The behavioral component of the female/male survival differential relates to the fact that the Donner Party men did most of the hard physical labor associated with a journey by wagon train, and that ultimately translated to serious health problems once their diets became compromised. Donald Grayson suggested a scenario that triggered the decline in the previously healthy males.
When the Donner Party hacked a trail through the Wasatch Range . . . it was the men, not the women who bore the brunt of the labor. . . . There is no way to know exactly how much this grueling labor affected the strength of the Donner Party men, but they surely emerged from the Wasatch Range with their internal energy stores drained, stores they were unable to renew during the long and arduous trip across the Great Basin Desert that followed.
So what about the fact that married men out-survived bachelors by such a wide margin? The reason for this may have to do with differences in the mammalian physiological response to stress, related to blood levels of the hormone cortisol (hydrocortisone), a steroid hormone released by the adrenal gland. Cortisol is considered a stress hormone and part of the body’s “fight or flight” response to real or imagined threats. While it can have positive short-term effects, increased plasma levels of cortisol can also lead to decreased cognitive ability, depression of the immune system, and impairment of the body’s ability to heal.27 In a 2010 study, researchers at the University of Chicago looked at hormone levels in test groups composed of married and unmarried college students who were placed in anxiety-filled situations. The bachelors had higher levels of cortisol than did married men subjected to the same levels of stress. Thus the experimenters concluded that
single and unpaired individuals are more responsive to psychological stress than married individuals, a finding consistent with a growing body of evidence showing that marriage and social support can buffer against stress.
If one adds these findings to the data from Robert Dirks’s study (in which one phase of starvation was for groups to partition along family lines), the results strongly indicate why all of the mountain-stranded bachelors perished while fully half of their married counterparts survived.
Back at Alder Creek, while my new friend Kayle and I rested in the shade of a large pine tree, Johnson and Grebenkemper outlined their new hypothesis. As I thought, it concerned the location of what they now believed to be multiple campsites at Alder Creek, one each for the two Donner brothers, George and Jacob, and another for the teamsters who worked for them. Grebenkemper told me that in 2011 and 2012, Kayle and several other HHRD dogs had alerted at the Meadow Hearth as well as another spot (Canine Two Locality) some 500 meters from where Kayle had just alerted. I was only mildly disappointed to learn that the site near where I now sat had already been designated Canine Three Locality. These localities were well outside the area traditionally associated with Donner camps, and this particular site had been reported to have the strongest scent signature—a determination made at the end of 2013 after six different HHRD dogs alerted here a total of 27 times.
According to Grebenkemper, eight members of the Donner Party died at Alder Creek, their bodies placed in the snow, not only because of the weather conditions but because the survivors were too weak to bury them. In the spring of 1847, the thawed-out bodies began to decompose and the scent from the bones and body fluids would remain in the ground for nearly 170 years. Having gone through specialized training programs that began when they were puppies, HHRD dogs like Kayle were able to detect that scent.
Grebenkemper and Johnson believed that the Canine Localities Two and Three matched up extremely well with a combination of old maps and survivor accounts and were the best possible fit for the sites of the two Donner family campsites.
“I’ve had a change of mind about the teamsters’ shelter,” Kristin Johnson told me. “Previously, I’d cast doubts on its existence, arguing that there was no good source for it. But with this new site agreeing so well with the sources, I think that for now the best explanation for the Meadow Hearth is that it was the site of the teamsters’ hut.”
I gestured to the patch of dry ground in front of me where Kayle had just alerted. “So that would make that spot, over there . . . ?”
“The spot where Tamzene Donner placed George Donner’s body,” Grebenkemper said, nonchalantly.
I sat up straight.
He continued, quiet and calm. “And it would make that tree you’re sitting under the real George Donner Tree.”
The Donner detectives smiled wry smiles, sensing my momentary confusion as I scrambled to my feet. “Wait. And what happened under this tree?”
“A lot of suffering,” John replied.