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The travelers are George Donner, his brother Jacob, and James Frazier Reed, with their families. Each man has three covered wagons and has hired teamsters to drive the oxen that pull them; Reed also has two servants. The destination of the first leg is Independence, where the Oregon Trail begins; the distance from Springfield to Independence is about 250 miles (400 kilometers). The trip is timed to begin when the spring rains have subsided and grass for the draft animals is available, and to end
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where they spend the next two days completing their outfits for the journey.
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the Donners and Reeds join a larger wagon train, which is led by Colonel William Henry Russell.
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The emigrants build a raft to carry their wagons across.
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Mrs. Reed's mother, Sarah Keyes, dies of tubercolosis and is buried under a tree near Alcove Spring.
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At some point during the delay at the Big Blue, the Murphy family from Tennessee has joined the wagon bus.
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in the future Wyoming, and that the journey so far has been easier than expected.
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They travel ahead to Fort Laramie to make the transaction.
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, which will lead them into the Sierra Nevada
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James Reed meets James Clyman, an old mountaineer, who has just come by horse from California with Lansford Hastings by way of a new route, which will soon be known as Hastings Cutoff. Clyman advises the emigrants not to take it.
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the Fourth of July at Beaver Creek on the Platte River.
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They are 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from Independence and have more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to go.
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where several other wagon trains have also camped. Here those emigrants who have decided to take Hastings's route form a new company and elect George Donner captain, thus creating the Donner Party.
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takes the left-hand road to Fort Bridger.
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the Boggs Company encounters a lone eastbound rider bearing an open letter from Hastings urging "all emigrants now on the road" to meet him at Fort Bridger, so he can guide them on his cutoff.
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the corral and two cabins of mountaineer Jim Bridger. There the Donner Party learns that Hastings left the previous week leading the wagons that had already arrived and leaving instructions for later groups to follow him. The Donner Party stays four days to rest their oxen and make repairs.
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Hastings has left a note for them, warning them that the road ahead is impassable and instructing them to send someone ahead to get instructions. James Reed and two others set out following the wagon tracks of Hastings's group.
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Hastings had accompanied Reed partway back; the men ascended a peak where Hastings pointed out an alternative route, then they separated, Reed blazing a rough trail to his wagon train.
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slowed by the necessity of chopping a road through the brush of the Wasatch Mountains. The Graves family catches up with them; the company now numbers 87 people in 23 wagons.
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With summer drawing to a close, there are still 600 miles (966 kilometers) to go
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he is buried in a coffin at a fork in the road the following day. About this time the emigrants find another note from Hastings, warning them of a two-day dry drive ahead. They set out again, following the tracks of the emigrants ahead of them.
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last source of water before the dry drive begins, then sets out to cross the Great Salt Lake Desert.
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After taking an inventory of their supplies, the emigrants have realized that they don't have enough food to get them to California and have sent Charles Stanton and William McCutchen ahead to Sutter's Fort to request more.
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cutoff meets the standard trail, which is actually 125 miles (200 kilometers) shorter than Hastings Cutoff.
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A fight breaks out between Milt Elliott, Reed's teamster, and John Snyder, driving the Graves wagon. When Reed intervenes, Snyder grows angrier and hits Reed on the head with his whip. With Snyder about to strike again, Reed stabs him in the chest with a hunting knife. Snyder stumbles some feet up the hill and dies. The emigrants decide to banish Reed, who at first refuses to leave but then agrees.
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The following day he overtakes the Donners, who have moved ahead of the rest of the party. One of Reed's teamsters, Walter Herron, has been traveling with the Donners; he decides to accompany Reed to California. Knowing that time is running out, the emigrants travel as quickly as possible along the Humboldt River.
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Everyone who can is walking. Hardkoop gives out, but nobody can take him in. He is last seen sitting by the road.
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Shortly thereafter the Indians steal another 18 oxen and wound several others. More than 100 of the party's cattle are now gone.
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Two men, Joseph Reinhardt and Augustus Spitzer, stay behind to help but return without him, saying that he has been killed by Indians. Reinhardt later confesses to having killed Wolfinger.
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"Came to this place on the 31st of last month that it snowed. We went on to the pass, the snow so deep we were unable to find the road, when within 3 miles (4.8 km) of the summit, then turned back to this shanty on the Lake... We now have killed most part of our cattle, having to stay here until next spring & live on poor beef without bread or salt. It snowed during the space of eight days with little intermission, after our arrival here."
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"Fine morning. Wind N.W. 22 of our company are about starting across the mountain this morning, including Stanton & his Indians."
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William Eddy kills a deer, but too late to save Jay Fosdick, who dies in the night.
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The war in California is essentially over, freeing men and supplies for another rescue attempt.
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, Eddy has dictated a letter which has been carried to John Sinclair, the alcalde (magistrate) of the Sacramento district. Sinclair alerts others in the area and on this day writes a letter to his colleague Washington A. Bartlett, alcalde of San Francisco
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dies.
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The local citizens make generous donations of money, goods, and services.
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"They gave the alarm that the people would all die without assistance. It was two weeks before any person would consent to go. Finally, we concluded we would go or die trying, for not to make any attempt to save them would be a disgrace to us and California as long as time lasted." John Sutter, proprietor of Sutter's Fort, and Captain Edward Kern, the fort's temporary commander, offer $3 a day to anyone who will join a rescue party.
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Three of the rescuers go to Alder Creek to check on the Donners
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Louis Keseberg, surrounded by half-eaten corpses, is the only one alive.
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The bodies are buried there and the cabin is then set afire.