Beginning in early 1847, four rescue parties (First through Fourth Relief) trekked into and out of the Sierras in fairly rapid succession. They met with varying degrees of success, tempered by cowardice, greed, and inhumanity. There was weather-related mayhem along the trail and there were deaths as well. During the ill-fated Second Relief, a blizzard forced rescuers to abandon two families of Donner Party survivors at what became known as “Starved Camp.”25 Alone on a mountain trail they thought would lead them to safety, the 13 starved pioneers huddled in a frozen snow pit for 11 days. Three of them died and the survivors were forced to eat their own dead relatives, including children. They were eventually discovered by members of Third Relief, several of whom led them out of the Sierras and to safety.
One month earlier, in mid-February, First Relief, minus several men who had decided to quit, crossed the high mountain pass where the Donner Party had been halted in November. They set up camp for the night, building their fire on a platform of logs that sat atop snow they estimated to be around 30 feet deep. The following day, seven men descended the eastern slope of the Sierras and set out across the icy expanse of Truckee Lake, arriving at the spot where the survivors of The Forlorn Hope had told them the cabins were located. First Relief member Daniel Rhoads told historian H. H. Bancroft what happened next.
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 and said “are you men from California or do you come from heaven?”
The First Relief rescuers were shocked by the condition of the survivors. Many of the skeletal figures could barely move as they spoke in raspy whispers, begging for bread. Some appeared to have gone mad. Others were unconscious as they lay on beds made of pine boughs. The stunned Californians handed out small portions of food to each of the survivors—biscuits and beef mostly—but that night a guard was posted to ensure that their provisions would remain safe from the starving pioneers.
Outside the cabin, the members of the rescue party saw smashed animal bones and tattered pieces of hide littering the area. Then there were the human bodies, twelve of them, scattered about the campsite, some covered by quilts, others with limbs jutting out of the snow. There were no signs of cannibalism.
The next day the weather broke clear, and three of the First Relievers headed for the Alder Creek Camp. In a pair of tentlike shelters they found Tamzene Donner (George’s wife), her newly widowed sister-in-law Elizabeth (who could barely walk), the twelve Donner children, and several others, including George Donner. Feverish and infirm, his wounded hand had become a slow death sentence.
Taking stock of the situation, Reason Tucker, co-leader of First Relief, knew that they needed to get out of the Sierras before another storm trapped them all there. Tucker’s other realization was a difficult one, for he knew it would be physically impossible for many of the starving pioneers to hike out with them. Some were too young, others too far gone, and although he and his men had cached provisions along the trail, there would not be enough food for the entire group. It was now time for some painful decisions.
Sickly Elizabeth Donner decided that four of her children would never make it through the deep snow, and so they would remain with her at Alder Creek. George Donner’s wife, Tamzene, on the other hand, was healthy enough to travel and she was urged to leave with her five daughters. Mrs. Donner refused, insisting that she would never leave George alone to die. She decided to keep her three youngest children with her, presumably waiting for the next relief party, whose arrival they apparently believed to be imminent.
On February 22, six members of the Alder Creek Camp hiked out with First Relief, accompanied by 17 others from the Truckee Lake Camp. That left 31 members of the Donner Party still trapped and starving.
A long week later, members of Second Relief arrived at the mountain camps, but by then the conditions at both sites had taken a dramatic downturn. In late 1847, reporter J. H. Merryman published the following account, obtaining his information from a letter penned by Donner Party member James Reed. Exiled earlier in the journey for stabbing a man to death in a fight, Reed had ridden on to California. Now he had returned, leading Second Relief:
[Reed’s] party immediately commenced distributing their provision among the sufferers, all of whom they found in the most deplorable condition. Among the cabins lay the fleshless bones and half-eaten bodies of the victims of famine. There lay the limbs, the skulls, and the hair of the poor beings, who had died from want, and whose flesh had preserved the lives of their surviving comrades, who, shivering in their filthy rags, and surrounded by the remains of their unholy feast looked more like demons than human beings.
In 1849, J. Q. Thornton (who also interviewed James Reed in late 1847) wrote the following about Reed’s initial entry into one of the Truckee Lake cabins:
The mutilated body of a friend, having nearly all the flesh torn away, was seen at the door—the head and face remaining entire. Half consumed limbs were seen concealed in trunks. Bones were scattered about. Human hair of different colors was seen in tufts about the fire-place.