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Period: to
02
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Russell train is held up by high water at the Big Blue River near present-day Marysville, Kansas. Levinah Murphy and her extended family join the wagon train.
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The wagon train completes the crossing of the Big Blue.
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Period: to
donner party
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At Indian Creek, about 100 miles west of Independence, the Donners and Reeds join a larger wagon train, which is led by Colonel William Henry Russell.
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Reach the Platte River, along which they travel for the next month.
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Boggs Company arrives at Fort Laramie and meet James Clyman, an acquaintance of Reed’s. They discuss a new route, Hastings Cutoff. Clyman has just come east with Hastings over this route and advises against taking it.
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the Donners and Reeds arrive at Independence, Missouri, where they spend the next two days completing their outfits for the journey.
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Leave Fort Bridger. The McCutchen family and Jean Baptiste Trudeau join them. The group now numbers 74 people in twenty wagons.
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Boggs Company reaches Independence Rock. Here they meet Wales B. Bonney with an open letter from Lansford W. Hastings announcing that he will meet emigrants at Fort Bridger and lead them on his cutoff, which passes south of the Great Salt Lake instead of
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Boggs Company reaches Independence Rock. Here they meet Wales B. Bonney with an open letter from Lansford W. Hastings announcing that he will meet emigrants at Fort Bridger and lead them on his cutoff, which passes south of the Great Salt Lake instead of
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Begin the arduous chore of clearing the new route through the Wasatch Mountains. Stanton and Pike get lost in the rugged canyons but eventually rejoin the wagon train.
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Donner Party climbs Donner Hill and enters the Salt Lake Valley.
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Luke Halloran dies and is buried in the Tooele Valley, near present-day Grantsville, Utah.
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The emigrants cut grass for the dry drive across the Great Salt Lake Desert.
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The Donner Party follows Hastings’ tracks from Donner Spring into Nevada and around the Ruby Mountains.
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Reach the junction with the California Trail about 7 miles west of modern Elko, Nevada. Travel along Humboldt River for the next two weeks.
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Reed kills John Snyder, the Graves family's teamster, in a dispute at Iron Point and is banished from the train; he goes ahead to bring back supplies. Walter Herron accompanies him.
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Reach the Truckee River. After a rest at Truckee Meadows (present-day Reno), they begin ascent of Sierra. Charles Stanton returns from Sutter’s Fort with seven mules packed with supplies, assisted by Luis and Salvador, two of Sutter’s Indian vaqueros.
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Travel along Humboldt. Paiute raiders wound or drive off many cattle. Unable to keep up, Mr. Hardcoop is left behind in the desert; no one will go back for him. Wolfinger stays behind to cache his wagon; when his companions, Joseph Reinhardt and Augustus
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More snow, more unsuccessful attempts to cross the mountains. The emigrants slaughter their remaining cattle, but many animals, including Sutter’s mules, have wand
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Charles Stanton and Franklin Ward Graves making snowshoes for "another mountain scrabble."
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Baylis Williams dies
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After the weather clears, the snowshoers, later dubbed the "Forlorn Hope," set out: Stanton, Luis, and Salvador; Franklin Ward Graves, his daughters Mary and Sarah, and Sarah’s husband Jay Fosdick; William and Sarah Foster, Sarah’s sister, Harriet Pike,
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Milt Elliott returns from the Donner camp at Alder Creek with news: Jacob Donner, Samuel Shoemaker, James Smith, and Joseph Reinhardt are dead. About this time Charles Stanton, snowblind and exhausted, is unable to keep up with the other snowshoers and te
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A blizzard catches the Forlorn Hope in the open. They have great difficulty getting and keeping a fire lit. Antonio, Patrick Dolan, Franklin Graves, and Lemuel Murphy die at the "Camp of Death." With nothing left to eat, the survivors tearfully resort to
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Back at the lake camp, "Dutch Charley" Burger dies.
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James F. Reed participates in the Battle of Santa Clara. Since the Mexican War is winding down in Northern California, freeing men and supplies, he again turns his energies to rescuing his family.
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Mrs. Reed, her daughter Virginia, Milt Elliott, and Eliza Williams set out to cross the mountains, leaving the smaller Reed children with others. First Eliza, then the others, give up and return to the cabins. The Reeds take refuge with the Breens, Eliza
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Louis Keseberg, Jr., dies in the Keseberg's lean-to.
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From his ranch near Sutter's Fort, Alcalde John Sinclair writes a letter to Alcalde Washington Bartlett of San Francisco describing the Donner Party's plight.
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Landrum Murphy dies. The First Relief, led by Aquilla Glover and Reason Tucker, leaves Sutter’s Fort.
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Harriet McCutchen dies
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The citizens of San Francisco hold a meeting to raise funds for a rescue party.
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Margaret Eddy dies.
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First Relief leaves Johnson's Ranch
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Eleanor Eddy dies. James Reed leaves San Francisco for Sonoma. He will spend the next two weeks rounding up men, horses, equipment, and supplies for the Second Relief. Selim E. Woodworth sails from San Francisco with a boatload of supplies, intending to
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Augustus Spitzer dies
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Milt Elliott dies
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First Relief reaches the lake. Eleven emigrants have died, and the others are in bad shape physically and emotionally. Most have been without meat for some time, and they have been eating boiled rawhide, leather, bones, dogs, mice. Weak with hunger, they
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Second Relief arrives at the lake camp. The rescuers find grisly evidence of cannibalism. James Eddy and George Foster, two little boys whose fathers survived the Forlorn Hope, are alive but very weak
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A blizzard traps the Second Relief in Summit Valley; when it clears, Isaac Donner has died. Reed and his friend Hiram Miller can carry Patty and Tommy Reed. Solomon Hook can walk, but the rest of the refugees are too weak to travel and stay at "Starved Ca
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Second Relief arrives at the lake camp. The rescuers find grisly evidence of cannibalism. James Eddy and George Foster, two little boys whose fathers survived the Forlorn Hope, are alive but very weak.
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At Alder Creek, Reed finds that the Donners have also resorted to cannibalism.
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On their way to the lake, the Third Relief, led by William Eddy and William Foster, reaches Starved Camp. Mrs. Graves and her son Franklin have died. They and Isaac Donner have been cannibalized. One of the rescuers, John Stark, stays to help the Breens a