Cyndi's List - Migration Routes, Roads & Trails - Wagon Trains With the Sierra pass just 12 miles beyond, the wagon train, after attempting to make the pass through the heavy snow, finally retreated to the eastern end of the lake, where level ground and timber was abundant. The Bonnie Brooke Story: Directed by Allen H. Miner. You're probably familiar with the story of the Donner party, the second-most famous thing about the Oregon Trail. The others were taken captive, but only four were ransomed back the other fell ill and died. In 1856, a series of poor harvests left the church with only a meager fund to . From September 10ththrough the 25th, the party followed the trail intoNevadaaround the Ruby Mountains, finally reaching the Humboldt River on September 26th. It was a horrific road trip. 1. Seriously, you don't have it that bad, and if there's one consolation it's the surviving girls' memoirs that talk about the kindness they experienced along the way. The Hide Hunters. When he sees an opportunity at the bank, it leads to tragedy. As was their custom, the Indians attacked at dawn, and the whites were compelled to run their coaches alongside each other, pile mail-sacks between the wheels, and throw sand over them for breastworks. Donner party | History, Facts, & Survivors | Britannica Of the 81. Devil's Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy. Infuriated by the teamsters treatment of the oxen, James Reed ordered the man to stop and when he wouldnt, Reed grabbed his knife and stabbed the teamster in the stomach, killing him. Along the way, William Russell resigned as the captain of the wagon train and the position was assumed by a man named William M. Boggs. Generally, the first fire from the Indians killed one or two horses and tumbled a soldier or two off the top of the coach. In a letter to her cousin in Illinois, Virginia Reed recounted that I have not wrote you half of the truble, but I hav Wrote you anuf to let you now what truble is, before concluding, Dont let this letter dishaten anybody. Breens account of the winter of 184647 would provide the only contemporary written record of the Donner partys ordeal. On March 14ththey arrived at the Alder Creek camp to find George Donner was dying from an infection in the hand that he had injured months before. When he sees an opportuni Don Brooke is desperate for money for his pregnant wife Bonnie, whose condition is too delicate for the long trip without more medical care so he seeks a bank loan. In truth, there wasn't much conflict between the Native American tribes and early travelers, who were mostly fur traders and missionaries. They reached the Humboldt River on September 26th. For 15 years, he was the terror of the Trail, and his acts of atrocity were incessant. At the time, local Sioux were starting to demand more and more in the way of tolls, which makes sense considering the number of people tromping across their land. As early as 1860, trouble began after the beginning of emigration to Colorado and the discovery of gold in the Rocky Mountains. Reed had recently read the bookTheEmigrants Guide to Oregon and California, by Landsford W. Hastings, who advertised a new shortcut across the Great Basin. The dead of those awful years lies numberless and nameless in their unknown, scattered graves. On the far side of the desert, an inventory of food was taken and found to be less than adequate for the 600-mile trek still ahead. Two rescuers, Jean-Baptiste Trudeau and Nicholas Clark were left behind to care for the Donners, but soon abandon them to catch up with the relief party. Let's talk about why, in the least gross way possible. My father, with tears in his eyes, triedto smile as one friend after another grasped his hand in a last farewell. While at Fort Laramie, Reed had been warned against attempting the route by an old friend from Illinois who had just completed the west-to-east journey through Hastings Cutoff, but the group chose to press ahead. In 1921, a rebellion against British colonial rule by Mappila Muslims broke out in the Malabar District of British India. Another memorable raid was made all along the 200 miles between Julesburg, Colorado, and Liberty Farm, at the head of the Little Blue River in Nebraska, in August 1864. The Raton Range had been safely surmounted, and, just about dawn one morning, the heavy coach entered the canyon of the Canadian River, its occupants unsuspicious of any danger. Firearms were the second leading cause of emigrant injury and death and a surprisingly large number of pioneers were injured by accidental firearm discharges. Crossing rivers were probably the most dangerous thing pioneers did. Please select which sections you would like to print: Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. The surviving members had differing viewpoints, biases and recollections so what actually happened was never extremely clear. Santana had his headquarters in what is now known as the Cheyenne Bottoms, eight miles from the Great Bend of the Arkansas Riverand about the same distance from old Fort Zarah,Kansas. About this time, fear began to set in as provisions were running low and time was against them. Encountering few problems along the trail, the pioneers reachedFort Laramiejust one week behind schedule on June 27, 1846. As soon as Cody got a glimpse of the Indians, he handed the reins to Flowers and began applying the whip. Twenty men stayed at Devil's Gate to guard the wagon-train goods for the rest of the winter. The rescue parties stumbled across some stragglers, but the most horrific scene was discovered by a Lieutenant Anderson. Good in theory, but how many bankers knew which way to hold a gun? Only two of the ten men survived, including William Eddy and William Foster, but all five women lived through the journey. The pioneer needed to go with little sleep, bear illness, suffering, and even, tragedy through the many weeks of travel. 