.159 --> 00:57:41.960
slash Join. Your support for as little as one dollar

580
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a month keeps the show going. And speaking of I

581
00:57:44.559 --> 00:57:46.320
want to say an extra special thank you to our

582
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Patreon podcast boosters, folks who pay a little bit more

583
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584
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And they are Johnny Nix, Kate and Lulu, Jessica Fuller,

585
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Mike Escuwey, Jenny Green, Amber Hansford, Karen Wee, Met Jack Ker,

586
00:57:59.719 --> 00:58:02.119
and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so much and thank

587
00:58:02.159 --> 00:58:05.199
you for listening. We'll see you all right here next time.

588
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On Terrifying and True.