[josh] there's a whole 'nother chapter
To the donner party story
People have never heard.
[epic music playing]
Charles stanton went snow-blind.
The rescuers would find his bones in the spring.
When they tried to cross the summit,
The storm hit and they were pushed back.
[man 1] everything possibly that could go wrong, went wrong.
This is the spot we believe is "the camp of death."
[josh] this is where the cannibalism happens?
[man 1] this is the spot.
[man 1] he pulled nine children out of that hole
And he put them on his back
It's a story of survival,
The human instinct to survive.
Just imagine, with 30 feet of snow?
Forget it.
Ah, come on!
[shouts] [bleep] [shouts]
[man 2] this is where everyone that wanted to come to california
Had to pass through here, the entire country.
-[josh] are we good? -[man] whoa, whoa, whoa.
-Josh, we got something up here, check this out. -[beeping]
Here...
Oh, my word! Look at that!
If this is what we hope it I
It's historic.
The donner party.
The very name conjures terror
In those who heard their story.
In 1846, more than 80 souls
Men, women and children,
Set out from the midwest
For california's golden shores.
But a disastrous decision to take a shortcut
Leaves the immigrants
Hopelessly snowed into the uncharted
Sierra nevada mountains.
And instead of the promised land,
The pioneers are led to starvation,
And the most desperate and gruesome of acts.
The tragedy became lurid, national news,
And has been so sensationalized
That today, the donner part is synonymous with one thing
Cannibalism.
But what really happened out there in the western frontier's heart of darkness
In the 175 years since,
A combination of lies and legend
Has buried the truth behind this real american horror story.
Why did the pioneers fatally alter their course?
Why were they unable to band together
And escape the mountains?
And what of the people themselves?
Their heroism
And largely-forgotten rescue effort
Have been buried.
Now, a daring group
Of extreme athletes and historians
Are retracing the settlers' route
In the dead of winter
To unlock the secrets of the donner party.
And they may have uncovered something lost to history.
The so-called "camp of death
Where the first instances of cannibalism occurred.
This discovery would be a major find
And could produce untold artefacts.
My mission is to uncover the real story
Of the doomed donner expedition.
And it will take us many months
And hundreds of miles to do it.
So, prepare to go west,
Into the snow, into the mountains,
And into the gathering storm
Of the most terrifying journey
In american history.
[intro music playing]
My name is josh gates.
-Hello! -[cheering]
Explorer.
Adventurer.
Amazing.
[screams]
...And a guy who ends up
In some very strange situations.
[bleep]
Whew! That was exciting.
With a degree in archaeology
And a passion for the unexplained...
[exclaiming]
...I travel to the ends of the earth,
Investigating the greatest legends in history.
Yeah, let's punish him.
This is expedition unkno.
Welcome to the frontier.
You know, it hasn't changed much around here
Since the spring of 1846.
That's when 1,600 men, women and children
Set out to cross the countr
In search of pristine land an untold fortune
In a far-away place known as california.
At this time, a still young america
Is comprised of 28 states.
Beyond is the untamed wilderness of the west.
Leading to the coastal territory of oregon and california,
Then part of mexico.
There's no transcontinental railroad,
No interstate highway system
Settlers face a six-month-lo 2,000-mile journey on foot and by wagon.
To stay ahead of deadly winter snowstorms in the west,
These pioneers must set off in the spring,
Just as soon as there's enough grass to feed their livestock.
One such group includes
The families of james reed and george donner.
But they get off to a late start.
Their group consists of 20 ox-drawn wagons
And 87 people.
The donners, george, a farme
And jacob, a furniture manufacturer,
Are originally from north carolina.
Joining them are other families,
Including those of james ree
An irish businessman most recently from illinois
And william eddy, a carriage maker.
These are not frontier-hardened survivalists.
Nevertheless, on may 12, 184
The party leaves independence, missouri,
With their sights set on california.
The initial leg of the trip across the great plains
Goes smoothly enough.
But the train gradually fall further behind schedule.
Up ahead, however,
There may be a way to make up their lost time.
The party, like most of the people moving west,
Are carrying this.
"the emigrants' guide to oregon and california."
A how-to pamphlet written by a real estate investor
Named lansford hastings.
The guide was his way to lead people
To work plots of land in california,
Where he conveniently has interests.
In other words, he's a hustler.
And he's devised a shortcut
Known as 'the hastings cutoff'.
It's designed to trim 300 miles from the journey
By forging across the great salt lake
Before rejoining the california trail.
There's just one problem.
Prior to 1846,
Hastings had never actually tested the route.
And that brings us here,
Near the little sandy river in wyoming.
In this very spot,
The lagging group is forced to make a choice.
If they stay to the right,
They maintain their course on the well-trod california trail,
The chosen path of every other group.