320 North 4th Street The emigrant party consisted of only 11 people in five wagons. In the twenty-one days since reaching the Weber River they had moved just 36 miles. Never for a moment could they feel secure; every trip promised to be their last, and many a time, the coach dashed up to a station only to find it in ruins and surrounded by dead. While on a scout with his troop from Fort Union, New Mexico, Bell came upon White Wolf and an equal number of Apache. When she came down with cholera, he just gave her a cup of camphor, because that's what you do, right? The Oregon Trail was one of the primary routes for American settlers heading from the Eastern States out to the Wild West. The rest of the pioneers stayed at what would become known as Starved Camp.. According to Peter D. Olch, being run over by wagon wheels was the most frequent cause of injury or death. Clyman advised Reed not to take the Hastings Route, stating that the road was barely passable on foot and would be impossible with wagons; also warning him of the great desert and the Sierra Nevadas. Five of the emigrants died before reaching the mountain camps, 34 at the camps or on the mountains while attempting to cross, and one just after reaching the settlements. Twenty-two people, consisting of the Donner family and their hired men, stayed behind while the wagon was repaired. As they broke a new trail through the nearly impassible terrain of the Wasatch Mountains, they lost about two weeks time. Indian Attack on a Wagon Train by Charles Marion Russell The first notable tragedy on the Santa Fe Trail connected to stage coaching occurred almost with the first effort to establish the line. It was also the headquarters of the telegraph on the Plains, which had been inaugurated in 1861. About the Author: Adventures and Tragedies on the Overland Trail was written by Randall Parrish as a chapter of his book, The Great Plains: The Romance of Western American Exploration, Warfare, and Settlement, 1527-1870; published by A.C. McClurg & Co. in Chicago, 1907. Many of those who survived lost toes to frostbite. The wagon train comprised 18 to 30 wagons pulled by ox and mule teams, plus several hundred cattle and a number of blooded horses the men were driving to California's Central Valley. October 28th, an exhausted James Reed arrived at Sutters Fort, where he met William McCutchen, now recovered, and the two men began preparations to go back for their families. They lived, met, married, and had a son you probably know of: Butch Cassidy. Event image of various prairie wagons in use. Antonio, Patrick Dolan, Franklin Graves, and Lemuel Murphy soon died and in desperation, the others resorted to cannibalism. ", He spent two months in the cabin, surrounded by the bodies of his dead friends, with wolves scratching to get to the meat inside. There was actually someone riding ahead of the Donner Party acting as a scout, and Edwin Bryant sent a letter back warning them it was too dangerous to take the so-called shortcut. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. I remember the days traveling in a Connastoga Wagon and nites sleeping under the . The Wagon Tragedy: The 70 martyrs of goods wagon 1711 Their first destination wasIndependence,Missouri, the main jumping-off point for theOregonandCalifornia Trails. The people in camp were being starved by a combination of the holdup of promised rations and suddenly needing to share their resources with thousands of extra mouths. Passengers and employees had to crowd into the coach and use every effort to keep from freezing, and at the end, often found themselves minus mules with which to complete the journey. The Deadliest Wagon Train On The Oregon Trail - YouTube Taking a vote among the party members, the group decided to try the new trail rather than backtracking to Fort Bridger. Cholera was the main scourge of the trail. On May 25ththe train was held for several days by high water at the Big Blue River near present-day Marysville,Kansas. It was not pleasant; this sitting perched up on top of a coach, riding through dark ravines and tall grass, in which savages were ever lurking. Roadtrippers says Blue Mound, Kansas, was the site of the first accidental gun death on the trail, and it happened to the ill-named John Shotwell. Julesburg must have contained at this period something over a hundred civilian inhabitants, most of them employees of the stage company. Reed would continue west on horseback while the rest of his family remained with the Donner party. Those who didn't wait tended to drown in full view of others. The Tragic Story of the Donner Party - Legends of America Imagine taking your entire family across the country with only what you can pack into a minivan, and no rest stops or Taco Bells along the way. A week later they joined a large wagon train captained by Colonel William H. Russell that was camped on Indian Creek about 100 miles west ofIndependence. About 55 miles of the telegraph line was destroyed, stage stations razed, and employees killed, for long distances east and west. Mail coaches, freight caravans, ranches, and parties putting up hay were attacked simultaneously. