One hundred and sixty-plus years ago this week, members of the Donner Party were hustling along the Humboldt River in Nevada in their desperate rush to reach California before winter overtook them.

On October 6 they were near present-day Imlay, Nevada, about 35 miles west of Winnemucca. The day before, James Reed, the strongest leader of the group, had been banished for killing teamster John Snyder in a fight.

Reed's stepdaughter, 13-year-old Virginia, wrote, "My father was sent out into an unknown country without provisions or arms-even his horse was at first denied him. I had cried until I had hardly the strength to walk, but when we reached camp and I saw the distress of my mother, with the little ones clinging around her and no arm to lean upon, it seemed suddenly to make a woman of me. I realized I must be strong and help momma bear her sorrows."

Party Splintered
The violent fight and expulsion of James Reed fractured whatever cohesion the wagon company had left after the ordeals of the Hastings "shortcut." The Donner and Murphy families traveled together a day or two ahead of the Breen, Reed, and Graves families. The other members of the group struggled along on their own as best they could. With James Reed gone, his wife Margaret was forced to abandon their large family wagon and they cached it along the river. To carry their remaining supplies and possessions, they borrowed a small wagon from Franklin Ward Graves.

During the second week of October 1846, the social and moral breakdown accelerated. Louis Keseberg, who argued that his oxen were too weak to pull all the weight, forced a passenger, Mr. Hardcoop, out of the Keseberg wagon. Hardcoop was an elderly Belgian who had been traveling with German-immigrant, Keseberg. Hardcoop fell behind and walked until he collapsed; he then failed to rejoin the others at the evening camp. A bonfire was built to signal him, but Hardcoop never showed up. The following day some members of the party attempted to go back to find him, but others argued that Hardcoop must already be dead and the wagon company should move on.

Paiutes
As the disorganized and bickering party struggled on, conditions grew worse. They were now in Paiute Country and the Indians sensed the wagon company's vulnerability. Each night arrows whistled through the pioneer's camp, but no attack ever came. The Paiutes were more interested in killing or stealing livestock and horses than they were in risking a direct assault on the well-armed emigrants. During this final push towards the Humboldt Sink, which is only 40 miles from the Truckee River, the Indians stole or killed nearly fifty head of oxen and cattle.

By October 13, Paiute arrows had killed all of William Eddy's remaining livestock; this forced him to leave behind his only wagon. Eddy, his wife Eleanor, and their two children were left with only the clothes on their backs and some lump sugar in their pockets. William Eddy, a 28-year-old cabinetmaker, along with his ailing wife, each carried one of their children, James, 3, and Margaret, a one-year-old.

First Snow
Meanwhile, winter weather was already moving into the California Mountains (the Sierra Nevada). During the second week of October, James Mathers, one of the final pioneers on the trail in 1846, crossed over Truckee Pass (later renamed Donner Pass) in an early season snowstorm. The fast-moving cold front didn't produce much snow, but persistent clouds and three days of low temperatures followed, an indication that the winter storm track was already becoming active. The changing weather pattern was more bad news for the Donner Party, which would not reach the storm-wracked pass until the end of October.

Reed photo courtesy California State Parks. Sutter's Fort Archives

Editor's Note: This installment is #15 in an exclusive, weekly series tracing the actual experiences of the Donner Party as it worked its way into American history. Mark McLaughlin, weather historian, who lives on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, wrote the series for Tahoetopia.