One hundred and sixty-three years ago this week, members of the Donner Party were slowly making their way westward out of the Truckee Meadows (Reno) area. The nine-member Breen family was the first to leave, accompanied by Louis Keseberg, his wife and two children, and William Eddy with his wife and children.

A second wave consisting of the Reed, Graves, and Murphy families departed hours later, which put them miles behind the Breen group. Last to leave were the two Donner families led by Captain George Donner. From now on, the Donner families' wagons would lag behind the others and each of the family groups would operate independently.

Stephens Party of 1844
The trail they followed headed west along the Truckee River to present-day Verdi. There the trail broke away from the river and went northwest toward Dog Valley north of present-day I-80. The 1844 Stephens Party was the first group of pioneers to haul wagons over Donner Pass; they opened the California Trail. The Stephens Party was also the only wagon train to follow the Truckee River directly up the canyon all the way from Reno to Donner Lake. Repeated crossings through the river water softened oxens' hooves and some of them went lame. To mitigate this problem, in 1845 a different trail was blazed north out of Verdi; this approach avoided many crossings of the river.

Coldstream Canyon
From Dog Valley the trail wound its way southwest through the wooded meadows that later became Prosser and Stampede reservoirs. The Dog Valley trail eventually led to the east end of Truckee (later named Donner) Lake. From there the original Stephens route was westward along the north shore of Donner Lake. By 1846, this route had been altered to avoid the difficulties endured by the Stephens Party.

During 1846 wagon companies started using Coldstream Canyon that is south of Donner Lake. The entrance to Coldstream is at the east end of the lake. The 1846 pioneers went westward up Coldstream and then crossed the Pacific Divide at Roller Pass, a few miles south of today's Donner Pass.

Accidental Death
The skies were cloudy and the weather cool as the fragmented Donner Party began its climb into the Sierra, but the pioneers were optimistic that they could still cross the mountains before winter set in. However, their mood was somber. On October 21, when the company had regrouped in the Truckee Meadows, William Pike had been accidentally shot and killed by his brother-in-law William Foster.

Pike and Foster had volunteered to race ahead to Sutter's Fort in order to acquire provisions and they had began preparing their gear. But Pike was killed when a loaded pistol he handed to Foster accidentally discharged, sending a bullet into Pike's back. His death left his wife, Harriet (picture), a widow in care of their two little girls.

Potential Rescuers
Charlie Stanton and Bill McCutchen had never returned from their mission to Sutter's Fort to get food. In addition, no one knew if the banished James Reed, along with Walter Herron, had survived their desperate journey to California. The Donner Party couldn't know it, but at that moment Stanton actually was heading toward it leading a pack train up the Sierra west slope. Stanton had two Indian guides and mules loaded with supplies from Sutter's Fort.

Meanwhile, James Reed and Walter Herron were going the other way, stumbling down the rugged Sierra west slope. The two men were in a weak condition from lack of food. According to Reed's journal, they had found no game after they left the Truckee River and "for seven days [we] journeyed through the wilderness, during which time we ate but two meals, and they were made of wild onions." They kept pushing on, however, and in a few days they reached Sutter's Fort.

Hope and Help Arrives
There was great excitement in the Donner Party on October 25 when the lead wagons of the Patrick Breen family encountered Charlie Stanton coming down the trail. Stanton's seven mules were packed with flour, jerked beef, sugar and beans. Luis and Salvador, two Miwok Indians on loan from John Sutter, were there to lead the party over the mountains and to safety in California.

Stanton also shared the good news that he had met James Reed and Walter Herron on the trail. Reed had promised Stanton that once he reached Sutter's Fort, he would be close behind with more supplies for the Donner group.

But Reed would never get the chance. A couple of days after he arrived at Sutter's Fort, a storm broke and it rained heavily and steadily for about twelve hours. After the skies cleared, Captain Sutter told Reed that the storm had been unusually severe for October and that the snow in the mountains "was low down and heavy for the first fall of the season." This did not bode well for the Donner Party.

Editor's Note: This installment is #17 in a series tracing the actual experiences of the Donner Party as it worked its way into American history. Mark McLaughlin, weather historian and award-winning author, who lives on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe, wrote the series. For more of McLaughlin's work, visit www.micmacmedia.com.