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Donner-party, Legends of America - The Tragic Story of the Donner Party, EyeWitness to History.com - The Tragic Fate of the Donner Party, 1847, Online Nevada Encyclopedia - Donner Party, Donner party - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Occasionally the eight frisky mules would prove too much for their driver, and there would be a runaway, and a broken coach, to be repaired with whatever tools might be at hand. Cholera is one of those old-timey diseases you definitely don't want, and it was a huge problem for a very gross reason, especially in the floodplain around the Platte River crossing. Wagon Train cast list, including photos of the actors when available. who were witness to this tragedy. The National Park Service calls the Oregon Trail "this nation's longest graveyard." The Reeds, the Donners, and a number of others chose to head southwest toward Fort Bridger. Once a band of several hundred Sioux set upon him. Donner Party Map, courtesy Donner Party Diary. and brush to protect themselves from the harsh conditions. Colonel George Wright, who was in charge of the military presence and rescue mission, said they likely would have survived if it wasn't for the cowards. Diseases and serious illnesses caused the deaths of nine out of ten pioneers. There was one major problem, thoug. The Santa Fe Trail was the first used for staging purposes and was also the first to be reddened with blood and witness the hardships of prairie travel. During a months harrowing, often overwhelming hardships from cold, storms, deep snow, and inadequate food, they struggled on. The Donner Party | History to Go In 1972, the Kerala Government called it the Wagon Tragedy. There are many examples of bungling, bad decisions and charlatans who conned the settlers, but the tragedy that befell the Donner Party in 1846 outranks them all. The letter stated that Hastings would meet the emigrants at Fort Bridger and lead them on his cutoff, which passed south of the Great Salt Lake instead of detouring northwest via Fort Hall (present-day Pocatello,Idaho.). The Donner Party is One of the Most Disturbing Stories from the Oregon Trail. Passengers took their lives in their hands, and only the most daring and reckless men volunteered for the desperate service of driver or messenger. Don Brooke is desperate for money for his pregnant wife Bonnie, whose condition is too delicate for the long trip without more medical care so he seeks a bank loan. National Oregon/California Trail Center That's horrible, but there's a fascinating footnote that comes out of all this. Don Brooke is desperate for money for his pregnant wife Bonnie, whose condition is too delicate for the long trip without more medical care so he seeks a bank loan. You can imagine how that went. The first notable tragedy on the Santa Fe Trail connected to stage coaching occurred almost with the first effort to establish the line. It was here that the new trail met up with Hastings original path. In the beginning, the wagon train was lucky to make even two miles per day, taking them six days just to travel eight miles. On the Trail - The "IKENBERRY" Party - 1849. Unfortunately, while cutting timber for a new axle, a chisel slipped and Donner cut his hand badly, causing the group to fall further behind. Two days after they started out it began to rain. The Donner Partycontinued to travel along the Humboldt River with their remaining draft animals exhausted. The initial group included 32 men, women and children. This custom of guarding coaches by soldiers along the Overland Trail was inaugurated during the Sioux uprising of 1863. This list includes all of the Wagon Train main actors and actresses, so if they are an integral part of the show you'll find them below.You can various bits of trivia about these Wagon Train stars, such as where the actor was born and what their year of birth is. It didn't always end well. . Obviously adventurous, the brothers decided to make one last trip toCalifornia, which unfortunately would be their last. Hide hunters, hunters who kill buffalo for their hides only, have temporarily joined up with the wagon train. On the Trail - The Westward Movement. Stantons partner, William McCutchen had fallen ill and remained at the fort. 10 Things You Should Know About the Donner Party - History Instantly they were fiercely attacked by an ambushed party of Apache under White Wolf. During 1863-65 the Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne were all upon the warpath. He was interviewed a few times, and when he was 62 he issued his first formal statement. He was a member of the Donner Party, and according to Sierra College, he paid horribly for his survival. Katharine Ross whose stardom still awaited gives a stunning performance in the It's an undeniable fact: the cycle of life doesn't stop for anyone or anything, and there were a surprising number of newborn babies traveling the trail. Bell was not hit, but four or five of his men were killed or wounded. He was as cruel and heartless an Indian as ever ambushed a stagecoach or murdered helpless women. Hastings, who had promised to lead migrants along the trail, left Fort Bridger with a different company of wagons, and it fell to Reed to act as the companys guide. On March 12ththe third relief led by William Eddy and William Foster reached Starved Camp where Mrs. Graves and her son Franklin had also died. Swollen rivers could tip over and drown both people and oxen. By 1850, the area was swimming with cholera. Wagon Train is an American Western series that aired 8 seasons: first on the NBC television network (1957-1962), and then on ABC (1962-1965). resident and Western Writers of America executive director Candy Moulton traveled with the Mormon Trail