This Fucking Snow

A couple of weeks ago, I watched this PBS show --- "The American Experience", I think it was --- about The Donner Party.

I watched it late at night, just before I turned off the lights and went to sleep with my cat, Marsha, curled up at my feet. I had nightmares about Marsha and I stalking each other at night for mealtime purposes ...

For those who skipped American history class on the days they covered the 1840s, the Donner Party was a group of California-bound American emigrants caught up in the "westering fever" of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–1847, some of them resorted to cannibalism.

Near the end of this blog, I've included some Wikipedia information about The Donner Party. But I just wanted to post some thoughts about winter.

The secret to surviving it is getting fresh air, I'm convinced. It means leaving the warmth of one's home and going out and breathing some fresh air. The alternative is staying indoors and occasionally looking outside and glaring at The Fucking Snow, which I know our members in the Mid-Atlantic states are having in abundance.

I live in the East Tennessee mountains and we have had our share. I got up at 6:15 a.m. today and there was just a dusting of this white crap. It's 8:02 a.m. now and all but a little bit of the yard is covered. And it's still coming.

Winter makes us crazy. A lot of it has to do with not enough sunlight. Some of it has to do with staying indoors too much and being isolated from each other. When you read the details of The Donner Party incident below, imagine being in a hastily-built log cabin in the Rocky Mountains, not enough food available --- and very little to season and cook it with --- and your loved ones around you on the verge of death.

As Norman Bates (played by Anthony Perkins) said in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho", "We all go a little bit crazy now and then." Isolation, starvation and winter depression undoubtedly drove the survivors of The Donner Party mad. I can't imagine being in such a situation.

So once a day, I try to go outside to run errands or visit one of my kids (my daughter Tracy and her husband and her four kids just adopted three pit bull puppies; fortunately, they have a large apartment so they can get away from each other once in a while.)

I even kick Marsha out of the house for a while every day. She's one year old, fat as a cow, and doesn't like the cold very much. But she always comes back in, having worked off some nervous energy and ready to settle in and appreciate her nice warm home.

Folks who grumble about having to get up and face the elements to go to work are justified in feeling it's a pain in the ass. But it's also a blessing --- they have a sense of purpose and they have something to look forward to every day: coming home to where it's warm and there's food they can fix to feed themselves. And they have a sense of knowing they're going to make it through the winter.

The Donner Party didn't have that reassurance.

The nucleus of the The Donner Party consisted of the families of George Donner, his brother Jacob, and James F. Reed of Springfield, Illinois, plus their hired hands, about 33 people in all, with nine covered wagons. They set out for California in mid-April 1846, arrived at Independence, Missouri, on May 10, 1846, and left two days later.

On May 19, 1846, the Donners and Reeds joined a large wagon train captained by William H. Russell. Most of those who became members of the Donner Party were also in this group. For the next two months the travelers followed the California Trail until they reached the Little Sandy River, in what is now Wyoming, where they camped alongside several other overland parties. There, those emigrants who had decided to take a new route ("Hastings Cutoff," named after its promoter, Lansford Hastings), formed a new wagon train. They elected George Donner their captain, creating the Donner Party, on July 19. At its height, it numbered 87 emigrants with 23 wagons.

The Donner Party continued westward to Fort Bridger, where Hastings Cutoff began, and set out on the new route on August 31. They endured great hardships while crossing the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert, finally rejoining the California Trail near modern Elko, Nevada, on September 26. The "shortcut" had taken them over three weeks longer than had they used the customary route. They met further setbacks and delays while traveling along Nevada's Humboldt River.

When they reached the Sierra Nevada at the end of October, a snowstorm blocked their way over what is now known as Donner Pass. Demoralized and low on supplies, about three quarters of the emigrants camped at a lake (now called Donner Lake), while the Donner families and a few others camped about six miles (ten kilometers) away, in the Alder Creek Valley.

The emigrants slaughtered their remaining oxen, but there was not enough meat to feed so many for long. In mid-December, fifteen of the trapped emigrants, later known as the Forlorn Hope, made snowshoes and set out for Sutter's Fort, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away. This group consisted of ten men and five women. When one man gave out and had to be left behind, the others continued, but soon became lost and ran out of food. Caught without shelter in a raging blizzard, four of the party died. The survivors resorted to cannibalism, then continued on their journey; three more died and were also cannibalized. Close to death, the seven surviving snowshoers—two men, and all five of the women—finally reached safety on the western side of the mountains on January 18, 1847. Two Native Americans, called Luis and Salvador, who helped bring supplies from Sutter's Fort were found near death from exposure a few days after they left the group upon learning that William Foster, one of the members of the "Forlorn Hope" group, wanted to kill them for food. Over the objections of some members of the group, Foster shot Luis and Salvador and cut up their bodies for meat.

Some Californians rallied to save the Donner Party and equipped a total of four rescue parties, or "reliefs." When the First Relief arrived, 14 emigrants had died at the camps and the rest were extremely weak. Most had been surviving on boiled ox hide, but there had been no cannibalism. The First Relief set out with 21 refugees on February 22.

When the Second Relief arrived a week later, they found that there had been no more deaths, but some of the 31 emigrants left behind at the camps had begun to eat the dead. The Second Relief took 17 emigrants with them, leaving 14 alive at the camps. When the Third Relief arrived later in March, they found nine left. They rescued four children, but had to leave five people behind. By the time the Fourth Relief reached the camps on April 17, only one man was left alive. After salvaging property from the Alder Creek camp, the relief left, taking Louis (or Lewis) Keseberg with them. The last survivor of the Donner Party arrived at Sutter's Fort on April 29.

Of the original 87 pioneers, 39 died and 48 survived. Five died before reaching the Sierra Nevada, 14 at the lake camp, eight at Alder Creek, and 12 while trying to escape the mountains.