Collection: Books and Periodicals > Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins

About This Item:

Title: Volume 075-2 - April 2021 Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Collection Name: Nevada County Historical Society Bulletins # of Pages: 8 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2023-12-30 11:48:26 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 04:06:34 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 04:06:34

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 8  

NCHS Bulletin April 2021 at least it wasn’t snowing — yet. Still, the travel must have been miserable, with no hope of respite at the end of the day. About 11 PM on the 19th it began snowing. The wind was blowing cold and furiously. Three days out from the lake the storm continued and “feet commenced freezing,” said Eddy.° It snowed all day. The Forlorn Hope was without shelter except for blankets. Blankets must have become soaked as did clothing. They made about five miles that day perhaps to about today’s Kingvale. On December 20th they were still in the vicinity. They struggled on through the snow. There was only one day of food rations left. Charles Stanton went snow blind. They could only go four miles. At this rate the original ten-day estimate was hopelessly wrong. Conditions were horrible but they didn’t even have enough food to go back, and if they did go back, then who would rescue the Donner Party? Who would rescue their families? Here a little digression is in order for a little heroism. Charles Stanton had no family in the Donner Party. When Reproduction of an oil painting of Charles Stanton painted in 1844. Courtesy Wikipedia Commons.” fornia less difficult. The landmarks don’t look the same in the opposite direction, especially after snowfall. A wrong turn got them into the wrong river valley. Nothing looked familiar and all the party could do was head west. They had no maps and no compass to show a workable way. On the fifth day out from Donner Lake the Forlorn Hope again awoke in the snow wrapped in blankets. What is that like to sleep in the snow covered only by a blanket? Can you even sleep or does exhaustion inure you to the cold? As the group got ready to move on, Charles Stanton sat back against a tree and lit his pipe. It was December 21st. He was so worn out. He said he’d be along . shortly. He didn’t want to hold them up. Charles Stanton died somewhere below Cascade Lakes near Donner Summit. The food was gone. . They realized they’d made a wrong turn somewhere having turned into the American River drainage away from a better route in the Yuba/Bear River drainage. On December 22™ another the party was low on food somewhere in today’s Utah some weeks earlier, he’d volunteered to go ahead to Sutter’s Fort for help with another member of the party who did have family. The other fellow, William McCutchen, became sick and remained behind in California. Sutter sent two Miwok Native Americans, Luis and Salvador, and some mules with Stanton to return to the Donner Party somewhere near today’s Reno. His sense of responsibility must have been great as was his sense of decency and heroism. He’d given his word. He and the two Miwoks were part of the Forlorn Hope. They had just covered the route so their leading would make getting to Calistorm hit the Forlorn Hope. Eddy wrote: It “snowd [sic] all last night Continued to Snow all day with some few intermissions..”° They stayed in camp all day. What do you do all day in camp with no food, huddled under a wet blanket? On the 24th Eddy reported: the “storm recommenced with greater fury; extinguished fires.”’ The storm had increased so much they could not travel. As the storm raged, they sat in a circle covered by blankets. John Sinclair, Alcalde of Northern California, who interviewed members of the Forlorn Hope said William Eddy had suggested they all sit in a circle on a blanket with their feet pointed in toward the center