The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1870-09-15
"DONNER LAKE.,
Horrors of Overland TraveI--Nadness,
Starvation and CannibaIism--The
Most FriShtfuI Narrative of
Modern Times

win minute accuracy, chain of events
which, for ghastly horrors, are probably
without equal in authentic records. The
tale realizes, in truth, the frightful denun-
cation OF Othella, for in it ''on horrors
head horrors accumulate" and surely inn
aglnatlon cannot picture anything in the
way of the pIteouS and awful more ex-
treme than what was suffered by the un
iortunales concerned. In various forms,
10y books, newspapers, and more fiequent4
iy by private report, the story has been
told Tor 1t happened long ago-in IS46
before Capt. Sutter had made his dis
covery, and before every old whaIer from
Casco Bay TO Hatteras had been fitted up,
TO brave once more the periIs of Cape
horn. But many have persisted in dis
believing 1t. Ii was too terrible to relate,
| they SAID, to believe. And it is true that
there seemed to be a raw-head and bloody
bones air about the narrative that more
frequently attends fiction than fact, and
| winch, at all events, lent warrant to the
suspicion that ii had been expanded and
! embel!ished. There is, however, no doubt
about the melancholy truth of it and the
minute account now published is to be ac-
cepted as the product of all the sifted and
collected testimony that it has been DOS
/ sibIe TO obtain.
| Bonner ke-namod after the leader Of
the party who met their death hard by
is one OF the most picturesque and lovely
spots IN the elevated valleys Of the Sierra
Nevada. Starvation Camp" the imme-
date scene Of the calamity, is close at
hand, and by 1t runs a railroad, strange
contrast in the plenty and succor it sug-
gests to the helpless misery the spot once
witnessed. The Donner party leftsheir
home for the Pacific slope in search of a
healthtul and eligible soil, and having
/ penetrated this great distance toward the
! promised land, were "sEowed up" near
The lake. Their Indian guide, one True
! kee, warned them one afternoon that
/ dreadful weather was at hand, and urued
them to push IN, for the ground was as
| yet undiscovered, they had found wood,
water and grass, and determined to halt
! for the night In The morning a foot of
snow had fallen, and their cattle wander
/ ed away so that few of them could be
found. Alarmed, the way yfarers began to
build cabins and to take such other meas
ures as they could to protect themselves
| from the elements. The snow continued
to fall and presently became impossible.
In few days it was eight feet deep
| During nearly the whole days of Novem-
Der the long storm continued ard the
snow on tie mountains ultimately reached
a depth of more than twenty feet
There were eighfy-two souls in the
party. thirty~two Of whom being women,
| and large portion children. The Cap
tain, George Donner, was a man of some
sagacity and considerable wealth, and his
wife and children being with him, had
every incentive to prudence and activity
But all efforts to escape from their fright,
ful situation proved vain. In a short
time everything in the shape of wholesome
food was gone. They devoured their
dogs, the hides of the cattle they saved.
and their own boots and shoes. FINALLY
the miserable creatures began to think of
eating each other. At this period death
occurred-thus deferring "A need for yio
lence, and horrible TO relate, the corpse
was eagerly consumed. Other deaths
followed, and the survivors continued TO
subsist on the flesh Of their dead compan
ions. After six weeks the storm having
subsided eight men and five women.euided
by two Indians, set out 10 try to make
their way to California. The hopes of
all that remained hung on their efforts.
and they struggled desperately to succeed.
But in a week, and before they had pass
ed the Divide, this forlorn hope was again
overwhelmed by snow. Three died al
most at once and the rest ate their bodies.
'Havlng," says the Overland Monthly,
t'now been without a morsel to eat for
four days, those wretched people cat the
flesh from the bodies of The dead, and
having refreshed themselves upon por-
ton OF it and dried tao balance for future
use again pushed on. This was their
New Years feast-it now being the first
day of January, 1847. Five days later
the food was again all gone, and they had
only the strings Of their snow shoes left to
eat"
The unhappy wretches then desired to
devour their Indian guides, bat the latter,
seeing their intention, fed over the hills
and were seen no more. On the I7th of
January all but three of the thirteen were
dead, and of the survivors two laid down !
to die The third had fallen in with
friendly Indian, who conducted him to a
settlement on Bear river There the story
was told, and Immediately expeditions set
forth from San Francisco and Suffers
Fork to rescue those of The original party
who might still be alive.
What the benevolent aGventurers found
almost beggars description. Those who
had died remained where their last sigh
had been breathed, but they were stripped
of their flesh Bodies balf devoured lay
strewn around the dismal cabins, from
which issued a sitting factor of those
who yet lived"
Not only were their bodies enfeebied
and emaciated to the last degree. but With