0:01

On October 7,

0:04

1846, James Reed and his traveling companion

0:06

Walter Heron left the camp of

0:09

the

0:19

Donner

0:27

Group.

0:28

The Donner-Reed wagon train was

0:30

less than 200 miles from the California

0:32

border and it was split into two groups.

0:35

The Donner Group was two days ahead of

0:37

the Reed Group.

0:39

James Reed, head of the Reed family,

0:42

had been banished from his group after

0:44

he killed a man during an angry scuffle. Reed

0:47

had ridden ahead to the Donner Group, where

0:49

Walter Heron volunteered to go with Reed

0:52

to California. The two

0:54

men followed the Humboldt River, taking

0:56

turns riding the one horse they had between

0:58

them. Without the cumbersome wagon

1:01

train, they logged at least 25 miles

1:03

a day, sometimes as many as 40.

1:06

But Reed's thoughts were always on his

1:08

family. Whenever and wherever

1:11

he could, he scrawled out crude

1:13

maps and notes and left them on

1:15

the path. Reed and

1:17

Heron's meager provisions ran

1:19

out in a few days, spurring them to hunt

1:22

for food. Every once in a while,

1:24

they were able to shoot a goose. They

1:26

managed to gather a few wild onions,

1:28

but those didn't last long. They

1:30

fought over whether to kill and eat the

1:32

horse. On a particularly

1:35

bad day, they stumbled upon some

1:37

abandoned wagons. There

1:39

was no food in the wagons, but Reed

1:41

checked a bucket under one of them and

1:43

was able to scrape some animal fat from

1:45

it. They ate

1:47

some of the disgusting slime and

1:49

it made them horribly sick, but they were

1:51

able to digest enough calories to survive.

1:54

And then something incredible happened. At

1:57

a camp near Bear Valley, about 70 miles from where Reed was, a wild horse

1:59

was found.

1:59

75 miles southwest of Lake

2:02

Tahoe, they spotted a familiar

2:04

figure. It was Charles Stanton

2:06

who had left the wagon train six weeks earlier

2:09

with William McCutcheon. They

2:11

had volunteered to ride ahead of the wagon train

2:14

to try to make it to Sutter's Fort to

2:16

find food and maybe help. Sutter's

2:20

Fort was a small settlement in the Sacramento

2:22

Valley. It was the goal of every

2:25

wagon train headed to Northern California

2:27

to make it to the outpost before winter.

2:31

The wagon train had heard nothing from Stanton

2:33

or McCutcheon since they left. It

2:35

turned out they made it to the fort, but

2:38

McCutcheon got sick and had to stay. Stanton

2:41

was riding back to the wagon train as promised

2:44

with mules loaded with flour and dried

2:46

meat. Reed and Stanton

2:49

exchanged news of their respective experiences

2:52

and then rode off in separate directions. Reed

2:55

and Heron headed west towards Sutter's

2:57

Fort and more supplies. Stanton

3:00

headed east toward the struggling Donner

3:02

party. Besides food,

3:05

Stanton had good news. The

3:07

trail through the Sierra Nevada mountains should

3:09

be passable for another month until

3:11

maybe mid-November. It

3:13

wouldn't be fun, but the party should

3:15

be able to make it to California before winter.

3:18

They had two more legs of the journey to go. They

3:21

had to make it to the mountains and then

3:23

make it through the mountains. As

3:25

far as they knew, there was still time.

3:28

They could still do it.

3:37

From Black Barrel Media, this is Legends of the

3:40

Old West. I'm your host, Chris Wimmer,

3:42

and this season we're bringing you the disturbing

3:44

stories of the Donner party and the Bender

3:46

family, a murderous clan known

3:49

as the Bloody Benders. This

3:51

is episode three, the Donner party,

3:53

part three of four,

3:55

Trent.

4:03

Charles Stanton made it to the wagon

4:05

train around October 25th

4:08

and he was an incredibly welcome sight.

4:11

A lot had happened between James Reed's

4:13

banishment on October 5th and

4:15

Stanton's return 20 days later.

4:18

This was not the light-hearted, cohesive

4:21

wagon train that left Independence, Missouri

4:23

four and a half months earlier. The

4:26

group that had paused and wasted time

4:28

to admire the scenery and absorb the

4:31

sense of adventure

4:32

was gone.

4:33

The excruciating trip through the Utah

4:35

salt flats had pushed them to their limits.