But if they bear left,
They veer towards the hastings cutoff,
Which could get them back on schedule.
What to do?
In need of a party leader,
They elect george donner,
Who by all accounts is the exact wrong man for the job.
Professional, soft-spoken,
Gentle and charitable.
Not exactly someone familia with making choices
Of life or death.
The donner party steps left
And chooses the hastings cutoff.
And while they don't yet know it,
This one decision
Will alter not just the course of their journey,
But their very lives,
As they walk on toward a horrifying destiny.
The supposed shortcut takes them through what is now utah.
It does not go well.
Crossing 80 miles of desert takes six grueling days.
The wagon wheels sink into the hot, salt flats
Like warm butter.
Three days in, their water is gone.
36 oxen die and several of the crippled wagons
Have to be abandoned.
Whatever unity the party ha
Evaporates in the scorching sun.
Families turn against each other.
In fact, james reed gets into a heated argument
That ends with him stabbing another man to death.
But on October 20th,
The lead wagons of the donner party
Reach the eastern slope of the sierra nevada mountains
The desert is behind them,
But winter lies ahead.
The forge on into an unseasonably early snow,
Ascending to 7,000 vertical feet,
To a high pass that acts as a doorway to california,
To a place known as truckee lake,
Where they can rest before the final push.
Welcome to truckee, california.
When the donner party came through here,
There was nothing but wilderness.
Later, this became a frontier trading post.
And from the central pacific railroad
To historic saloons,
Echoes of the old west are everywhere.
This place was once infamous
For its extreme weather.
Today, it's celebrated for its extreme sports.
Truckee is the snowiest town in the us,
Getting an average of 168 inches a year.
Athletes flock here to ski and snowboard.
As for me, I'm more into biking.
[engine roaring]
Woo-hoo!
[whooping]
I am riding what's known as a snow bike.
Basically, if a snowmobile and a motorcycle
Got real drunk one night and made a baby,
This would be it.
It's fast, it's maneuverable,
It's sketchy.
Which is to say, it's fun.
I'm on this ridiculous contraption to reach
An expert on the donner part
At one of the most hallowed places in the sierras.
That is, if I can stay vertical long enough to get there.
Here goes nothing.
[shouts excitedly]
The key to not falling is to just keep moving.
Which is... Easier said than done.
Watch out. [grunts]
Ah, come on!
[shouts] [bleep] [shouts]
Ah, come on!
[shouts] [bleep] [shouts]
[sputters, groans]
Ow.
[sighs]
Okay...
I think my bones broke the fall, which is good.
I've had a slight hiccup
On my search to learn the truth
About the infamous donner party.
But I'm not lying down on the job for long.
[grunting]
All right, back to it. Here we go.
[snow bike roaring]
I'm heading to a place
That used to be called truckee lake.
These days, it's known as donner lake,
And there's a reason for that.
This is where the donner party camped
And ultimately became trappe
After taking their disastrous shortcut,
The donner party eventually
Rejoins the main route to california.
But they've lost their most precious resource...
Time.
When they get here, in the sierra nevadas,
They are nearly a month behind schedule.
Every other pioneering family headed to the west coast
Has already come and gone.
The donner party attempts to follow them,
High into the mountains,
But a massive snow storm
In their tracks.
To discover more about what happened here,
I'm meeting historian frank mullen
At a memorial plaque to the donner party
-Josh. -How are you, man?
-Good. Nice to meet you. -Hey, nice to meet you, too.
[josh] frank is a journalis
And the author of the donner party chronicles
He has spent 30 years studyi what happened here.
They've got to get through this pass at the end of the lake.
Right? What's today known as donner pass.
Right. They made it within a few miles of the summit,
But then a storm hit and they were pushed back here to the lake.
If it had been another year,
Even if they had been as late as they were,
They might have been able to do it.
They just happened to do this in a year
-Where the weather was really lousy. -And early.
[josh] the winter of 1846 in the sierras was beset
By a series of hundred-year storms
That rolled in one after another,
Dropping over 10 feet of sno by mid-November
And another five feet by December 1st.
They're not really a unified group anymore, right?
That's right. By the time the donner party members reached donner lake,
They are not talking to each other.
[josh] bitter and frustrate by their condition,
The emigrants break off into different camps,
Most near the lake.
The two donner families mak camps six miles away
In a sheltered nook along alder creek.
What's left? What are they eating?
Are they hunting?
There was no hunting here.
William eddy had gotten his rifle.
He shot an owl. He shot a squirrel.
Shot a fox.
Killed a bear finally.
But that didn't last all that long with given the amount of people.
When anyone mentions the donner party,
Within a breath,
-They say... -[both] cannibalism.
-[josh] right? -Right.
I mean, this is forever linked.
[frank] yes, they are.
We are repelled and also attracted
Like a dracula movie.
