George donner began a perilous journey across the continent, a new and untested route resulted in many unexplored, pected hardships and delays. The wagons were late reached in the sierra nevada. The last barrier on the route to california. Disaster awaited the 87 men, women and children of the donner party early mn snowstorm. Arms trapped the wagons and they were forced to construct makeshift camps for the winter. The result was extreme suffering and starvation. By the following april, when the last several rescue efforts ended, nearly half of the wagon Party Members had perished. The ordeal drew National Attention sparked by rumors of cannibalism. Still, the tragedy remains a mystery, including the location of the various winter camps. This is the story of one effort to shed new light, one of the most dramatic events in the history of the american west. I am tickled to see that theyre doing this, and this is a real highlight in my life, gives me goose fat, you know . Its really, really exciting. Just the just a wonderful story. I think its a familiar story to all of us. They tried to get over some mountains and they didnt make it. Some of them made. Its just incredible. Obviously, they think what they went through and now to see it almost touch it. The first thing you think, oh, my lord almighty, how those people ever did it, how these people do it. The marvel that they got as far as they did is mind boggling. It was a, you know, one of the worlds greatest adventures. I mean, you couldnt have written fiction as exciting as their adventure. That symbolic of the of the moving west. And thats part of American Mythology to imagine snow 20 feet deep and starving children. Im a mother now, too, and i cant imagine. Would it be like to watch your children dying in front of you behind me with their children not having enough to eat . They had to put up with a lot, you know . The shortage of food is too bad. They start other. They have to stop eating. Cannibalism. Cannibalism. Cannibalism. Cannibal ism, cannibalism. All kinds tales. And they became cannibalism. The the tackiest souvenir we can find. Its kind of sick, but i think its funny. Every ounce. Advertisement. The guy done dug it. A lot of people ask, why are archeologists interested in this site . And we answer that, well, you know, you can read a lot about history from history books, but historians will tell you that what you read has to be read with a little bit of of scrutiny that people, uh, approach history with, with different bits of information and different perspectives and in fact, thats reflected in the donner story. So the archeology work is meant to complement and help clarify and strengthen the historical record. The first job of the archeologists is to try to validate what has been passed down through oral tradition and through history. Is this the spot . If so, where were the camps . Where the camps located . Where history tells us they were . And beyond that, to try to provide a little bit better picture of what life was really like here for the folks that spent the winter here. Are. The donner Party Project is an interdisciplinary project. We have made use of historians. We have made use of dendrochronology us. We have use of geologist as well as archeologists to try to collect as much information as we can about the older greek camp. What we have is a joint project between the Us Forest Service and the university of nevada, reno, and the project was prompted by the Forest Service proposal to do some work at the site here to improve it for handicapped users. Well, when we heard about that, we wanted to get involved as archeologists because we wanted to make sure that we werent going to inadvertently be destroying or disturbing any evidence of the donner party that might have survived. I mean, what we have in front of us here is this stately pine tree, as you can see at the base of it, there is a fire scar. Is also a fork of the tree that is just a remnant of that tree now surviving, but also large rock at the base of it. This tree was pointed out as being the tree that George Donner supposedly constructed a shelter against sport pine built a fire against the tree and tried to survive that winter. What we were charged with our task at hand in beginning this project, first and foremost, was to verify archeologically whether or not this tree here is indeed the site of the George Donner camp. It has been so designated since back in the 1880s. So were looking at about 110 years or so when basically people have believed in this cultural here almost as a sacred cow. As. It. But what the archeologists are tending to deal with are very small, fragmentary objects. Everything that was visible on record, visible was carted off first by the rescuers who came in 1847. The valuable things they took in subsequent years during the gold rush travelers talk about stopping in the camp and picking up souvenirs. Their activities going on ever since, for the archeologists do not have a pristine, complete time capsule to deal. Were having to deal with the things that people either didnt see, didnt notice or didnt think were worthwhile to take. The site was probably well picked over before we even here, just casually collecting would have reported that visitors come out here at night by the tree in the 1870s. Right now we are the last couple of buckets. Were just getting dozens and dozens of flakes. The artifacts barbara has here are indian artifacts left from the several thousand years of Indian Occupation of this site. And these are primarily flakes, as we call them, chips of basalt that are the remnants of the indians manufacturing stone tools. So so far what were finding at this excavation unit is no evidence of the donner party, but a lot of evidence of the Indian Occupation. Now, archeology is a lot different from Indiana Jones on. This is real romantic. Were still waiting. We cant seem to tell much of anything at this point, but, uh, we shall see. Oh, i think the little joe, because we havent found anything historic, will be there. I with no contact surface, no artifacts, pockets full of bottle, cap, food, protein and junk everywhere. He wants to find something a little notoriety. Certainly beside the basalt right here. Yeah. I would like to find hole wax or wax a axl herb calcium dinosaur diary, an intact pistol or equivalent. I might go to find a bone with the violin and ah they think this might be a could possibly could be a grave or something. I definitely dont want to find bones. If we could find a coin of some sort dating that general period or preferably earlier than that period. I know things can be maybe a little a little trying over there at the at the george tree, especially about 3 00 in the afternoon when youre just baking and its just like, you know, one more hard surface after the next after the next, after the next. But i would