4:38

Their sense of community was severely

4:40

tested. And yet, Stanton's

4:43

arrival renewed their fortitude to

4:45

keep going, even as the weather

4:47

turned icy cold as they approached

4:49

today's city of Reno, Nevada. Among

4:52

the families who were still with the Donner party,

4:55

there were the Breens, the Keesbergs,

4:57

the Eddies, the Murphys, the

5:00

Reeds, the Graves, the Wolfingers,

5:03

and the Donners. And they were

5:05

now at the stage of the journey where they had

5:07

to make conscious decisions about who

5:09

lived and who died. And

5:11

the first tragic case was that of Mr.

5:14

Hardcoup. On

5:18

October 7th, not long after

5:20

James Reed was banished, William

5:22

Eddy and William Pike rode ahead

5:24

of their wagons to hunt for food. They

5:27

were attacked by a band of Paiute. Fortunately,

5:30

they avoided harm, but they came back empty-handed.

5:33

And they learned that one of their number was missing,

5:36

a man known only as Mr. Hardcoup.

5:39

Hardcoup was a driver for the Keesberg

5:41

family. According to

5:43

most sources, Mr. Hardcoup

5:46

was a Belgian immigrant. He was

5:48

about 60 years old and thought

5:50

of as kindly and helpful. Eddy

5:53

and Pike questioned Louis Keesberg,

5:55

who said he didn't know where his driver was. Eddy

5:58

sent a rider back down the road. trail to look

6:00

for Mr. Hardcoup. About five

6:03

miles back, the rider found Hardcoup

6:05

and brought him back to the wagon train. Hardcoup

6:09

told Eddie and the rest of the group that

6:11

Kiesberg had forced him out of the family

6:13

wagon. Kiesberg admitted

6:16

it, though it was more complicated than the

6:18

Heartless Act appeared to be. Kiesberg

6:21

had been forced to abandon one of his two

6:23

wagons, and there wasn't enough room

6:25

for Hardcoup in the one that remained. Kiesberg's

6:28

own family was walking most of the time, including

6:31

his wife, who carried their infant son.

6:34

Kiesberg had to prioritize the health of

6:37

his family over the health of Mr.

6:39

Hardcoup. The next

6:41

day, the Reed family abandoned

6:43

a wagon, and other families threw things

6:45

away that were not vital to survival.

6:48

The more they carried, the slower and

6:50

harder the trip would be. They

6:53

began to march along the Humboldt River, and

6:55

once again, Mr. Hardcoup was on his

6:57

own. Hardcoup begged William

7:00

Eddie for a ride in Eddie's wagon. William

7:03

Eddie felt sorry for the older man, but

7:05

he, like Kiesberg, had to be practical.

7:09

They were riding through deep, loose sand,

7:12

and there weren't enough pack animals to pull

7:14

the extra weight on the wagon. He

7:16

told Hardcoup to walk with them and

7:18

do the best he could until they reached better

7:21

soil. Eddie refocused

7:23

his attention on the exhausting task

7:25

of managing his family's movements, and

7:28

he lost track of Hardcoup. When

7:30

they stopped to make camp that evening, Eddie

7:32

noticed Hardcoup was no longer with them. Some

7:35

of the boys mentioned they had seen Hardcoup earlier

7:38

in the day, sitting shoeless next

7:40

to some sagebrush. They noticed

7:43

his feet were black, and so swollen

7:45

they were split open. Later

7:47

that night, when there was still no sign

7:49

of Hardcoup, Eddie built a signal

7:51

fire. He hoped the old man

7:54

would find his way to the camp. When

7:56

Hardcoup still hadn't shown up the next day,

7:58

Eddie asked Patrick Breen and

8:01

Franklin Graves, if one of them would

8:03

loan him a horse so he could go back and

8:05

find Hardcoop. Both men,

8:07

the heads of large families, said

8:10

no. The few remaining

8:12

horses were precious and in poor

8:14

shape. The animals couldn't be

8:16

used for such a trip, and there was no time

8:18

for it anyway. The wagon train

8:20

had to keep moving forward. As

8:23

one historian said, no one stepped

8:25

up to be a hero for Mr. Hardcoop, and

8:28

no one ever saw him again.

8:34

On

8:59

October 10th, the wagon train saw a grisly reminder

9:01

that it was in Paiute country.

9:12

The display was a month old when the family

9:15

saw it, and it's hard to know if that was better

9:17

or worse than if they had found it when it was

9:20

fresh. It was the desecrated

9:22

grave of a man they met earlier in their trip.