Sesquicentennial Wagon Train in 1997, pushing and pulling a . They ate all kinds of nasty plants and passed the problems on in their milk. The caravan camped for five days 50 miles from the summit, resting their oxen for the final push. George P. Belden, well known in those days as The White Chief, thus describes the disagreeable duties: Troops were stationed in small squads at every station, about ten miles apart, and they rode from station to station on the top of all coaches, holding their guns ever ready for action. Fort Laramie Parade Grounds, photo by Kathy Alexander. If you're of a certain age, you remember spending hours naming your Oregon Trail family after your own family or friends, guiding their MS-DOS-based adventures, and laughing when brother Stinky Johnny died of dysentery. While the party camped near modern-day Henefer,Utah,James Reed, along with two other men forged ahead on horses to catch up with Hastings. Along the entire journey, others would join the group until its size numbered 87. Jim Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez assured the Donner Party that the Hastings Cutoff was a good route. I hope that this does not impede what has been a tradition and legacy to the town of Canton and a historical memory of times lost. Tensions continued to mount as more and more people headed West, though, and on August 19, 1854, one hotheaded idiot kick-started a 22-year war. Updates? s Wagon Train. Cholera was the main scourge of the trail. Susannah was passed into the care of a new mother breastfeeding her own child, and Altonen says in order to keep that woman's child away from any possible infection the orphan might be carrying, the caregiver opted to give the baby cow's milk instead of breastfeeding. My squad had to ride up to Cottonwood, and down to the station below, where they waited for the next coach going the other way, and returned by it to their post at Oilmans. One member of the party, Charles Stanton, snow-blind and exhausted was unable to keep up with the rest of the party and told them to go on. They were heading for California, not Oregon (via Online Nevada), when they set off in 1846, and about half met their grisly end in the Sierra Nevada mountains. A few days later, the party was caught in a blizzard and had great difficulty getting and keeping a fire lit. On the third day in the desert, their water supply was nearly exhausted and some of Reeds oxen ran away. As the rest of the party continued to what is now known as Donners Lake, snow began to fall. See production, box office & company info, Stage 19, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA. By the time they reached the shore, they also blamed James Reed. The note indicated that Hastings had left with another group and that later travelers should follow and catch up. Miraculously, just three days later on October 19th, one of the men the party had sent on to Fort Sutter Charles Stanton, returned laden with seven mules loaded with beef and flour, two Indian guides, and news of a clear, but difficult path through the SierraNevada. Naomi Sager descended into a sort of grief-stricken illness, and her daughter Catherine wrote she was, "at times perfectly insane." The fertile farmlands of central California drew a steady stream of settlers in the 1840s, and in the spring of 1846 several families from Springfield, Illinois, joined the westward migration. The Donner party stranded in the Sierra Nevada Range, 1847. Keseberg was the last member of the Donner Party to arrive at Sutters Fort on April 29th. Burials often were done right in the middle of the trail, where wagons could roll over and animals trample it down in order to erase the scent so wolves could not pick up the scent. Being caught there by a raging snowstorm was undoubtedly a terrible experience. Everyone was in the same boat, so to speak, and traders didn't have much use for the more impractical items they'd brought along. The wagon train reached Independence, Missouri about three weeks later, where they re-supplied. While the journey west was traditionally considered dangerous and deadly, this was especially the case for the Donner Party. His name was John Lawrence Grattan, and he was a second lieutenant in the Army stationed at Fort Laramie. His wife Tamzene, though in comparatively good health, refused to leave him; sending her three little girls on without her. The group scattered, and one of the soldiers made it to a military camp outside Fort Dalles to sound the alarm. It was the worst disaster of the overland migration to California. At Donner Lake, two more attempts were made to get over the pass in twenty feet of snow, until they finally realized they were snowbound for the winter. The ill-fated Utter-Van Ornum wagon train would go down in history with the dubious honor of being the deadliest wagon train (via the Idaho Chapter Oregon-California Trails Association). Beside the driver, named Frank Williams, sat one of the robbers, thoroughly disguised. Tensions were running high among the exhausted migrants, and on October 5 an altercation between Reed and a teamster employed by another family ended with Reed fatally stabbing the man. Indian Attack on a Wagon Train by Charles Marion Russell. The British Raj tried to cover up this heinous event but. The Oregon Trail Was Filled with Hardship and Surprises, these 16 Facts The Government offered $5000 for his capture, dead or alive, but death finally came to him in the form of malarial fever. Also in the group were the families of George and Jacob Donner. In July 1865, a stage carrying seven passengers and containing a considerable