FRONTIER TRAGEDY Ep. 3 | Donner Party, Part 3

Legends of the Old West

Black Barrel Media

Arts, History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

The Donner Party faces another punishing trip across a desert before it finally reaches the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the border between Nevada and California. The party has lost a ton of time, but the travelers still believe they can make it over the mountains and into central California before winter. They make it as far as Truckee Lake – now Donner Lake – before they become trapped by blizzards. Join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: blackbarrel.supportingcast.fm/join Apple users join Black Barrel+ for ad-free episodes, bingeable seasons and bonus episodes. Click the Black Barrel+ banner on Apple to get started with a 3-day free trial. For more details, visit our website www.blackbarrelmedia.com and check out our social media pages. We’re @OldWestPodcast on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. On YouTube, subscribe to LEGENDS+ for ad-free episodes and bingeable seasons: hit “Join” on the Legends YouTube homepage. To purchase an ad on this show please reach out: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	On October 7, 1846, James Reed and his traveling companion Walter Heron left the camp of the
0:26.8	Donor Group. The Donor Reed wagon train was less than 200 miles from the California border and it was
0:33.9	split into two groups. The Donor Group was two days ahead of the Reed Group. James Reed, head of
0:40.7	the Reed family, had been banished from his group after he killed a man during an angry scuffle.
0:46.1	Reed had ridden ahead to the Donor Group where Walter Heron volunteered to go with Reed to
0:52.0	California. The two men followed the Humboldt River taking turns riding the one horse they had
0:58.2	between them. Without the cumbersome wagon train, they logged at least 25 miles a day, sometimes
1:05.0	as many as 40. But Reed's thoughts were always on his family. Whenever and wherever he could,
1:11.7	he scrolled out crude maps and notes and left them on the path. Reed and Heron's meager provisions
1:19.3	ran out in a few days, spurring them to hunt for food. Every once in a while they were able to
1:24.7	shoot a goose. They managed to gather a few wild onions but those didn't last long. They fought
1:30.8	over weather to kill and eat the horse. On a particularly bad day, they stumbled upon some abandoned
1:37.5	wagons. There was no food in the wagons, but Reed checked a bucket under one of them and was able
1:43.8	to scrape some animal fat from it. They ate some of the disgusting slime and it made them horribly
1:50.0	sick, but they were able to digest enough calories to survive. And then something incredible happened.
1:57.5	At a camp near Bear Valley, about 75 miles southwest of Lake Tahoe, they spotted a familiar figure.
2:05.1	It was Charles Stanton, who had left the wagon train six weeks earlier with William McCutchen.
2:11.4	They had volunteered to ride ahead of the wagon train to try to make it to Sutter's Fort to find
2:16.7	food and maybe help. Sutter's Fort was a small settlement in the Sacramento Valley.
2:23.7	It was the goal of every wagon train headed to Northern California to make it to the outpost before
2:29.5	winter. The wagon train had heard nothing from Stanton or McCutchen since they left. It turned out
2:36.2	they made it to the fort, but McCutchen got sick and had to stay. Stanton was riding back to the
	...

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