9:25

Paiute warriors had killed him with arrows

9:28

tipped with rattlesnake venom. The

9:30

people in his party had no choice but

9:32

to bury him in a shallow grave in the middle

9:34

of the trail. Then they ran

9:37

over the grave with their wagons in the hopes

9:39

of concealing it. It

9:41

didn't work. The Paiutes found

9:43

it anyway. They dug up his corpse,

9:46

stole his clothing, and then took his

9:48

scalp and otherwise mutilated his body.

9:51

The man's rotting remains were on display

9:53

for future travelers. The

9:56

warning terrified the Donner party, but

9:58

it was way too late to turn back. back now. The

10:01

next night, October 11th, vicious

10:04

arguments erupted in camp about John

10:06

Snyder's murder by James Reed and

10:09

the likely death of Mr. Hardcoup. Those

10:12

arguments were so intense that the group

10:14

didn't notice that Piyutes stole

10:16

all of the Graves family's horses. When

10:19

the theft was discovered, those who had wanted

10:22

to go back for Hardcoup were now happy

10:24

to point out some irony. The

10:26

horses that were so valuable that they couldn't

10:28

be used to help Hardcoup were

10:31

gone anyway. The

10:36

next day, in a marshy area called

10:39

Big Meadows, Piyutes raided

10:41

them again. There are many different

10:43

accounts of the attack, but most agree

10:45

that they stole or killed about 40 head

10:48

of cattle and oxen that belonged

10:50

to the Donners and others in the group. Whatever

10:53

the number, the wagon train no

10:55

longer had enough animals left, or

10:57

at least not enough for a caravan of this size.

11:00

They had to lighten the load again. People

11:03

buried some of their possessions with the

11:05

hope they would come back and retrieve them someday.

11:08

One of those was Jacob Wolfinger. He

11:11

was 26 years old, and he and

11:13

his wife had no children, but they did

11:15

have a wagon. Others in

11:17

the party thought he had a large amount of gold

11:19

coins or other valuables, so

11:22

it didn't surprise them that the Wolfinger

11:24

stopped to bury their wagon for safekeeping.

11:27

And yes, they buried the entire wagon.

11:30

It was known to happen in the West. Surprised

11:33

or not, the rest of the company didn't wait

11:35

for them. They were unbearably hungry

11:37

and tired and knew they didn't have a minute

11:40

to waste. They had no way of

11:42

knowing that Charles Stanton was on his

11:44

way back to them with food, but

11:46

even so, he was still about 10 days away. So

11:50

Jacob Wolfinger went to work burying

11:52

his wagon. He told his wife

11:54

to go ahead with the rest of the group, and

11:56

at the last minute, two Reinhardt

12:00

and Augustus Spitzer, who worked for

12:02

Wolfinger, volunteered to help. When

12:06

the rest of the wagon train moved on and

12:08

left the three men behind to do their work,

12:10

it was the last time anyone saw Jacob

12:13

Wolfinger alive. While

12:15

the men dug a hole before Reinhardt

12:17

and Spitzer killed Jacob Wolfinger, the

12:20

wagon train faced another patch of desert.

12:24

The Humboldt sink and its surrounding

12:26

land was a 40-mile stretch

12:28

of sand and alkali water before

12:31

the Nevada-California border. The

12:33

group trudged into the desert, with

12:36

their few wagons pulled by mixed

12:38

teams of scrawny oxen and cows.

