One hundred and sixty-plus years ago this week, survivors of the Donner Party were still being rescued. Frostbite and malnutrition had taken a toll on bodies, but these were not fatal injuries to the emigrants lucky enough to escape from the mountains with the first rescue effort. But another storm was brewing.

By March 3, 1847, eighteen of the remaining pioneers were safe at Sutter's Fort and working to recover from their ordeals. By the afternoon of March 5, James Reed and the men of the second relief had succeeding in coming down from the crest, heading west, to Summit Valley with seventeen more refugees; the rescue party decided to rest for the night. The first rescue party had camped in the same place on its way back to Johnson's Ranch; there was a pile of cut firewood ready for the second relief to use.

Summit Valley is a large, alpine meadow and pine forest, surrounded by mountains. Located close to 7,000 feet in elevation just west of the Sierra crest, the valley is situated in a heavy snow zone. Abundant precipitation there feeds the headwaters of the Yuba River. The region is a very dangerous place to be caught unprotected in a winter blizzard.

Blizzard
During the last weeks of February, high pressure had held any Pacific storms from hitting the Donner Pass area. In early March, however, the U.S. warship, Warren, anchored in San Francisco Bay, reported a falling barometer and heavy seas. On March 5, a cold and powerful Gulf of Alaska storm system roared into Northern California. Within a short time, relatively balmy temperatures near 70 degrees plunged to the low 40s. Hail and snow were reported in the San Francisco Bay region.

When the storm rolled eastward into the Sierra; blizzard conditions developed. James Reed and his charges were in the worst possible predicament with no shelter, virtually no food, and high exposure Summit Valley.

To keep the emigrants alive, a large fire was built on top of a platform of cut green logs; this helped to slow the blaze from melting down into the deep snow pack, "twenty feet at least in depth." Pine boughs were stacked on the snow pack to insulate the emigrants and keep them from getting wet as they lay under blankets around the fire. Three men were sent ahead to retrieve the closest cache of dried beef that the second relief had left on the way up. (To protect the food from foraging predators, the bags of dehydrated meat were tied to the top of a pine sapling and all the branches cut off.) The storm hit prior to their return.

For two days and the greater part of two nights the storm lashed the mountains. In spite of the severe weather, the rescuers continued to chop wood to feed the fire, which kept them all alive. The fire provided some heat, but they no food. Reed wrote, "Still in camp, the last of our provisions gone. Looking anxiously for our supplies, none."

Down the Hill
The three men who had been sent ahead to obtain the food cache five miles away had found it had been ransacked it by wild animals. They proceed on west (downhill) toward the next cache; it still had some meat. Before the three men could return uphill to Reed and the others, they, too, were caught in the blizzard. Near death from cold and famine, they placed a portion of the meat in a tree located where Reed could find it when he and the emigrants came down the lightly marked trail to safety. Then the three men pushed on down the west slope toward relative safety for themselves.

Where is the Third Relief Party?
Back up at Summit Valley, Reed and the emigrants expected a Lt. Woodworth and a third relief party to arrive at any time, but the naval midshipman never did venture far from the base camp down in Bear Valley. It would take other men, of a different character, to initiate and carry out a third and final rescue effort.

Editor's Note: This installment is #36 in an exclusive, weekly series tracing the actual experiences of the Donner Party as it worked its way into American history. The author, Mark McLaughlin, is a Tahoe Historian who can be reached at mark@thestormking.com.