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Volume 075-2 - April 2021 (8 pages)
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Page: of 8
NCHS Bulletin April 2021
The Forlorn Hope set out on December 16th taking
a huge risk. To get to California they would have to
slog through the snow on Donner Summit and risk
new storms without shelter. They would have to go
without food and bear hardships unimaginable to us
sitting comfortably reading this. What is it like to
sleep in the snow in sodden clothing fearing what
might come overnight, fearing what the weather
might bring? What is it like to hike through the snow,
sinking into it with each step, and to do it to exhaustion with no food or warmth at the end of the exertion? What is it like to starve slowly and be forced to
eat leather shoelaces? What is it like to have a choice
between death and eating human flesh? What is it
like to know you have to keep going, you have to
survive, not just for yourself but for the children or
family members you’ve left behind at the lake and
who are counting on you to get help? How can you
possibly give up — as long as you live? They hoped
their food would last six days and thought it might
take up to ten days to get to California. They could
survive a few days without food; that would be no
problem. The youngest was twelve years old and
the oldest fifty-seven years old although most were
in their teens and early twenties. The oldest woman
was twenty-five. Two people were a married couple.
The oldest, Franklin Graves, took along two grown
daughters and a son-in-law.
What went through their minds? Three were fathers and three were mothers. They’d left their
families behind. Franklin Graves had left behind
his wife and seven other children. Which was a
better choice? Fight snow and weather to head for
California to get help and maybe never see your
children again, or stay at Donner Lake to protect
the children? Could the people to whom the children were entrusted be trusted?
How far was it to Sutter’s Fort? They’d been living
in the snow for one and a half months and had little
shelter and little protection. Now they’d be out in
the open with only a few blankets. Walking the snow
had been hard at the camp at Donner Lake. Now they
would have to fight the snow for miles each day for
days with little rest and little food. What about their
families and friends left back at camp? Would they
live? Would they be cared for? Could the Forlorn
Hope bring back help — in time?
How does a parent make that choice to leave children
behind? How can one bear to leave children to face
starvation? How could one bear not to try to escape
and get help in California? Was there a way to survive?
Climbing Donner Pass must have been excruciating.
Walking in snow is hard. It’s exhausting, step by step.
Snowshoes make sinking less of a problem but those
were amateurishly made snowshoes. As one walks in
snowshoes the snowshoes pick up snow making them
heavier as the wearer picks up snow with each step.
In addition, particularly at the start, the Forlorn Hope
was going uphill. That kind of snowshoe walking is
even harder. The Forlorn Hope had to climb 1,000
feet to the pass. They were cold and tired but tired
doesn’t describe things.
The Forlorn Hope were full of hope though, and it
must have driven them. How far can it be to California? Mustn’t it be downhill? They would save
their families.
Even considering all that, Mary Ann Graves remarked afterwards, remembering the climb up to
Donner Pass 1000 feet above the lake as she stopped
to look back: “The scenery was too grand for me to
pass without notice.”’ Donner Pass is grand. Tourists
admire it daily but how extraordinary it must have
been to remark on that and not on her tired, cold,
wet, hungry, and miserable person? Mary Ann also
noted that someone else had said: ““We were as near
to heaven as we could get.’ That’s touching but also
full of dramatic irony because we know some of the
horror to come. Many were much nearer heaven.
They couldn’t conceive of what was coming.
On the 17th the Forlorn Hope got to the top of
Donner Pass and they camped just west building
a log fire. The snow was twelve feet deep. Coffee
and few strips of bacon were all they had after
their exhausting day.
They went only six miles the next day after traveling all day. They had gotten through Summit Valley
along “Juba Creek” William Eddy wrote in his journal.* That shows how hard travel in the snow can
be. They were only able to go six miles despite their
urgency. There were snow flurries and high winds but