The Manifest Destiny: The Journey Of The Donner Party

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Jonathan Espinoza
Professor Gomez
California Studies 110
15 November 2014 The Journey of the Donner Party
Westward expansion was popular in the 1800’s due to the idea of the “Manifest
Destiny”. The Manifest Destiny was a political movement that encouraged the people living in the east to expand westward and establish settlement all throughout the lands of the west. Along with the many others who wanted to move west, the Donner Party too wanted to benefit from the western lands. Their plan was to move to California, acquire cheap land where they could reap the benefits of rich soil and good climate that Springfield Illinois did not provide them. The journey to California was the beginning of a new life for The Donner Party and for many others.
The move westward worried many people because of the possible encounter with aggressive
Indians, however the Indians should not have been their main worry. Unfortunately the decision to follow a faulty guide westward to California led these travelers into challenges that they could not overcome. The Donner Party’s emigration west was marked as one of the most catastrophic journeys in the history of westward expansion. The Donner Party story began with a plan to move to California along the Oregon trail (the safest route) until reaching Hastings cutoff where they began the dangerous trek towards California resulting in death and suffering until the rescue approximately one year later.

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James Reed and the Donner Brothers decided that they were going to leave Springfield
Illinois and travel to California with their families leaving behind a prosperous life (Lavender 3).
Their plan was to follow a guide called “The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California” by
Lansford W. Hastings that will lead them to California using the shortcut known as the Hastings
Cutoff, this would shorten the trip by three hundred miles (V. Murphy 19). In order to make this trip possible they needed to prepare themselves with food, supplies, suitable clothing and method for transportation. James Reed created a luxurious wagon that was known as the “Pioneer palace car” due to his experience in furniture making. The wagon was equipped with a stove, beds and had ample space to bring supplies in order to make the trip comfortable and homelike (Calabro
21). They also brought with them oxens, steers and horses to facilitate transportation and cows to provide milk.
Enough supplies were gathered to get them through the first winter in California which they thought would take them six months (V.Murphy pg12). Young men who wanted to go to California but could not afford it, known as Teamsters, were hired to do the hard work of walking beside the oxens for the entire trek. Their job was to care for oxen and in return they were given food and space in the wagon to sleep (Lavender 13). Everybody had a role on this journey. Women were to cook, look after children and do laundry. The men hunted, steered and maintained the wagons and cared for the animals. Ready to go, the three families set out for the west on April 16, 1846 not knowing the challenges that they would face.
The Donner Party arrived at their first destination on May 11, 1846, at Independence
Missouri, where they, along with everybody else moving west, would find the Oregon and
California Trails. This was the beginning point for travelers going west, even back in 1843 when the first wave of emigrants went west (B. Brooke). There they met up with another family

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traveling to California, the Breen family, and together they hurried to catch up to the
other travelers ahead of them destined for California. After forty fives days of travel through changing climate that was troublesome for the emigrants they arrived at Fort Laramie, a famous Indian trading post. They realized that the further west they traveled they encountered more climate changes such as: infrequent rains, electric storms, dry sand dust and hot sunshine, that would make travel more difficult for the emigrants. The travelers, despite small problems along the way, seemed excited to reach new territory.
At Fort Laramie they were pleasantly greeted by indians from the Sioux tribe and were able to finally take a rest from the journey and even celebrate Independence Day, then “America was turning seventy years old”. Here James Reed came across an old friend, James Clyman, who had crossed the shortcut Hasting’s mentioned in the guide, but said that it was dangerous and that travelers should avoid crossing that terrain. He recommended that people follow the know terrain of Fort Hall road that went northwest to
California (Lavender 18­24). Reed stayed focused on taking the shortcut because he felt the group could do so just as they had done making it to Fort Laramie from Independence, MO with its obstacles.The wagon party voted to take the shorter route and elected George Donner the leader, the group from here on out was known as the Donner Party. Fort Bridger was the final stop, before Hastings Cutoff, for the party to stock up on supplies, repair wagons and purchase more livestock. They had reached the point of no return. On July 31st the party set out on the dangerous unknown trek southwest following the guide book’s shortcut that not even the author himself had
crossed.
From here on The Donner Party would find most of their troubles that eventually led them to tragedy. The first challenge they came across, in what was to be a sequence of several

