John's Page

A group of pioneers, known as "The Donner Party", left Fort Bridger, Wyoming on July 30, 1846. They were lead by "Capt." George Donner. The wagon train consisted of 90 men, women and children and were headed for California. Under normal circumstances they would have had plenty of time to get over the mountains before Winter. But, due to a few bad decisions and some bad luck, ( Indians, loss of oxen, lack of water, etc.) they got to The Sierras late in the year. They arrived at Truckee[Donner] Lake on Oct. 30, 1846. An early winter forced them to make shelters and try to survive until Spring. They soon ran out of food and began to starve. A couple of men went on foot over the Donner Summit down to the Sacramento Valley for help. As you might expect this took precious time. The first relief team did not arrive at Donner Lake until Feb 22, 1847. By that time a number of people had died. More relief teams were to follow over the next two months. The last survivor left Donner Lake in mid April, 1847. Of the original 90, 48 survived and 42 died of various causes, mainly starvation and cold.
... John ...

I am a descendant of Elitha Cumi Donner, one of the daughters of Capt. George Donner of the
ill-fated "Donner Party" of 1846. I try to keep track of the ever-expanding family of descendants of Elitha.

Click HERE to e-mail me ....

Click here to go to My Donner Ancestry Page

Click here for Picture of Elitha Donner (75kb jpg)

Click here for picture of Elitha's Grave Marker (233kb jpg)

Click here to go to Donner Related Book List

Here is another Web site with "Donner Party" information ...

Homepage of Daniel M. Rosen - Very informative, well constructed Web site.

These are some of my other interests and favorite Web sites.