Donner Relief Parties Historical Map

Welcome to the most detailed map of the day-by-day movements of the Donner Relief Parties ever created. Below you will see the movement of the Relief Parties from February thru April, 1847. Based upon significant primary source research, the location of each Relief Party and their associated splinter groups have been plotted on a single interactive map. This is the first time in history this information has ever been gathered and shown. We hope you learn and enjoy and please share this page with your family and friends.

Additional detailed information about the Donner and Relief Parties is also provided below the map.

The map below shows the location of the four  Relief Parties day by day between February 1 and April 30, 1847.  Several Relief Parties had splinter groups which are shown as a smaller icons. For example, the large red icon is the 3rd Relief Party and the smaller red icon(s) is/are the splinter groups from the 3rd Relief Party.

8 tips to using and navigating the map. If you'd like the full immersive experience, click on the icon in the upper right corner (tip #7 below) to open a full-size map in a new browser window.

Enjoy exploring the fascinating movements of the multiple relief parties that braved the winter elements to save the lives of dozens of members of the Donner Party.

In January 1847 Harriet Ritchie answered door of her small cabin at Johnson’s Ranch near today’s Wheatland, CA and broke into tears at the sight of the spectral apparition before her.  William Eddy stood there supported by two Indians emaciated and exhausted. Others in the settlement would follow his bloody footprints back to find his six companions. They were the only survivors of the17 members of the Forlorn Hope Party that had left Donner Lake in a quest to reach California to find help for their friends and families still at the lake.This is their story.

The Donner Relief Expedition began February 14th, 2022 on the Demisemiseptcentennial (175th) anniversary of the rescue of the Donner Party, built upon 8 years of research - both from written word (diaries, journals, interviews with survivors, articles, novels, academic research, etc.) and in-the-field surveying.

The Donner Party consisted of 87 members at its peak. They migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a plethora of mishaps, they became trapped at Truckee Lake (now called Donner Lake) due to an early snowstorm and spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound at the foot of a Sierra Nevada mountain pass, now called Donner Pass.

Following several unsuccessful attempts to escape, a group of 17 members headed out on snowshoes (later called the "Forlorn Hope") on December 16th, 1846 to try to reach help in present day California. After becoming lost and a harrowing ordeal during which  eight members perished and the rest resorted to cannibalism to survive, seven members reached Johnson Ranch  33 days later. It was on this day that the world first learned of the horrorible fate of the Donner Party in the Sierra Mountains.

Meanwhile, back at the lake and Alder Creek, a meadow 6 miles further east where the families of George and Jacob Donner wintered in crude tents, conditions deteriorated rapidly as the snow storms raged and food sources dwindled. Some resorted to cannibalism to survive, eating the bodies of those who had succumbed to starvation, sickness and extreme cold. As the weeks passed, no help arrived from the Forlorn Hope party.

Rescue parties were formed in late January, but only after extensive fund raising, food preparation and an exhaustive search for able bodied men. The initial 1st Relief departed Johnson Ranch February 4th, 1847 and arrived at the lake fourteen days later on February 18th, almost four months after the Donner Party had become snowbound. 

Three more rescue parties were formed between mid-February and April: the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Relief, which succeeded in reaching the trapped emigrants and bringing some of them to safety at Sutter's Fort. But some members of the Donner Party perished from sickness and starvation while waiting between relief parties or during the rescues when storms took them by surprise.

Of the 87 members of the Donner Party, only 48 survived the ordeal.

On December 16th, 2020, the Expedition Team remembered and honored the Forlorn Hope with a five day expedition to bring to light the path they followed on their harrowing 33-day, 100-mile ordeal to get help for their loved ones. On February 14th, 2022, the same Expedition Team honored the members of the Relief Parties by reprising the 100-mile trail the Relief Parties took from Johnson Ranch to Truckee Lake in a selfless effort to rescue the survivors of the Donner Party.

This is one of the most fascinating tales in California history and the American westward migration, which was stimulated by John L. O'Sullivan's phrase, " Manifest Destiny ".

We are glad to have you come along with us as we bring history to life.

The Forlorn Hope’s arrival in California set off fund raising and a series of rescue parties and acts of heroism. In 2020, four endurance athletes undertook a reprise of the Forlorn Hope's trek from Donner Lake to Johnson’s Ranch to find help. That was only the first half of the story. In February of 2022, the same team embarked on another trek, this time a  reprise of the rescue parties’ route from Johnson’s Ranch to Donner Lake to rescue the remaining members of the Donner Party.

Men who could have easily stayed comfortably in the Sacramento Valley in with plenty of food headed into the Sierra in the heart of winter to endure the hardship of carrying heavy packs uphill through the snow. They would endure hunger, hypothermia, exhaustion, and the horror of seeing the camps at Donner Lake. Meanwhile, the survivors trapped at the lake had been reduced to eating the ox hides they used for their shelters by boiling them into “a pot of glue” according to Virginia Reed. The snow just kept falling, trapping them in unsanitary, cold and hopeless conditions.

Eventually, four separate rescue parties would set off to cross the mountains to Donner Lake. The 1st relief, consisting of fourteen men, left Johnson’s Ranch to travel  95 miles and ascend 15,000 and descend 9,000 feet in 14 days to reach the lake, each carrying approximately fifty pounds of food. 

The 1st relief party shouted as they approached the end of the lake but there was nothing but snow fields in view. Then a woman popped up out of the snow from a buried cabin and asked anxiously, “Are you men from California or are you from heaven?” One rescuer related the following: , “At sundown we reached the Cabins and found the people in great distress such as I have never witnessed there having been 12 deaths and more expected every hour; the sign of us appeared to put life into their emaciated frames.”

