I have been in a cabin without internet for a week, so I am writing you from a nearby ski lodge! My cabin is directly on the Donner Pass, the very woods where the doomed Donner Party met their awful fate.
I've always known, as we all have, that this group of settlers was trapped during the winter of 1846 and had to resort to cannibalism.
Eager to learn more, I visited the Donner Party Museum yesterday.
After watching a film about their story (which was amazing!!!!) I walked through the woods and found the rock (pictured) where one of their cabins had stood. Its back wall WAS the rock. 16 people lived in an 18 X 25 foot space...the floor was muddy, it was freezing, and seven of them died. Those living ate their dead and buried the bodies in a pit in the middle of the cabin (RIGHT where these pictures are taken).
Eager to learn more, I visited the Donner Party Museum yesterday. After watching a film about their story (which was amazing!!!!) I walked through the woods and found the rock (pictured) where one of their cabins had stood. Its back wall WAS the rock. 16 people lived in an 18 X 25 foot space...the floor was muddy, it was freezing, and seven of them died. Those living ate their dead and buried the bodies in a pit in the middle of the cabin (RIGHT where these pictures are taken).I stood for a long time in the silent woods and thought on this, very heartbreaking. The group had cabins like these scattered through the area, this is just one of the spots.
The winter they were stuck, the snowfall reached 25 feet high!! The huge monument (pictured) is to show how high the snow was when the Donner Party was stuck here. I made us all stand in front to show you just how tall it is. Of the entire traveling Donner group (some 80 people)...only half made it out alive. Unreal, yes?
I'll tell you, after spending time on the very spot where such a human tragedy occured, I sure appreciated my food and warmth later last night.
i love getting a history lesson when i read your blog. seriously, you are neat-o.
ReplyDeleteI love that you go to places that aren't necessarily mainstream tourist attractions. Sometimes it's easier to gain a little perspective from a place like that than from visiting the M&Ms store...
ReplyDeleteFrom the things that interest you and your perspective on stuff many in your generation would find boring or irrevelant - I suspect you have a very old soul.
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