The Donner Reed Party

 On Tuesday morning the Winona Historical Society has learning parties. Today was my first one and the topic was the Donner Reed party. The same teacher who taught my arboretum class taught this one. The party consisted of 87 people traveling from Missouri to the San Francisco area. They decided to take the advice of Hastings who knew of a short cut. He had taken the short cut by horse which is way different that people walking besides horse and oxen pulling wagons. Due to spring rains they got a late start. That winter was the second heaviest snowfall at the Donner pass in history. Half the people died. We looked through the date on deaths and survivals. More people over fifty died. Men who were wagon masters and living on their own tended to die unless they were a wagon master with a wealthy family. More women survived because women have between 1 and 2 percent more body fat than men. Some people left via snow shoe and about half of them survived. Four rescue parties were sent up to Donner Pass. When they got there they saw nothing. The cabins were completely covered in snow. Some of the first rescue made it. The second rescue had to be rescued by the third rescue. By the time of the fourth rescue only one man was left. Yes, there was some cannibalism. All the game animals left before the snows packed them in. Interesting story. Hastings was never prosecuted even though his advice killed a lot of settlers. None of those accused of murder for cannibalism were ever prosecuted.