One hundred and sixty-plus years ago this week, the members of the Donner Party were starving and delusional, but help was finally on the way.

Rescue Party Forming in San Francisco
In San Francisco, James Reed and other men were drumming up support and supplies for a series of rescue efforts to reach the stranded pioneers in the mountains.

As the money and provisions poured in, a boat was offered to transport James Reed and others to Fort Sonoma. Officer Selim Woodworth of the United States Navy volunteered to ferry supplies on a schooner from San Francisco to the delta and then north up the Sacramento River to the mouth of the Feather River. William Johnson's ranch, about forty miles north of Sutter's Fort, was the most eastern American settlement in the Sacramento Valley; it was the staging point for all of the rescue operations.

Commodore Joseph B. Hull, the top ranking naval officer in San Francisco at the time, appointed James Reed assistant to Woodworth and authorized him to "raise as many men, with horses, as would be required" at government expense.

The generous donations by San Francisco citizens and military personnel had brought in enough money to purchase all the supplies necessary for the rescue attempt. Provisions included 15 barrels of flour, one barrel of pork, 400 pounds of sugar, 17 pounds of tobacco, six frying pans, 24 blankets, 48 pairs of woolen stockings, and plenty of pants, flannel shirts and children's shoes.

Risky Business
The men in the first rescue effort were quite aware that they were risking their lives by attempting to cross the Sierra during winter, but they were also concerned about the human cost if they didn't try. By the middle of February, the First Relief party had shrunk to seven men. The others had retreated back to safety at Johnson's Ranch or Sutter's Fort.

The heroic men who had kept trudging up the mountain were: Aquilla Glover, Reason P. Tucker, Sept Moutry, Ned Coffeemeyer, Joseph Sels, Daniel Rhoads, and his brother John. Later, Sheriff George McKinstry of Sutter's Fort wrote, "Their names ought to be recorded in letters of gold."

Each day, moving up the mountain, the men built a fire on a solid platform of cut trees to keep the flames from melting the snow. They also torched dead pines along the route to serve as trail markers for them and others to follow on the return trip. When the snow finally melted months later, the burned stumps indicated a snow depth of almost eighteen feet.

As the men in the First Relief climbed ever higher up the Sierra west slope, they gradually lightened their packs by leaving caches to be picked up on the way back. On February 17, they reached the headwaters of the Yuba River and camped just west of Donner Pass where they "supposed the snow to be 30 foot deep." Aquilla Glover and Daniel Rhoads suffered from altitude sickness and their companions had to relieve them of their backpacks.

Over Donner Pass: February 18, 1847
The next day the First Relief crossed Donner Pass and descended to Donner Lake where they reached the buried cabins at sundown. Instead of a lake, there was "a broad, clean sheet of snow." The rescuers estimated that the snow ranged between twelve to eighteen feet deep. In a letter he wrote years later, Daniel Rhoads recounted their first encounter with the snowbound party:

"We crossed Truckee [Donner] Lake on the ice and came to the spot where we had been told we should find the emigrants. We looked all around but no living thing except ourselves was in sight and we thought that all must have perished. We raised a loud halloo and then we saw a woman emerge from a hole in the snow. As we approached her, several others made their appearance in like manner coming out of the snow. They were gaunt with famine and I never can forget the horrible, ghastly sight they presented. The first woman spoke in a hollow voice very much agitated & said 'are your men from California or do you come from heaven.'"

The rescuers managed to escort six people out of the Alder Creek site, five miles from the lake, and back to Donner Lake. They were the 19-year-old widow Doris Wolfinger and 16-year-old teamster Noah James, as well as four of the older Donner children. The dozen others at Alder Creek were too weak to escape. Tamsen Donner, who was strong enough to travel, refused to leave her ailing husband, George, and their younger children. Rescuer Reason Tucker insisted that teenager, John Baptiste Trudeau, stay at the Alder Creek site; Trudeau was the only one strong enough to chop wood to keep the fires going. Tucker assured those left behind that more help was on the way, and he gave those remaining a small amount of flour and dried beef.

Editor's Note: Mark McLaughlin is a Tahoe Historian who wrote this series for Tahoetopia. For other Donner stories, click Donner Party.