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I am wondering whatever happened to the survivor from the Donner party. I believe there was just one survivor who lasted the whole five months before being rescued. Was he imprisoned? Executed? Also, was the source of the erroneous map/advice which claimed the pass would cut 400 miles off the journey West ever found?
Is this right?It was my understanding that the majority actually survived (just barely). The number I was familiar with said something like 46 live, 41 die.
Really? I saw a documentary which did not discuss all the details, but it appeared that the Donner party splintered off the main group in a single wagon. I thought there were only a handful of people in the party (Mr. and Mrs. Donner, another couple, and perhaps a few children).
From Wikipedia:Although most historians count 87 members of the party, Stephen McCurdy in the Western Journal of Medicine includes Sarah Keyes?Margret Reed's mother?and Luis and Salvador, bringing the number to 90. Five people had already died before the party reached Truckee Lake: one from tuberculosis (Halloran), three from trauma (Snyder, Wolfinger and Pike), and one from exposure (Hardkoop). A further 34 died between December 1846 and April 1847: 25 males and 9 females.
I guess you are right. Also, this in the aftermath:
After the publicity, emigration to California fell off sharply and Hastings' cutoff was all but abandoned. Then, in January 1848, gold was discovered in at John Sutter's Mill in Coloma and gold hungry travelers began to rush out West once again. By late 1849 more than 100,000 people had come to California in search of gold near the streams and canyons where the Donner Party had suffered.
