Finding Treasure at a Donner Party Site | Expedition Unknown

Hey, guys, guys, what do you got?
Whoa, Josh, we got something up here. Check this out.
Oh, huge piece. Look at this. Wow.
That’s the edge of a plate.

I’m with a team of researchers looking for the lost ruins of Johnson Ranch, a Pioneer-era homestead reached by the survivors of the doomed Donner Party.
Here.

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Wow, look at that. That’s incredible.
Flathead 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 more! See, that’s actually more! Look at that! Wow!
There’s pottery everywhere you look here.
That’s the edge of a plate right there.
Sure looks like it, yeah.

So this adobe was in use between what years primarily?
1844 to 1854. Just that 10-year period?
Yeah. If this is 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.
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.
Until now.
Until now.

It’s humbling enough to stand in the footsteps of the Donner Party, but then I remember, this is where their rescuers 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.

When those first survivors limped into Johnson Ranch, it became nationwide news. But most of the Donner Party were still trapped back at Truckee Lake, and that meant people were going to have to go and get them.
And these are people that volunteered. They didn’t get lost, they didn’t get stuck in snow— they found out people were stuck in snow, they’re fellow immigrants, and they volunteered.

How many people went up to try to save them?
Close to 40.

And there were several men that volunteered to not go just once, but several times.

The rescuers who set out to save the stranded emigrants were the kind of heroes that history rarely remembers. 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 going to retrace the steps of the first relief from right here in Johnson Ranch to Donner Lake, and we are going to arrive at Donner Lake 175 years after the first relief arrived— to the day.
To the day.

Using years of research, diaries from the survivors, and their considerable outdoor skills, they have charted the most likely course that the original relief expedition took to rescue the Donner Party.

The distance you’re going to 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 going to take you how long?
It’s going to take us five days.

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.
Well, why don’t you meet us somewhere along the way?
Okay, we can intersect with your group at the finish line with hot chocolates.
I could just be lounging there.
Yeah, I don’t think so.
It’s a little too easy.
It’s a little too easy.
Yeah.

All right, how about Donner Pass? You have snowshoes?
Yeah, I can get them.
Bring them with you. I’ll be there.

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All right, I’m 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’ve covered unbelievably more than 80 miles on foot.
These guys are animals.
So, I’ve 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.
Hey, lucky for me, they agree to stop for a moment.
How are you, man?

Along with Tim and Bob are team members and experienced endurance athletes Jennifer Hammond and Elke Reimer.
Oh, I’m so impressed!
I’m amazed to see all of you. I mean, last time I saw you was nearly a hundred miles ago.
That’s right. Back in Johnson Ranch.
We’re 93 miles into the 100-mile trek now. You’re animals!

You mind if I tag along with you?
It’d be great!
Yeah, 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.

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Okay, how about a break?

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You’re doing great.
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.

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What do you guys think for camp?
Yeah, it’s a nice little divot.
All right, we got flak around. 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 out how to set it up.
Nope. What’s this, like crazy knot going into this sheared section?
It’s an open letter to tent manufacturers: Stop innovating. Just crossed poles. Nobody asked for this!

Nobody asked for this!

Oh, what do you think, guys? We’re gonna make sunrise or…

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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.
They arrived at the cabins, and everybody’s inside, hunkered down.
I think everyone there had given up hope. They probably watched the pass for weeks. When are they going to come get us?

By the time the first 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.
She looks up and says, “Are you men from California, or were you sent here from heaven?”

Right. Like they didn’t even really have a grip— were they 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?”

13 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 died and is consumed by his family 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 Lake.

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 is becoming fixated on the characters, which are so interesting.

So one of the ways that helps us remind ourselves who they are as people is we make up 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 Memorial State Park tomorrow at the Pioneer Monument.

Wow, can I see one?
Wow, this is something.
So, this is John Stark