12:41

They reached a fork in the trail and took

12:43

a route called Truckee, named for

12:45

a friendly Paiute chief. As

12:48

they headed up Truckee Canyon, Reinhardt

12:51

and Spitzer caught up with them. They

12:53

explained to a distraught Mrs. Wolfinger

12:56

that Paiutes had attacked them and killed

12:58

her husband. Some in the

13:00

group believed the two teamsters and

13:02

some didn't. And just like the case

13:04

of Mr. Hardpoop, there was no

13:06

time to ponder. They were about

13:09

to relive their experience in the

13:11

Great Salt Lake Desert. 40 miles,

13:14

no grass, no water, no

13:16

shade. They

13:19

traveled mostly at night to avoid the punishing

13:21

sun. Along the way, they

13:23

saw dead horses, dead mules,

13:26

and dead oxen. They

13:28

also saw discarded furniture and

13:31

torn clothing that had been thrown aside

13:33

by other travelers or left behind

13:35

by the Paiutes after raids. The

13:38

final 10 miles of the desert were

13:40

worse than the first 30. The

13:42

sand was deeper and they were down to

13:45

their last rations of water. William

13:48

Eddy's family had none, and he feared

13:50

his children would die. He

13:52

suspected the Breen family had about 10

13:54

gallons left, so he asked Patrick

13:57

Breen for a small amount for his kids. Breen

14:00

denied that he had any. The

14:02

group was paranoid and scared and they

14:04

had been watching each other's stores with eagle

14:07

eyes. Eddie pressed

14:09

Breen and finally Breen admitted

14:11

that he had some but he had to keep it

14:13

for his own family. Eddie

14:15

shoved Breen aside and took some

14:18

of Breen's water. Their desperation

14:20

was reaching new levels and all they

14:22

could do was try to keep it together for

14:24

a few more miles. When

14:32

they saw it, they thought it was a mirage.

14:35

After a punishing walk through another desert,

14:38

they had reached the Truckee River. They

14:40

were now in the spot that would become the city of

14:42

Reno, Nevada. They drank

14:45

fresh water until they bloated and

14:47

lay exhausted on the grassy riverbank. They

14:50

were weak and hungry beyond measure,

14:53

but the men used their time to repair the few

14:55

wagons that were left. They

14:57

ministered to livestock that had been wounded

14:59

by Paiute arrows and

15:01

the group suffered another death. William

15:04

Pike and William Foster were brothers-in-law

15:07

and good friends. They decided

15:09

that instead of waiting for Charles Stanton and

15:11

William McCutcheon to come back with provisions,

15:14

they would head west themselves. To

15:16

prepare to cross the Sierras, they

15:19

packed their few possessions into saddlebags

15:21

and checked their weapons. While

15:23

Foster was holding his pistol and probably

15:26

loading it, the gun accidentally

15:28

discharged. It fired a bullet

15:31

into William Pike's back. The

15:33

worst part was, he didn't die right

15:35

away. His wife and family tried

15:37

to comfort him over the next half hour while

15:40

he suffered before dying. Then

15:43

they dug a shallow grave, buried

15:45

him, and moved on. On

15:50

October 25th, the Breen

15:53

family was the first of the wagon train

15:55

to see Charles Stanton galloping toward

15:57

them. They were ecstatic. Stanton

16:00

had seven mules that were loaded with flour,

16:03

jerked beef, beans, coffee,

16:05

tea, sugar, and other sources

16:07

of nutrition. He also had

16:09

two companions. Their names were

16:11

Luis and Salvador, and they were

16:14

members of an indigenous tribe from Northern

16:16

California. In addition

16:18

to the food, they came with great news

16:20

for the Reed family. James

16:23

Reed was still alive. Stanton

16:25

had met Reed and Heron on the road south

16:27

of Lake Tahoe, and by now, the two

16:30

men were probably at Sutter's Fort in

16:32

the Sacramento Valley. After

16:35

eating and gathering their strength, the

16:37

wagon train continued westward, but

16:39

now with growing fear. In

16:42

the distance, they could see snow falling

16:44

in the mountains. It was only the last

16:46

week of October, but winter had

16:49

already set in. They thought

16:51

they would have another month before the serious

16:53

snows, but already, the trails

16:55

and roads were covered with a fine

16:58

dust of white at lower levels, and

17:00

they knew it would only get worse. After

17:03

endless crossings of the Truckee River, the

17:06

party worked their way up a narrow canyon.

17:09

They camped at a spot called Dog Valley

17:11

because of large packs of feral dogs

17:14

known to roam the area. William

17:16

Eddy stood guard against dogs and piyutes

17:19

and whatever else. Despite

17:21

his vigilance, a Native American warrior

17:23

shot more of their oxen and cows before

17:26

Eddy could kill him. None of the animals

17:28

died, but now they were wounded and

17:31

weakened even more than they were from hunger.

17:34

At that point in the trip, George Donner

17:37

and five wagons of the combined Donner

17:39

families and Mrs. Wolfinger were

17:41

behind the brains and Eddies

17:43

by about a day. The

17:45

Donner brothers, George and Jacob, figured

17:48

they could catch up with another good day of travel.

17:51

They made good time until they started

17:54

up a steep rise. An axle

17:56

on George Donner's wagon broke. It

17:59

overturned with his daughters inside. Fortunately,

18:02

four-year-old Georgia and three-year-old

18:04

Eliza were not badly hurt. But

18:07

as seemed to be the case with their entire journey

18:09

thus far, an unforeseen ordeal

18:12

created yet another problem.