amount of gold bullion was the object of such an attack. On July 19ththe wagon train arrived at the Little Sandy River in present-day Wyoming, where the trail parted into two routes the northerly known route and the untested Hastings Cutoff. They then took 23 of the starving emigrants, including 17 children, back to the settlements; several deaths occurred on the way. But once settlers started heading West and claiming land for themselves all willy-nilly, not everyone was pleased. The pioneers lost valuable days conducting a fruitless search for the missing oxen before beginning a circuitous navigation of the Ruby Mountains in modern northeastern Nevada. Though Sarah Keyes was so sick with consumption that she could barely walk, she was unwilling to be separated from her only daughter. Here, the train split, with the majority of the large caravan taking the safer route. [Colonel Henry Inman] describes what followed: Both lines by command fired, following the example of their superiors, the troopers, however, spurring forward over their enemies. Instead, they never gave them the warning, sending them to some of the darkest days imaginable, all in the name of making a buck. Soldiers were used to guarding the stagecoaches, yet attacks were frequent, and the loss in property and lives was large. Wagon Train - Season 8 - IMDb The oxen moved slowly forwardand the long journey had begun.. Mountain Meadows Massacre - HistoryNet The Survivors of the Donner Party - History in Charts Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated April 2023. Leaving his family, Reed was last seen riding off to the west with a man named Walter Herron. You had no idea the decision to ferry or ford the river was so gross, did you? On November 20 Patrick Breen, whose family had joined the party in Independence, Missouri, began a diary which he continued until March 1. He never rejoined the group. Heroically struggling through the deep snow, seven men reached the lake camp on February 18. As a protection for both lines, the Government later erected Fort Sedgwick on the South Fork of the Platte River. As they turned for a third charge, the surviving Indians were seen escaping to a deep ravine, which, although only one or two hundred paces off, had not previously been noticed. It crossed the plains without difficulty, but as it neared Fort Bridger a dispute arose. With so many people dying, that meant a lot of orphans, and babies would typically be passed into the care of, ideally, another nursing mother. To spare the animals, everyone who could, walked. Everything was made ready for a charge when Major Greer suddenly decided to talk with the Indians before commencing to fight. The history of his bloody deeds will never be told, for dead men tell no tales, and seldom did Bent leave any alive after a raid. I don't know if anyone recorded the number of dishonest wagon masters, but in the hundreds of wagon trains heading to Oregon or California there certainly were some incompetent ones. Sounds great, right? Dangers - Learn what dangers Pioneers faced on their Oregon Trail journey Whether it's better to eat or be eaten is a discussion for another time, but the tragic footnote is that the entire thing could have been avoided. With scarcely any opportunity for defense, the unfortunate whites were shot down, scalped, and their mutilated bodies left upon the ground. Though they occasionally attacked small bodies of troops, the Indians directed their main efforts against the trains of freight wagons and the comparatively defenseless stage stations. With John McIntire, Robert Fuller, Frank McGrath, Terry Wilson. We join his story about three weeks after the Donner Party arrived at the blocked pass: Did you always pick the banker because you'd start with the most money? Hopeless, they retraced their steps where five feet of new snow had already fallen. On March 3rd, Reed left the camp with 17 of the starving emigrants but just two days later they are caught in another blizzard. This point was then the junction between the Overland mainline and the newly established branch leading to Denver. When it cleared, Isaac Donner had died and most of the refugees were too weak to travel. S8, Ep2. "The child was dead his miseries were over!" However, the successful Reed was determined his family would not suffer on the long journey as his wagon was an extravagant two-story affair with a built-in iron stove, spring-cushioned seats, and bunks for sleeping. George Donnerwas a successful 62-year-old farmer who had migrated five times before settling inSpringfield, Illinois along with his brother Jacob. According to Brian Altonen, the settlers carried were standard medicines like castor oil, rum, peppermint essence, opium, and whiskey, because if you're dying, at least you wouldn't know it. The journey was not an unpleasant one across the vast expanse of Plains. The wagon train party is now known as the Donner Party or the Donner-Reed Party. Realizing that the difficult journey through the mountains and the desert had depleted their supplies, two of the young men traveling with the party, William McCutcheon and Charles Stanton, were sent ahead to Sutters Fort, California to bring back supplies. Emigrants only had what they could carry. Sell everything that doesn't fit into your wagon, and set out with no guidance from Google Maps? Some blamed the power-hungry Lansford W. Hastings for the tragedy, while others blamed James Reed for not heeding Clymans warning about the deadly route. In the Donner Party tragedy, two-thirds of the men in the party perished, while two-thirds of the women and children lived.