What really shocked me
In doing research about this story
Is that this whole ordeal
That unfolds up here at the lake for months on end...
-[frank] mmm-hmm. -...There is no cannibalism.
-Not initially, right? -Right. Not initially, no.
They are doing everything they can
-To avoid cannibalism. -[frank] yes, they are.
They started scraping the bottoms of the barrels.
They started boiling the leather covers of books and their moccasins
To soften them up to try to eat them.
-To literally eat their shoes. -[frank] and their shoelaces.
-Sort of fry them like potato sticks. -[josh] wow.
We have a donner party plaque here
With a list of those who perished
And those who survived.
Why is this plaque right here?
[frank] this is the fourth wall
Of one of the cabins of the donner party
Who were here during the terrible winter of 1846-1847.
-Right here? -Right here was one of the cabins, yes.
How many people were living in this cabin?
Sixteen people living in this cabin,
Most of them children.
And did any of them die here?
Seven of them died in this cabin.
[josh] right where we're standing.
So, this is hallowed ground in a sense.
This is the exact spot
Where people suffered for months, where people died,
-Where babies died. -Yeah.
So, when does the cannibalism begin?
Where does it start?
The cannibalism begins with the escape group called the forlorn hope.
[josh] six weeks after becoming trapped at truckee lake,
A small group of some of the strongest emigrants
Strap on homemade snow shoe
And set out in a last-ditch effort to find help.
The escape group, as frank calls them,
Came to be known as the forlorn hope.
Why aren't the donner brothers part of this group?
George donner is suffering from gangrene.
Injured his left hand fixing his wagon
On the way up prior to the lake
And jacob donner has given up.
He's in bed and he's not getting up.
And nobody can tell him otherwise.
So, what happens to them?
First couple days they went out,
They got to the base of the pass
And then up and over it
And then they were socked I after they lost their guide
Charles stanton went snow-blind
And he stumbled into camp.
And the next morning when they were leaving,
He was sitting on a stump.
Mary graves said, "are you coming, mr. Stanton?"
And his eyes were pretty much swollen shut
And he was smoking his pipe on the log
And he said, "I'll be along presently, mary."
And they went ahead. He never showed up.
The rescuers would find his bones in the spring.
[josh] without stanton to guide them,
The group becomes hopelessly lost.
Their meager food runs out
And a blizzard catches them in the open.
They're pinned down in a makeshift for five days.
When the storm finally passe
Two other men are dead.
Facing certain death,
The survivors tearfully reso to the ultimate taboo...
Cannibalism.
So many people say immediately,
"how could they have done that?
I would never have done that.
I could never engage in cannibalism."
But in some ways, it's easy to say that
Not having been here.
Right. It's very easy to say that
When you're not in a position of choosing between death
Or eating the food that is forbidden food,
But it's right in front of you.
[josh] the place where it happened has never been found.
A spot known as the camp of death.
And for many people who hav heard about the donner party
This is kind of the end of the story as they know it
A tale of disaster and cannibalism.
The terrible choice that the settlers made at the camp of death
Gave them enough strength to push forward
And helped ensure that some of the so-called escape part
Managed to do just that.
And of those 15 people
That set out in the forlorn hope party,
How many of them ultimately survived and walked to safety?
Of the 15 snowshoers,
All five women and just two of the 10 men survived
The 33-day trip out of the sierras.
Right.
[josh] these survivors made their way
Down the western slopes of the mountains
To find something they had nearly given up on.
Rescue.
And for years historians wondered
Exactly where it happened.
I leave frank and the snow behind and drive west
Descending more than 6,000 feet in elevatio
To follow the pioneers' trai
In hopes of discovering where it leads.
The 15 members of the donner party
Known as the forlorn hope
Who tried to escape out of the mountains,
Figured it would take about a week
For them to find rescue.
33 days later, only seven of them
Managed to limp into the first outpost of civilization
Known as johnson ranch.
It's an incredibly important part of this story
And yet for years its very location was lost to history.
For as famous a story as the donner party,
Nearly no archaeological evidence
Of their harrowing journey has been found.
Johnson ranch could change that
Since it's one of the only places we know they set foot.
And since this is an extreme story,
It requires extreme researchers.
If there's anyone who might know
Exactly where the ranch was
It's bob crowley and tim twietmeyer.
The two of you are, I say this as a compliment,
Oddities.
You are historians and you are ultramarathoners.
They don't make a lot of those.
Can you brag on tim's behalf?
Yeah, so one of the most famous ultramarathons here in america
Is the western states 100-mile endurance run.
A hundred-mile run.
Tim is the 25-time under-24-hour finisher,
Five-time winner.
If there is a michael jorda of our sport,
That's the guy right there.
[josh] that's incredible.
