Enter a name, company, place or keywords to search across this item. Then click "Search" (or hit Enter).
Volume 075-2 - April 2021 (8 pages)
Go to the Archive Home
Go to Thumbnail View of this Item
Go to Single Page View of this Item
Download the Page Image
Copy the Page Text to the Clipboard
Don't highlight the search terms on the Image
Show the Page Image
Show the Image Page Text
Reset View and Center Image
Zoom Out
Zoom In
Rotate Left
Rotate Right
Toggle Full Page View
Flip Image Horizontally
More Information About this Image
Get a Citation for Page or Image - Copy to the Clipboard
Go to the Previous Page (or Left Arrow key)
Go to the Next Page (or Right Arrow key)
Page: of 8
NCHS Bulletin April 2021
of the circle. The blankets were spread over their
heads. Snow and wood held the blankets down on the
outside of the circle. Snow fell and closed off openings. Body heat made the cold less unbearable. The
group sat that way for thirty-six hours while the storm
raged. Once the storm had abated one member of the
party found some cotton stuffing in her cape that was
still miraculously dry. It served as tinder to start a fire.
On Christmas Day only eleven of the fifteen were
still alive. Mary Ann Graves said: “Father died on
Christmas night at 11 o’clock in the commencement
of the snowstorm.”®
December 26th was even worse. Eddy wrote: “Could
not proceed; almost frozen; no fire.” ° They’d been
six days without food and only a little food before
that. Lemuel Murphy, aged 12, died.
On December 27" the Forlorn Hope cut flesh from a
dead companion’s body, “roasted it by the fire and ate
it, averting their faces from each other and weeping.”
'0 The two Native Americans refused to eat.
Alcalde Sinclair captured some of the pathos, “How
heart-rending must have been their situation at this
time, as they gazed upon each other, shivering and
shrinking from the pitiless storm ! Oh ! how they
must have thought of those happy, happy homes
which but a few short months before they had left
with buoyant hopes and fond anticipations ! Where,
oh where were the green and lowery plains which
they had heard of, dreamt, and anticipated beholding,
in the month of January, in California ? Alas ! many
of that little party were destined never to behold
them. Already was death in the midst of them.” [sic]'!
One January Ist, 1847 the Forlorn Hope crossed the
North Fork of the American River. There were only
ten members. They carried dried human flesh. Their
feet were bloody and frostbitten.
On January 17 William Eddy arrived at Bear Valley.
News spread about the fate of the Donner Party
trapped in the mountains. Rescue parties were formed.
People who could have easily stayed comfortably in
California, with plenty of food, would endure the hardship of carrying heavy packs uphill through the snow.
They would endure hunger, cold, exhaustion, and the
horror of seeing the camps at Donner Lake.
Reprise of the
Forlorn Hope Expedition
By William Oudegeest
More than seven years ago a book about the Donner
Party, The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing
Saga of a Donner Party by Daniel James Brown, was
the inspiration for two extreme athletes and history
buffs. They were taken with the story of the Forlorn
Hope and aimed to follow their path from Donner
Lake to Johnson’s Ranch.
The trail of the Forlorn Hope has never been identified. So, one of the challenges was to discover the
route of the Forlorn Hope, and in doing so discover
the people who engaged in the greatest endurance
feat in California history. How did the 2020 people
discover the route?
In 1846 there were fifteen in the Forlorn Hope group
who started the journey and only seven were alive
when they arrived in California. Since the route was
used only once and only by a few, there was little
impact on the land. A substantial portion of the route
was over snow and of course travel over snow leaves
no impact at all. Because they carried little with them,
they didn’t have artifacts to lose or leave behind for
future generations to find. Except for an abbreviated
version that is now lost, members of the Forlorn Hope
did not keep diaries because they were desperate and
interested in survival, not plotting a route that later
generations would follow.