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disasters, was at the base of Weber Canyon. That day, August 6th 1846, the Donner Party found a letter from Hastings telling them that the trail was very dangerous and to wait for him to return in order to guide them through another route (Calabro 53). Hastings did not do as he promised on the note, so James Reed decided to travel ahead and find him for a solution. When James Reed spoke with Hastings he told him to avoid the canyon trail, recommended in his guide book, due to the narrow walls that would not allow wagons to pass .Hastings pointed out to the distance a route that the Donner Party should take. Once again, the decision to follow Hastings directions failed them. They went off into new terrain, uphills that were practically impossible to ascend.
What was supposed to take a week, took them one month (V. Murphy 20). The Donner Party and their oxen, exhausted from the trip, arrived at the Great Salt Lakes on August 22, 1846. There they found another letter from Hastings stating that the trek across the salt desert was forty miles and it would take them two days and two nights to cross. Proving Hastings incorrect again, the trip actually took them five days to cross resulting in a shortage of supplies, dehydrated men and oxen, and wagons left behind. The extreme climate of the desert also took an impact on the party
(Calabro).On September 26th, knowing they did not have enough supplies to reach California, they arrived at the Humboldt River where Hastings cutoff met with the old trail. In fact, the shorter route was 125 miles longer than the old route. Video Having fallen behind they were desperate to reach the Sierra Nevada mountains in order to get to California before the winter.
October 16th they arrived in Truckee at the base of the mountains where they soon realized they came too late because a harsh winter had come. The Donner Party had traveled 2500 miles over a seven month period with only 150 more miles to Sutters Fort, their final destination (R. Burns
DVD). The winter snow forced them to set up camp at Truckee Lake, now known as Donner

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Lake, where they would spend the entire winter. Some members of the group tried to cross the mountains a few times but were unable due to the weather conditions. The winter brought heavy snowstorms trapping the members at Donner Camp. After killing the last of their animals for food they began to eat materials that did not provide them with the nutrition needed to survive the winter. It was noted that they ate twigs, bark, leaves, bones, and even boiled the leather from shoes to eat (Calabro 96). Many began to die from malnutrition and extreme cold conditions as the winter went on. In this time of extreme desperation the people had to resort to cannibalism for survival. They marked the flesh so that no one had to eat the meat of their own kin. The people were in a dire situation of starvation and delirium. December 26th marked the first day that they ate a human, the dead body of Patrick Dollen was cut apart and cooked on a the fire
(Calabro 108).
By January 1847 California had become territory of the United states after the defeat of the Mexicans. James Reed, who had separated from the group months back, was able to gather men and form a rescue party to relieve those at Donner Camp. January 31st the first rescue team set out for Donner Camp arriving on February 7th. They were shocked at the sight of death and famined people. The completed rescue of those at Donner Camp required a total of four rescue teams, the camp was evacuated by April 17th 1847. Of the original Donner Party that consisted of 87 members, 46 of them had survived. The entire Reed and Breen family survived however the Donner family was not as fortunate. Both Donner brothers had perished at Donner Camp during the dreadful winter, the only ones that survived were two of the Donner children.
This tragic story of the Donner party was said to be a part of the American Dream. “An american dream that has nightmares attached to them, and for many resulted in disaster” video.

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Like many others the Donner Party followed a movement where people were encouraged to go west and settle in foreign land. Many thought this travel to be a new adventure but for the
Donner Party it turned out to be the last trip of their lives, never reaching their dreams of a new life in California. The Donner party made the mistake of listening to a man who published a guide offering a shortcut to California but in turn actually lengthen their trip causing them to face a cruel winter that resulted in death for many of the members. Hastings faulty guide which led the Donner Party down an unsafe route was the primary error of this tragic event. The combination of the decision to take the shortcut to California, a faulty guide and ignoring the warning signs from others truly sealed the fate of the Donner Party. Work Cited
Brooke, Bob. “Oregon Trail: Wagon Tracks West.” historynet.com
Wild West, April 2000. Web.
10 November 2014.
Calabro, Marian.
The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party
. New York: Clarion, 1999. Print.
Lavender, David.
Snowbound: The Tragic Story of the Donner Party
. New York: Holiday
House,
1996. Print
Murphy, Virginia Reed. Across the Plains in the Donner Party: A Personal Narrative of the
Overland Trip to California, 1846­47. Golden, Colo.: Out, 1980. Print.
The Donner Party
. PBS Home Video ., 2009. DVD.

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