Is this sport what led you to your interest in the donner party
-As historians? -It is.
When you need to do field research,
When you wanna check a route,
We can go into places on foot
That most people wouldn't wanna go or can't go.
[josh] these two have been obsessively researching donner party history
Culminating in December of 2020
When they used their skills and historical knowledge
To undertake a week-long tre
In deep snow and subzero temperatures
Along the route they believ was taken by forlorn hope.
A route they think lead here
And the first person to make it here from the donner group
Is william eddy, right?
[tim] they only one to make it here.
[josh] eddy actually was found a short distance from the ranch
By native americans who brought him the rest of the way
To the adobe ranch house.
[bob] and the young gal ther 16 years old,
Greeted them at the door.
This shadow of a man.
And she cried. She wept.
She was scared. Looked like a ghost.
[josh] the other survivors of forlorn hope
Were quickly found and broug back to the ranch.
If bob and tim are right
And this is that long-lost site,
It would be nothing short of historic.
This story, the forlorn hope story and johnson ranch,
Are pristine in terms of the opportunity
For both discovering the story
But also artifacts.
All right. Should we see what's under our feet?
Yeah, let's go see what we can find.
I got someone I need you to meet.
[josh] okay. Please, lead on. Let's go.
For the past few years,
Bob and tim have been workin with a local historian
Who has managed to secure rare access to search this land.
They bring me to meet bill holmes.
-Bill, how are you? -Great. How are you?
[josh] nice to meet you.
-Uh, I see metal detectors and I see shovels. -Right.
-[josh] good sign. -It is.
You know, we look around here today.
We see rolling fields.
So, where do we start swinging these metal detectors?
I have a great place for you to go.
[josh] bill reveals the results of an aerial lidar survey
Which has turned up what historians believe
May be the foundation of the original johnson adob
The mud structure where all the survivors were brought.
If so, it would be one of the only locations
In the entire donner party story
To have been geographically pinpointed.
-This is it. -This is it.
-Okay. -Shows up great on lidar.
Right. So, you can see though
There is clearly a rise.
There is a feature here that goes back here
And then does it turn?
-[bill] yeah. -[josh] let's see what's in here.
We start metal detecting in and around the footprint of the anomaly...
-[metal detector beeps] -right here.
[metal detector sounding]
...And are quickly rewarded
Right in here it looks like.
[josh] boy, that's tough ground.
This dried clay is hard to cut into,
So we're doing more scrapin than digging.
But in no time, the hard work pays off.
[bill] all right. Looks like we got a half of a horseshoe.
[josh] look at that!
That is awesome.
Horse or a mule? Look at that.
Yeah, look how worn down the back of that shoe is.
-[josh] look at that. -[bill] that's 2,000 miles on that baby.
That's right. How about that?
Think about where this went.
And it's still lucky if it's only half a horseshoe, right?
-[tim] let's see if we can find the other half. -Exactly.
[metal detector beeping]
[josh] it turns out our half a horseshoe is luck
At least our metal detectors seem to think so.
[metal detector beeping]
-[bob] hey, guys. Guys! -[josh] what do you got?
[bob] whoa, whoa! Josh, we got something up here.
Check this out.
[josh] huge piece! Look at this.
-[bob] hey, guys. Guys! -[josh] what do you got?
[bob] whoa, whoa! Josh, we got something up here.
-Check this out. -[josh] whoa!
Huge piece! Look at this.
Wow.
[josh] looks like the edge of a plate.
I'm with a team of researche
Looking for the lost ruins of johnson ranch,
A pioneer-era homestead
Reached by the survivors of the doomed donner party.
Here.
[josh] wow, look at that.
That's incredible.
Flat head nail and then
This very cool piece of pottery.
We can see the edge of a pattern there, too.
We dig around the pottery
And quickly find more fragments.
-And more pottery. Look at this. -Oh, there's some more.
-See, that's actually more... -Look at that.
Wow, there is just pottery everywhere you look here.
That's the edge of a plate right there.
-[bill] it sure looks like it. -[josh] yeah.
So, this adobe was in use between what years primarily?
1844 to 1854 roughly.
-[josh] so, just that 10-year period. -Yeah.
If this was something that was used here in the adobe,
We're right in that time period.
The lidar scan, research
And physical artifacts in this field are all but conclusive.
We are in the middle of history here.
This is johnson ranch.
Every single one of the forlorn hope survivors, all seven,
They slept here.
-Slept where we're standing? -[bill] yeah.
They were all reunited after being saved.
This is the place they were reunited.
This is one of those parts of the story
That is kind of lost to time. It really is.
-[bob] until now. -Until now.
[josh] it's humbling enough to stand in the footsteps of the donner party.
But then I remember this is where their rescuer stood as well.
Let's talk about the relief parties.