18:14

George and Jacob immediately cut

18:16

down a tree to start carving a new axle.

18:19

Jacob was putting the final touches on it

18:22

when the chisel slipped from his grasp.

18:25

The sharp edge sliced the back of

18:27

George's hand, which had been steadying

18:29

the new axle. It hurt like

18:31

hell, but George's wife, Tamsen,

18:33

washed it and bandaged it as best she

18:35

could. The group tried

18:37

to relieve some of the tension by joking that

18:39

it could have been a lot worse, without

18:42

knowing, of course, that it would get much

18:44

worse. It was the last week

18:46

of October, and they still had 150 miles to

18:48

go.

18:55

To enter California, the travelers

18:57

would have to climb more than 7,000 feet to what

18:59

was called Fremont

19:01

Pass. Today, it's known

19:03

as Donner Pass. Then,

19:06

like now, it's a low notch

19:08

in the Sierra Nevada mountain range located

19:10

at the sharp elbow cut of California's

19:13

border with Nevada. They were

19:15

at the mouth of what was Truckee Lake, now

19:17

known as Donner Lake. On

19:20

October 31st, as George Donner

19:22

nursed his wound, the lead party

19:24

with the brains and the graves reached

19:27

Truckee Lake. They skirted

19:29

the north shore and headed toward the granite

19:31

slope of the Sierra Nevadas. The

19:34

men cut limbs from pine trees to

19:36

feed their hungry and exhausted puddle.

19:39

It wasn't ideal, but the cattle couldn't

19:41

graze on grass. It was already

19:43

covered with snow. They

19:45

came across an abandoned cabin and

19:47

took note in case they needed to take refuge

19:50

later. That night, as

19:52

October turned to November, they

19:54

camped under a full moon. They

19:57

noticed a large halo around it, which

19:59

told these They

22:01

needed the hides to cover the top of the shack

22:03

and they needed the meat to eat. By

22:06

now, the Reeds, Graves, Kiesbergs,

22:09

and Eddies were all together, along

22:11

with Stanton, Luis, and Salvador,

22:13

and some others. And

22:15

they added a new injury to the list. Luis

22:19

Kiesberg hurt his foot. While

22:21

hunting a few days earlier, he stepped

22:23

on a willow stub that pierced his

22:25

moccasins and drove deep into the ball

22:28

of his foot. He and his wife

22:30

washed and dressed the wound as best they could,

22:32

but it quickly became infected and inflamed.

22:36

Finally, another member of the party was

22:38

able to cut out the willow stub, but

22:40

the wound continued to torment Kiesberg.

22:44

Up to now, the Donner family had not

22:46

experienced the problems at Truckee Lake

22:48

or the mountain path. Thanks

22:50

to the broken axle and George's injury,

22:53

which was now infected like Kiesberg's

22:55

foot, the Donner group was still at least

22:57

a day behind the brains and the graves.

23:00

Those families sent riders back to the Donner

23:03

group to warn them that snow

23:05

blocked their passage. The

23:07

Donner group tried to hurry forward and

23:10

it eventually reached a spot on Alder

23:12

Creek, about seven miles northeast

23:14

of Truckee Lake, where the other families

23:16

were camped. The Donners

23:18

thought they'd found a spot that was relatively

23:21

free of snow, where they could at least build

23:23

a cabin. And it was free of

23:25

snow, for half a day. And

23:28

then the snow came in a blinding fury.

23:31

It was early November 1846, and it was only the

23:33

beginning of winter. Because

23:42

the Donner family camp was near Alder

23:44

Creek, it became known as the Alder

23:47

Creek camp. During

23:49

both Donner families and several single

23:51

men, there were 21 people

23:53

at Alder Creek. George

23:55

Donner tried to help his family and their hired

23:58

hands build a cabin that could stand

24:00

the worst effects of the storm. But

24:02

his injured hand rendered him all but

24:04

useless, and his brother Jacob was

24:07

already feeble from hunger. It

24:09

was mostly the women and children who cut down

24:12

trees and turned them into logs. The

24:15

wagon drivers and oxen dragged

24:17

the logs into place. The walls

24:19

of the new cabin were only four logs

24:21

high when the snow began to fall.

