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April 16, 1846

The starting point for the Donner Party including the Reed family and the Donner family. The party was comprised of 32 members including the Reed's 2 servants and 7 teamsters who drove the wagons.

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In May of 1846, nine covered wagons made their way from Springfield, Illinois to Independence, Missouri. The Donner Party would resupply here in preparation for their journey back to California.

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James Reed is advised "to go the old route" by mountain man James Clyman during their conversation at Fort Laramie. Reed takes the crucial choice to take Hastings Cutoff, rejecting Clyman's advice.

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Twenty wagons, including the Donner and Reed wagons, turned left toward Fort Bridger and the Hastings Cutoff entrance as the majority of the group from Springfield, Illinois turned right toward the well-traveled path.

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When the Donner Party arrives at Fort Bridger, they expect to be met by Lansford Hastings, who will guide them through Hastings Cutoff. However, Hastings had left a week earlier with another group of emigrants bound for California, so they discover instructions left by Hastings.

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Following a week of consistent travel on Hastings's updated route, the Donner Party discovered a letter from Hastings at the bottom of Echo Canyon. He told them to wait until he could find a better route because the road coming up from the canyon was impassable, according to the note. Hastings instructed James Reed to lead the group up Big Mountain and through the canyon after he discovered him and declined to join the group.

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The dangerous journey across the Great Salt Lake Desert was started by the 87 members of the Donner party. They were met with unimaginable conditions there were intense heat during the day that turned the sand into a bubbling stew that swallowed their wagons, and icy winds at night that blew sand and choked their oxen. They stumbled out of the Salt Desert five days and eighty miles later, full of despair and agony.

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John Snyder is a driver for the Graves family, and James Reed murdered him. Although most of the party believes that hanging is the appropriate punishment for the murder, Margaret, Reed's wife, begs for his life. Rather, Reed is ejected from the group.

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Sutter's Fort State Historic Park, L Street, Sacramento, California

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Sutter's Fort State Historic Park, L Street, Sacramento, California

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Sutter's Fort State Historic Park, L Street, Sacramento, California

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All of the 1846 emigrants had made it to Sutter's Fort in California safely by September. All except the party hosted by Donner. When, in late October, James Reed emerged from the wilderness to relate the tragic story of his fellow travelers, the recently arrived emigrants were shocked. For Reed to bring back supplies and horses to his starving family and others, John Sutter gave them to him. For four difficult months, Reed had to give up on making a rescue due to exhaustingly bad weather.