When most people think of the donner party,
They think of the doomed expedition,
The people trapped up at the lake.
There's a whole other chapter to the donner party story
People have never heard.
That's right. It's a story of survival.
The human instinct to survive. It's remarkable.
[josh] when those first survivors limped into johnson ranch,
It became nationwide news.
But most of the donner part were still trapped back at truckee lake.
And that meant people were going to have to go and get them.
There are people that volunteered.
They didn't get lost, they didn't get stuck in snow.
They found out people were stuck in snow, their fellow emigrants.
And they volunteered.
[josh] how many people went up to try to save them, total?
Like, total, close to 40.
And there were several men that volunteered to not go just once, but several times.
[josh] the rescuers who set out to save the stranded emigrants
Were the kind of heroes that history rarely remember in this case, literally.
The actual route that they took to reach
The donner party at truckee lake is totally unknown.
Bob and tim are aiming to do something about that, something big.
Your hat says donner relief expedition 2022.
What are you guys doing, what are you planning?
We're gonna retrace the steps of the first relief,
From right here at johnson ranch to donner lake
And we are gonna arrive at donner lake 175 years after the first relief arrived.
-To the day. -[bob] to the day.
[josh] using years of research, diaries from the survivors
And their considerable outdoor skills, they have charted the most likely cour
That the original relief expedition took to rescue the donner party.
The distance you're gonna cover is?
About 100 miles.
On foot, back up into those mountains.
I don't know if you know this or not, it's not warm up there.
It's harder this way.
This is gonna take you how long?
It's gonna take us five days.
[josh] their effort is the culmination of years of planning
And will be tracked by satellites as they go.
I'd love to join them, but my camera team and I
Stand a zero percent chance of keeping their pace.
Still, I'm not getting out of it that easy.
Why don't you meet us somewhere along the way?
Okay, we could intersect with your group.
At the finish line, with hot chocolates,
I could just be lounging there?
Uh, I don't think so.
-That's a little too easy. -Too easy?
-You have to see a little bit of the trail. -All right.
How about donner pass? You have snowshoes?
-Yeah, I can get them. -Bring them with you.
I'll be there.
All right, I am chasing down bob and his expedition team
As they attempt to retrace the donner party relief route.
Now, we've been tracking them on gps
And in the last three and a half days,
They have covered, unbelievably, more than 80 miles on foot.
These guys are animals. So I got some serious catching up to do.
I hop off the bike at the closest point I can get to the team
And head out to meet them on foot.
Lucky for me, they agree to stop for a moment.
-How are you man? -[bob] good to see you.
[josh] along with tim and bo are team members
And experienced endurance athletes
Jennifer hemmen and elke reimer.
Oh, I am so impressed and amazed to see all of you.
I mean, last time I saw you was nearly 100 miles ago.
That's right, back at johnson ranch.
We're 93 miles into the 100-mile trek now.
You're animals, all of you.
Mind if I tag along with you?
-It'd be great. -[josh] where are we headed?
Towards the donner party, that way.
I'm right behind you, let's go.
Just me and four of the most well-trained athletes in the world.
Now I know how ringo starr felt.
-Okay, how about a break? No? -[all laughing]
-[woman] you're doing great. -[josh] thanks.
The weather is on our side, but trekking in these conditions is slow going.
We're following a trail that hasn't existed in nearly two centuries.
Fortunately, it's late in the day, which means we do get to rest.
[elke] what do you guys think?
-For camp, yeah. -[elke] it's a nice little divot.
All right, we got flat ground, let's take it.
We make camp for the night.
Thankfully, we've got much better equipment than the donners.
That is if we can figure ou how to set it up.
Nope. What's this, like, crazy knot going into this, like, sheared section?
It's an open letter to tent manufacturers.
Stop innovating, just cross poles.
Nobody asked for this. Nobody asked for this.
What do you think, guys?
Are we gonna make sunrise, or...
Once we've built camp, it's time to get warm.
So we gather around a fire, just as the rescuers did near this very spot.
It's hard not to imagine, sitting here by this fire,
What it must have been like 175 years ago for that relief party.
So what did they find when they arrived at donner lake?
-Nothing. -[woman] nothing.
They arrived at the cabins and everybody was inside hunkered down.
I think everyone there had given up hope.
They probably watched the pass for weeks,
"when are they gonna come get us?"
[josh] by the time the firs rescuers arrived at the lake
The donner party had been trapped there for over 12 weeks.
In fact, by this time, the shelters at the lake were all but invisible.
One of the women comes up out of the ground,
Because they were all underground,
Buried in snow, their shelters,
Looks up and says, "are you men from californi
Or were you sent here from heaven?"
Right, like, they didn't even have a grip on reality.
Are we living, or did we just die?
And this relief party is also in a terrible position here,
Because they can't bring everybody out, right?
