History of the Donner Party | Page 4

Beads and Arrow-heads A Quaint Bridle-bit Remarkable Action of
Rust A Flint-Lock Pistol A Baby's Shoe The Resting Place of the Dead
Vanishing Land-marks
Chapter I.
Donner Lake A Famous Tourist Resort Building the Central Pacific
California's Skating Park The Pioneers The Organization of the Donner
Party Ho! for California! A Mammoth Train The Dangers by the Way
False Accounts of the Sufferings Endured Complete Roll of the
Company Impostors Claiming to Belong to the Party Killed by the
Pawnees An Alarmed Camp Resin Indians A Mother's Death.

Three miles from Truckee, Nevada County, California, lies one of the
fairest and most picturesque lakes in all the Sierra. Above, and on
either side, are lofty mountains, with casteliated granite crests, while
below, at the mouth of the lake, a grassy, meadowy valley widens out
and extends almost to Truckee. The body of water is three miles long,
one and a half miles wide, and four hundred and eighty-three feet in
depth.
Tourists and picnic parties annually flock to its shores, and Bierstadt
has made it the subject of one of his finest, grandest paintings. In
summer, its willowy thickets, its groves of tamarack and forests of pine,
are the favorite haunts and nesting places of the quail and grouse.
Beautiful, speckled mountain trout plentifully abound in its crystalline
waters. A rippling breeze usually wimples and dimples its laughing
surface, but in calmer moods it reflects, as in a polished mirror, the
lofty, overhanging mountains, with every stately pine, bounding rivulet;
blossoming shrub, waving fern, and - high above all, on the right - the
clinging, thread-like line of the snow-sheds of the Central Pacific.
When the railroad was being constructed, three thousand people dwelt
on its shores; the surrounding forests resounded with the music of axes
and saws, and the terrific blasts exploded in the lofty, o'ershadowing
cliffs, filled the canyons with reverberating thunders, and hurled huge
bowlders high in the air over the lake's quivering bosom.
In winter it is almost as popular a pleasure resort as during the summer.
The jingling of sleighbells, and the shouts and laughter of skating
parties, can be heard almost constantly. The lake forms the grandest
skating park on the Pacific Coast.
Yet this same Donner Lake was the scene of one of the most thrilling,
heart-rending tragedies ever recorded in California history. Interwoven
with the very name of the lake are memories of a tale of destitution,
loneliness, and despair, which borders on the incredible. It is a tale that
has been repeated in many a miner's cabin, by many a hunter's campfire,
and in many a frontiersman's home, and everywhere it has been listened
to with bated breath.

The pioneers of a new country are deserving of a niche in the country's
history. The pioneers who became martyrs to the cause of the
development of an almost unknown land, deserve to have a place in the
hearts of its inhabitants. The far-famed Donner Party were, in a peculiar
sense, pioneer martyrs of California. Before the discovery of gold,
before the highway across the continent was fairly marked out, while
untold dangers lurked by the wayside, and unnumbered foes awaited
the emigrants, the Donner Party started for California. None but the
brave and venturesome, none but the energetic and courageous, could
undertake such a journey. In 1846, comparatively few had dared
attempt to cross the almost unexplored plains which lay between the
Mississippi and the fair young land called California. Hence it is that a
certain grandeur, a certain heroism seems to cling about the men and
women composing this party, even from the day they began their
perilous journey across the plains. California, with her golden harvests,
her beautiful homes, her dazzling wealth, and her marvelous
commercial facilities, may well enshrine the memory of these
noble-hearted pioneers, pathfinders, martyrs.
The States along the Mississippi were but sparsely settled in 1846, yet
the fame of the fruitfulness, the healthfulness, and the almost tropical
beauty of the land bordering the Pacific, tempted the members of the
Donner Party to leave their homes. These homes were situated in
Illinois, Iowa, Tennessee, Missouri, and Ohio. Families from each of
these States joined the train and participated in its terrible fate; yet the
party proper was organized in Sangamon County, Illinois, by George
and Jacob Donner and James F. Reed. Early in April, 1846, the party
set out from Springfield, Illinois, and by the first week in May reached
Independence, Missouri. Here the party was increased by additional
members, and the train comprised about one hundred persons.
Independence was on the frontier in those days, and every care was
taken to have ample provisions laid in and all necessary preparations
made for the long journey. Ay, it was a long journey for many in the
party! Great as