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<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=anahuy59@msn.com href="mailto:anahuy59@msn.com">T K</A> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV> Got it from Yahoo news alerts <STRONG>"On This Day In
History"</STRONG>
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<DIV>Donner Party Rescued</DIV>
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<TD>On this day in 1847, the first rescuers reach surviving members of the
Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in
the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In the summer of 1846, in the midst of a
Western-bound fever sweeping the United States, 89 people--including 31
members of the Donner and Reed families--set out in a wagon train from
Springfield, Illinois. After arriving at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, the
emigrants decided to avoid the usual route and try a new trail recently
blazed by California promoter Lansford Hastings, the so-called "Hastings
Cutoff." After electing George Donner as their captain, the party departed
Fort Bridger in mid-July. The shortcut was nothing of the sort: It
set the Donner Party back nearly three weeks and cost them much-needed
supplies. After suffering great hardships in the Wasatch Mountains, the
Great Salt Lake Desert and along the Humboldt River, they finally reached
the Sierra Nevada Mountains in early October. Despite the lateness of the
season, the emigrants continued to press on, and on October 28 they camped
at Truckee Lake, located in the high mountains 21 kilometers northwest of
Lake Tahoe. Overnight, an early winter storm blanketed the ground with
snow, blocking the mountain pass and trapping the Donner Party. Most of
the group stayed near the lake--now known as Donner Lake--while the Donner
family and others made camp six miles away at Alder Creek. Building
makeshift tents out of their wagons and killing their oxen for food, they
hoped for a thaw that never came. Fifteen of the stronger emigrants, later
known as the Forlorn Hope, set out west on snowshoes for Sutter's Fort
near San Francisco on December 16. Three weeks later, after harsh weather
and lack of supplies killed several of the expedition and forced the
others to resort to cannibalism, seven survivors reached a Native American
village. News of the stranded Donner Party traveled fast to Sutter's Fort,
and a rescue party set out on January 31. Arriving at Donner Lake 20 days
later, they found the camp completely snowbound and the surviving
emigrants delirious with relief at their arrival. Rescuers fed the
starving group as well as they could and then began evacuating them. Three
more rescue parties arrived to help, but the return to Sutter's Fort
proved equally harrowing, and the last survivors didn't reach safety until
late April. Of the 89 original members of the Donner Party, only 45
reached California. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV>
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