24:24

When it started, it didn't stop for

24:26

eight consecutive days. The

24:29

snow prevented them from building proper cabins,

24:32

so the group built structures called brush

24:34

sheds. They placed pine

24:37

branches all around the trunks of trees,

24:39

almost like a teepee. On

24:41

top of the branches, they laid raincoats,

24:44

quilts, and anything else that could keep

24:46

out the cold and snow. Over

24:48

the next few days, some of the animals died.

24:51

The Donner party used the hides to

24:53

cover the pine branches. The

24:56

party gnawed the tiny amount of meat

24:58

left on the scrawny dead animals and

25:00

sucked the marrow out of the bones. For

25:06

eight days, they did nothing but try to

25:09

keep fires going under their crude tents.

25:12

The snow was so heavy that George Donner's

25:14

family couldn't see his brother's camp 300

25:16

yards up the creek unless they

25:19

had a decent fire going with enough

25:21

smoke to cut through the snow. Joseph

25:24

Reinhardt and another single man sheltered

25:26

with George. So did Mrs. Wolfinger,

25:29

who did not yet know that Reinhardt helped kill

25:31

her husband. Seven

25:33

miles away, the rest of the family

25:35

suffered in what was later called Lake Camp.

25:39

Lake Camp near Truckee Lake was

25:41

actually two camps. In one,

25:44

there were Louis Kiesberg and his family,

25:46

the Breen family, and some single men.

25:49

The Breen family had commandeered the abandoned

25:52

cabin, while the others managed to build

25:54

crude shelters. There were

25:56

also the Eddie, Murphy, Foster,

25:59

and Pike families. and some unattached

26:01

teamsters. They built fairly

26:03

sturdy cabins, including one erected

26:06

against the flat side of a large boulder.

26:09

In the second compound of Lake Camp, half

26:11

a mile downstream, there were the Graves

26:14

family and the Reed family. The

26:16

Graves family built a fairly sturdy

26:18

cabin. It had two rooms, each

26:21

with its own fireplace, separated by

26:23

a log wall. Charles Stanton,

26:26

Luis and Salvador lived there too. As

26:29

of mid-November, there were 81 people trapped

26:32

in separate camps in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

26:35

Half were under the age of 18, and

26:37

many of those were infants or young children.

26:41

During brief pauses in the snow, some

26:43

of the travelers tried to make their way over the

26:45

mountains to get help. A

26:47

party of 13, led by Franklin

26:49

Graves and Charles Stanton, left on

26:52

November 12th, all bundled up

26:54

and with a little piece of meat among them for

26:56

energy. They managed to

26:58

get about a mile through snow drifts, but

27:01

the snow was at least 10 feet deep. They

27:04

were forced to turn around. By that

27:06

time, there were only about a dozen

27:08

sickly cows and oxen left between

27:10

the families. There were very few

27:13

animals to hunt, though there was a brief

27:15

celebration on November 13th, when

27:17

William Eddy shot and killed a bear

27:20

before the bear nearly killed him. Families

27:23

began to barter with each other over the sickly

27:26

animals that remained. They offered

27:28

gold or money they had in their possession,

27:31

or they promised extremely high interest

27:33

rates for future earnings in California.

27:36

In a larger sense, none of it really mattered.

27:39

The meat from all the animals that remained

27:42

wouldn't even be close to enough to keep people

27:44

alive for the winter. As

27:46

they grew more desperate, day by day,

27:49

their thoughts turned to the man they had banished,

27:52

James Reed. He had left

27:54

the caravan six weeks earlier with Walter

27:56

Herron. Surely they had been fast

27:58

enough to make it through. the mountain pass

28:00

before the snows, but no one knew

28:03

for sure. At Lake Camp

28:05

and Alder Creek Camp, all the

28:07

Donner Party could do was wait, and

28:09

hope that it didn't get much worse. Next

28:19

time on Legends of the Old West, it's

28:21

the final chapter in the story of the Donner

28:24

Party. As winter deepens

28:26

and the families become more desperate, they

28:29

take the extreme measures that made

28:31

them infamous pioneers in American history.

28:34

The worst case scenario plays out next

28:36

week on Legends of the Old West. Members

28:47

of our Black Barrel Plus program don't have to wait

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29:02

on our website, blackbarrelmedia.com.

29:05

This series was researched and written by Julia

29:08

Bricklin. Original music by Rob

29:10

Valliere. I'm your host and producer,

29:13

Chris Wimmer. If you enjoyed the show,

29:15

please leave us a rating and review on Apple

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