The 1st relief party took thirty people back on the return trail, including the rescuers, leaving behind thirty-two. The next day Patty Reed (9) and Tommy Reed (5) had to return to Donner Lake with two rescuers, as they proved too weak to go on. Imagine their mother’s choice; two of her four children could not go on.  Should she continue with the other two or go back to the lake with her two youngest? Could the oldest two survive the journey without her? Could the youngest two survive at the lake without her? Would they be given enough food to survive?  She decided to trust the rescuers that they would return for them, and continue to safety. Patty said at parting, “Good-bye, Momma. If I don’t see you again, just do the best you can.”

It took two days for the group to get over the summit. Ada Keseberg (age 3) died that night. The first food cache had been destroyed by animals, and the rescuers were not able to feed themselves or the members they were rescuing. John Denton died from starvation and fatigue. Then they found the second cache of food had also been destroyed by animals. A rescuer later wrote that at noon they “had a small divide of shoe-strings roasted and ate them and then proceeded about half mile when we met two men with provisions, we struck fire and feasted on our dry beef.” 

What kind of men must the rescuers have been who heard the news that there was a party of emigrants trapped in the mountains and decided to join the various relief parties? It’s true that most were paid a few dollars a day, but how much can that compensate for the discomfort, the danger, and the physical exhaustion, not to mention the burden of seeing the macabre conditions of the Donner Party.The conditions were miserable from the first day -  there was freezing rain, dangerous rivers, and mud at the lower altitudes, then heavy, wet snow in which they sank to their knees or thighs while carrying heavy packs. They slept sitting up on logs in the snow under blankets at night, and had little food. The conditions were as dangerous for them as for the Donner Party. Sheriff George McKinstry wrote that the men of the relief parties should have had “their names inscribed in letters of gold.”

On the 27th of February the 1st relief party met the 2nd. It was led by James Reed, who had gone ahead to California after being banished from the Donner Party months before after his actions resulted in the death of a member.  In the 1st relief party he found his wife and two oldest children, but learned that Patty and Tommy had been left behind. He said, “I cannot describe the death-like look they all had. ‘Bread Bread Bread’ was the begging of every child and grown person except my wife. I gave what I dared and left for the scene of desolation” at Donner Lake.  There on March 2nd he found his two other children, still alive. Their mother’s gamble had paid off. 

The 1st relief continued down the mountain. Some miles further on near Bear Valley, Virginia Reed said “We camped that night and ate the bread my father had brought for us. We were out of the snow, could see the blessed earth and green grass again. How beautiful it looked. We stayed a day or so, getting the horses and mules ready to ride. No more dragging over the snow, when we were tired, so very tired, but green grass, horses to ride, and plenty to eat.” Sadly, William Hook, age twelve, died of overeating even after being brought to safety by the rescuers.

The 2 ^nd  relief gathered the adults and children who were fit to travel, but Tamsen Donner refused to leave her husband George who was too sick to travel. James Reed wrote: “I was satisfied in my own mind that Mrs. Geo. Donner remained with her husband for pure love and affection.” The 2 ^nd  relief set out with the Breen family, the Graves children, Jacob Donner’s children, and Patty and Tommy Reed.

After crossing the summit, the 2 ^nd  relief was trapped by a storm that lasted three days. They had run out of provisions, so James Reed urged them all to start immediately after the storm ended. Patrick Breen refused, saying that if he had to die, he would rather die in camp than on the way. So, the 2 ^nd  relief left the Breens and the Graves children and Mary Donner behind.

When the 2 ^nd  relief reached the camp of the official relief expedition near Bear Valley, James Reed urged the commander to proceed immediately to the relief of those who had been left behind at the camp below the summit. The commander refused to order his men to go. William Eddy and William Foster, who had survived the Forlorn Hope, formed the 3 ^rd  relief consisting of those men who were willing to go.

At Bear Valley, Patty Reed revealed a secret, as remembered by her sister Virginia:  “Patty was not alone in her travels. Hidden away in her bosom was a tiny doll, which she had carried day and night through all our trials.”

The 3 ^rd  relief reached the Breens and children who had survived six days without food. Their fire had melted the snow beneath them, and they were sitting on bare ground at the bottom of a deep hole, which was called Starved Camp. Nine of the 11 survivors were too weak to walk. Most of the 3 ^rd  relief voted to continue to the lake cabins. But John Stark said he would not abandon the survivors, so he alone started back with them. John Breen remembered how Stark carried provisions, blankets, and some of the weaker children. “He would laughingly say that he could carry them all, if there was room on his back, because they were so light from starvation.“

When the 3 ^rd  relief reached the Donner tents on March 13, Tamsen Donner again refused to leave her husband, but she sent her three daughters back with the 3 ^rd  relief. The 3 ^rd  relief left behind George Donner, Mrs. Murphy and Lewis Keseberg, all too weak to travel, and Tamsen Donner. Two days later, the 3 ^rd  relief caught up to John Stark and the Breens, and together they reached the safety of Johnson’s Ranch. Learning that there were still survivors at the lake, a few men set out, but they were turned back by a snowstorm.

The next month, six men set out to salvage the property of the Donners. Arriving at the lake cabins on April 17, they were surprised to find Lewis Keseberg still alive. He had survived by eating the bodies of those who had died. The men brought him in, thus becoming the 4 ^th  relief and completing the rescue of the Donner Party.

Below, you can scroll through all Relief Party members and those rescued by each party. You can also visit our  History Expedition website  which contains more extensive information about the Donner Relief Parties.

 Donner Party Diaries  is the world's most current and comprehensive source for primary research and documentation about the Donner Party.

 History Expeditions  offers an extensive bibliography and reference documents as well as a.variety of media presentations regarding the Donner Party

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