They say, "we don't have food,"
And they say, "why have you come to save us only to kill us?"
[josh] thirteen people have already died
And the remaining 54 are starving and desperate.
Still, there are only enough supplies
To bring 23 of them back to civilization.
The rest will have to stay behind.
A second relief party, organized immediately after the first,
Arrives 10 days later and discovers a horrific scene,
Called by one an unholy feast.
Four human bodies are in the process of being consumed.
The remaining survivors have made the same unthinkable decision
As those of the forlorn hope
Jacob donner himself has die and is consumed by his famil to extend their own lives.
The second rescue party will bring 17 more survivors mostly children,
Back to johnson ranch.
In all, four rescue parties would make it to truckee lak
I have to say, I can sense that all of you feel
A real connection to the members
Of this relief party at this point.
What we didn't anticipate was becoming fixated on the characters,
Which are so interesting.
And one of the ways that helps us remind ourselves who they are as people
Is we make up, uh, little tribute cards
With their picture on the front.
This is a card, for instance, of john stark.
And we'll lay john stark and 47 other cards like this
At the donner, uh, memorial state park tomorrow at the pioneer monument.
Wow. Can I see one?
Wow this is something.
So this is john stark.
John stark was part of the third relief party.
Oh their way out, stark and the other rescuer came across a group of 11
Stranded in the snow, clinging to life.
The rescuers took a vote and initially decided they could only save two.
[bob] john stark pulled nine children out of that hole
And he put them on his back he'd carry them 100 yards,
He'd go back and get the next three children,
Carry them 100 yards and set them in the snow
And then do it over and over again.
He did that for three days without any help at all.
And he said, "I would have put all nine of them on my back if I had room."
And when asked why did he do it?
He said, "because it's the right thing to do."
Yeah, but it's just something almost super-human
Of a commitment that these people had to this cause.
To heroism.
-To heroism. -[woman] to heroism.
-[josh] cheers. -[men] cheers.
[josh] all right, should we get to it?
[tim] let's do it.
[josh] here we go, come on.
We awaken the next morning, February 18th, 2022,
175 years to the day that the first relief party reached donner summit.
To honor the survivors and the rescuers, and to bring history to life
The expedition team opts to dress in period clothing
For the final leg of the journey.
Through donner pass...
We have only six miles to cover today.
At the end of the trail is history.
Look at that view, wow.
[bob] this location is one of the most famous places on earth.
[josh] I'm in the sierra mountains
Part of an expedition team retracing the first rescue effort
To reach the infamous donner party.
And, you know, it's kinda, uh, eerie in a way,
But they would've stood right here where we are on this very day, right?
The precise spot 175 years ago today.
[josh] how 'bout that.
The only difference was that when the rescue party was here,
There was 25 more feet of sn
In what is now known as donner pass.
You know this pass is such a funnel
That not just the relief party, but think about over the centuries
All of the people that came through here,
All the footsteps that we're walking in right now.
[bob] this very pass, not a very big one,
Is where everyone that wanted to come to california had to pass through here.
[josh] right.
[bob] the entire country all narrows down to this very spot.
Yeah, it originally started with the wagon trains coming through the pass.
Next they built the railroa through here...
...Then an interstate highwa
Everyone came through here.
This really is the gateway to the west.
[tim] it really is.
[josh] think about how much we owe
To the people that came through right where we are right now.
Everything from agriculture, to the economy,
To high tech silicon valley california companies.
Any time you use social media...
...It's because somebody, a couple hundred years ago, came through donner pass,
And... And helped make california.
-[bob] this is the super highway of early america. -[josh] yeah.
All right, let's keep moving.
[bob] yeah, josh, watch it.
It gets real steep in here, be careful.
Okay, nice and slow here.
The next part of the trip is a steep downward slope.
Which gives me an excuse to use the phrase "ass over tea kettle."
Oh [bleep] .
-[man] there they go. -[josh] watch those spikes! Watch those spikes.
That was like a 30 second slip.
[tim] we might have to go rescue the film crew.
[josh] all right, the pass isn't looking quite so easy anymore.
[woman] never easy.
[josh] snowshoeing down steep hills is a delicate balancing act,
So we need to watch every step we take.
Added to the danger is the fact that the snow we're walking on
Isn't always solid.
[bob] yeah, watch this right here.
[josh] oh, look at that. Yeah, there's a hole down there.
[tim] I'm sliding.
That lake is not as close as it looks from the top of the pass.
It's deceptive.
It was not easy to get up the donner pass.
It was incredibly hard.
And for the relief party, each time they made that trip...
...Breaking trail for all those people each time in fresh snow,
That's exhausting.
I can just imagine with 30 feet of snow...
...And no clear route through?
Forget it.
[tim] be careful there, one at a time.
Right, we're down to the flats here now.
Gotta be getting close to that lake.
Eventually, we complete the descent
And link into the road that leads to donner memorial state park.
We got a crowd, look at this. Wow.
[crowd cheers]
[josh] finally, after seemingly endless hours in snow shoes,
The finish line is in sight
The pioneer monument, built in 1918 to honor the donner party.
We lay the cards representing the rescuers
On the base of the monument bringing them together again
If only symbolically, at this site of tragedy and triumph.
[tim] come on in here, guys.
-Well done, guys. -[tim] well done, guys.
-Awesome work. -[josh] it was an honor.
[cheering]
[tim] made it. [laughs]
[team laughs]
[josh] for these four endurance athletes
It's the culmination of a long and emotional journey.
Something for which they should be recognized.
This event today is obviously about honoring
The first relief, and all the relief parties here,
I just wanna brag on behalf of these four folks for a second.
They've done an extraordinary amount of work
And they've really helped to, in many ways, rediscover
One of the most extraordinary parts of the donner party saga.
Those cards that are up ther hope everyone takes a look and goes and sees them,
These folks are honoring people who did something really extraordinary
And they themselves have done something really extraordinary.
So give them a round of applause they're just amazing folks.
-[audience applauds] -yeah.
And thank you for letting us tag along and play a small part in it.
It certainly feels like the end of the road but it's not.
It turns out bob and tim aren't done making history with their expedition.
Other than taking your boots off and resting,
Now what?
When we did the forlorn hope expedition,
One of the obscure areas that was lost to history
Was a place called "camp of death".
[josh] the camp of death.
This is one of the most critical locations in the entire donner saga.
The place where the forlorn hope escape party
Got pinned down by weather
And first turned to cannibalism.
The event that came to define the doomed expedition.
But it's never been found.
We think we may have a beat on it.
[josh] if he's right, and they hav identified this lost locatio
It would be history in the making.
Okay, so are you gonna go try and find it?
We are, but we gotta wait for the snow to thaw.
Right, not today.
Yeah, not today.
Okay, but maybe I'll come look you up in the spring?
Yeah, we'd love to have you along.
Will there be less walking?
Can't guarantee that.
So, once the snow melts?
Once the snow melts we're gonna meet you out there.
-[josh] sounds good to me. -[tim] deal.
[josh] all right, spring is here.
The snow is melted and I am back near truckee, california,
Heading to a set of coordinates deep inside tahoe national forest...
...To meet bob and tim once again.
Hey, guys, how are ya?
-Josh! -How are you, man?
Hey, welcome back to cali.
-Look at you, clean shaven. -[bob] yeah.
[tim] it's good to see you again.
[josh] good to see you, man, what's up?
-Hey, I'm josh. -Hey, I'm greg.
Nice to meet you.
Greg is our archeologist on the project.
[josh] awesome.
I'm really, really excited to see what you guys have found out here.
[bob] we're can't wait to show ya.
Glad you got long pants on,
'cause we're going for about a half a mile hike...
...Into the wilderness.
You up for that?
Yeah, I'm ready. Should we do it?
-Yup, let's go. -Let's see what you got, come on.
[josh] after our last hike together,
This feels like a stroll in the park.
We snake through the pathless forest for an hour.
If the camp of death is out here and could be identified
It would be nothing short of historic.
And before long, the guys come to a stop in a small clearing.
Okay, josh.
This is the spot.
This is it?
This is the spot we believe is the camp of death.
How did you arrive at this?
We researched the entire 100 mile journey
Of the forlorn hopers over seven years.
Our firsthand accounts from william eddy in his diary,
They were looking for shelter.
They knew they had to get on the lee side
Away from the wind, 'cause it was blowing.
That checks here.
They had to have fuel for a fire.
-[josh] plenty of that. -[bob] there was plenty of that around here.
We knew where they were the day before,
And we knew where they were five days later.
Process of elimination,
This really is the spot.
It's the only spot they could've have been.
So what do we know about camp of death?
What do they describe?
They said they had, uh, built a fire on top of the snow,
But during the time they were there
The fire burned through the snow
And was extinguished in a creek.
And we are literally standing here in a creek.
Yeah, we're in a dry creek bed,
But you can see how... If it was winter time or spring
Where the snow was running off,
This is gonna be a quite active stream.
So this place fits geographically,
It fits historically.
How do we say for sure though?
You're right, uh, there's gonna be very little forensic evidence here.
However, when we were in here, uh, surveying the area
We found an item and we left it in the ground.
And then we contacted greg, our archeologist and said,
"we need help to properly document this."
[josh] for something to be properly studied archeologically
It needs to be in situ, or in its original place.
Bob and tim have done the right thing here,
Waiting for the next thaw and calling in an expert to properly document the fin
But that also means, we need to rediscover it.
Okay.
What... What did you find?
Oh, well, you know it would be no fun if we told you.
Oh, come on.
Do you know where it is?
Well, we know it's in this creek bed somewhere.
We need to go find it again.
You're out here with a metal detector.
You're doing what you love.
Get to it.
We'll find it. We'll find it.
Bob and tim are confident we're in the right spot,
But I'll admit, my faith wavers.
Now, bob, you're sure you found something here?
-We're certain. It's around here somewhere, josh. -[josh] wasn't a dream?
-[bob] if it was a dream, it was a happy dream. -[josh] all right.
-[metal detector beeping] -[josh] ooh. Hold on.
-[bob] you got something? -[josh] yeah, I got a hit.
Something here for sure. You got that carrot?
Yeah. Something here.
-[clanking] -[josh] that sounds like metal.
What did you find?
Oh...
My word. Oh, my word! Look at that!
[josh] the sierra nevadas were once the last obstacle to the west.
Pioneers risked their lives to cross the mountains.
Now the risk is fun.
#discotubing. Is hashtag still a thing?
Now going for an amateur recreational land speed snow tube record,
Josh w. Gates junior.
Remember kids, do not try this at home.
I am a professional. Sort of.
Okay, I guess I just sit in this thing, and here we go.
[shouting] oh, god!
[shouting] oh, it's much faster than it looks.
Oh, boy. Oh, this doesn't seem safe at all.
Oh, my god. Oh, my god. There's a corner. There's a corner! There's...
[yelling] oh! Ow! Ow!
Oh no! Whoa! No! I'm in the creek! Hey! Whoa! Ooh!
Land speed record.
-It's an axe! You found an axe head. -[bob] that's what we found.
[josh] high in the sierra nevada mountains,
I'm with a research team looking for evidence
Of the donner party's infamo and lost camp of death.
-Look at that. -[tim] it's what we were looking for.
Unbelievable.
-Greg, what do you think? -[greg] wow. Fantastic.
-[josh] amazing. -Yeah, that is.
That is a hand-forged axe.
-You can see the pitting here. -[josh] yeah.
Yeah, there are two things that are really distinct about this.
One is its size. It's what's called a belt axe.
It would have hung near the belt, rather than being a full-size axe.
It would have been carried portable, it would have been ready at the belt
And used for smaller scale, activities, lining,
Production of firewood and kindling and things like that.
And it could be anywhere from the time range you guys are looking for,
The 1840s on up to the 1850s or 60s.
We are right on the money, time wise here.
And in terms of donner history?
Uh, we know they didn't have much with them, but one thing we are certain they had
Was a personal hand axe.
Uh, likely carried by william eddy, and it's in his diary.
[josh] that's mentioned that's inventory?
It is absolutely mentioned in his diary,
And he had a story that went with it in this very spot.
When they came here, and they began to harvest the wood,
With the snow storm burying down on them,
And it was 20 feet of snow at the time, they were chopping away,
And somewhere in the night, they chopped and the axe hea broke off,
And they lost it in the snow and were unable to start a fire.
And that's why for 26 hours they had to be under blanket
They had no mechanism to start the fire.
And so that axe head was the one thing
That you could possibly find in this spot.
This is wild. I mean, could this really be?
-And the answer is, it could. -It could.
I mean, it fits the geography. It fits the history.
And the axe itself is the right period, the right type.
And if this is that axe, then we're standing in the camp of death.
No doubt about that.
And if that's the case, then this right where we are,
Is where they made the most difficult of choices.
[bob] everything possibly that could go wrong, went wrong here.
-[josh] yeah. -[bob] and yet they somehow survived it.
-That's the human spirit. -Amazing.
If this is what we hope it is,
It's historic. It's monumental, really.
-Thanks. Really. -Thank you.
-[josh] greg. It was a pleasure. -[greg] very kind.
-[josh] tim, thank you so much. -[tim] josh, thanks.
[josh] for 175 years, the history of the donner party
Has been told as a horror story, a pionee stephen king yarn
Where the living envy the dead.
But after walking in their footsteps, it seems clear to me
That we've been telling the wrong tale.
Their journey was a disastrous combinatio of a con,
A lack of leadership, infighting and the worst of weather.
And yet over half the donner party survived.
If it hadn't been for their nearly superhuman determination,
Or for the bravery of the forlorn hope,
And the selflessness of the rescuers, then all would have been los
Those who lived would go on to settle the west
And have families of their own.
It has been calculated that 25,000 descendants are alive today
Because of the 48 people who refused to die in those mountains.
They include state senators judges, artists
And countless homesteaders who shaped the golden state
So if you ever find yourself driving west
On interstate 80 through donner pass,
Be sure to remember that long before the highway
This was all wilderness that demanded great sacrific
From those who forged the pa for us to follow.