like to say one thing that no matter what the outcome of this dig is, we either way, we are in all win situation. We really are. And it may not seem like that now. Its like if we dont the, you know, the George Donner tree in their campsite, its a failure or something. It if we dont find it but we are in a position of doing is what we are going to turn Emigrant Trail research on is here and and so that in itself is really an important thing for 150 years or whatever people have been you know, saying that this indeed is the site theyve been saying indeed this is the trail. And if we dont, we will know whether or not this is the site by the end of this session. Today is the end of day of week. Number three. So therell be two more weeks after this, uh, for us to begin to really piece this together. We really are. And we started out quite a ways away that absolutely nothing we put in is closer than absolutely nothing. Finally, you can see the area there where we have flagged off with the orange ribbon. Finally we said, all right, enough is enough. Lets go right to the heart of the matter. Were going to excavate right in the center of where camp should be located. What have we found there . Nothing. Not a single historic artifact at that location. We were trying to test out the the historical record and the archival record through archeological means, basically looking at archeology as an independent and collaborative source of information sometimes which serves to clarify the historical record, sometimes which serves to refute the historical record. Yes, the scar is a result of fires from the donners camp. We would have expected, first of all, to have found tremendous amounts of charcoal. The diaries indicate that these people had fires burning almost 24 hours a day to keep warm. We should also find lots of little artifacts, perhaps some bone food refuges. And so forth. We have excavated entirely around this tree. As you can see, and not a thing. So think were fairly convinced that while this may the tree was here, it does not appear to be one in which the donner themselves camped up against. Now that basically then answers our first and Major Research goal, which is this is not the site of the georgetown tree. And we feel that we have evidence to support that were going to need to support that because again, 110 years, historians have regarded this. If anything, we sure. On the right of the end of the trail, this was a sure thing as as the president of the oregon california trails association told us. He said, you are attacking sacred cow. Weve literally taken the heart out of the beast in the cow and we are taking some of the glimmer away from this tree, to be sure. And but we dont we dont want to kill it. I mean, again, this the sacred cow is a symbol of the events that were going on here. And and wed like to still recognize this as a cultural artifact that has been so for 110 years or so. And literally, we dont want to kill the tree. Also, we in our excavation weve disturbed a lot of roots on this tree. And this is tree is over 500 years old. It survived a lot of things. I would hope that our Research Efforts here would not serve to kill this cultural artifacts, this debunked sacred cow, as it were. In the past. Archeology is doing Pure Research and metal detectors. People operating metal detectors, sometimes irresponsibly, have not always seen eye to eye are our goals have not always been compatible, but weve just gotten a really positive response from metal detector clubs who would like to come and offer their assistance in research. So that has been a a really an innovative aspect of this project. Metal detectors in archeologists havent really been Close Friends because archeologists think the metal detectors go in and they dig up sites and destroy sites, which im sure we could do if we were treasure hunting. But in this particular case, it seemed logical because were dealing with historical period and were looking for iron. And so in order to, you know, it was logically, i felt they should have metal detectors and found out that this just was not incoming use. I dont. What we do want do is to punch through that rock straight and just to make sure that we dont have musket balls popping out. All right. To see that musket ball youre carrying metal. Oh, you are kidding me with a metal detector. Yeah. This is a lot better than finding the the the bottle tops the bottle caps and the things that is littering the site that marked the more recent use of this here. Just finding one object does not by anything you want to find a lot of things and the weight of evidence leads you to a time period we talked about it yesterday he came over here to look around and we said you know, lets just go back and look at that metal again. You just never know. That was the best potential weve had so far. And lets just go cover a little more systematically. You. Start an inch and a quarter down 20 right in here. Going to try and get a plug so that i will have it in the center of whatever. During to see it with a cut nail. Not a hand right now. So its supposed to. Bingo and that was when i found. This square nail in the square. Where was it . Right there. Would you start cleaning it out . Yeah, well, it turns. Oh, hello. You find another something . Yep. Something, huh . Just see you know, that can literally be from almost anything. You got it. Part of a carriage bolt. We found one of the bolt cutters that ran i think ran to. God. It always looked at piece of glass its a little piece of glass is a type of rivet that was used to fasten clothing. 1960 for a nickel. You. Would only move 100 yards and the georgetown a tree in the metal and were really starting to find things now the big ball is now dead good. Thats great. It was exciting. We almost didnt find it in a the tunnels they use these is kind of a bracket right there so very large drill bit. Its got a tapered end. Lewistown oh, oh very. Interesting. Its different kind of attack. The first one of then. To be the cat cabinet is great its probably a clamps nails as good as anything more like a bottle. Material right here yeah ill be darned. Well i get to join the musket club and we found one up here earlier. Or at least is maybe a little bear was almost certainly the marble. I found it right here and it a lie detector to came out. Oh wow. Yeah musket basketball perfect. Looks like a musket ball and he. Another one. Excellent. Heres another one. Another one. This is really promising as far as an array of artifacts that gets us back into the feasible. In 1840, 40. Since were just going to use some of. These are percussion caps, there have been fired they were the immediate follow up to the old flintlock musket. We know that at least some members of the donner party had percussion weapons because theyre mentioned. This just came out of our unit. This is a piece of ceramic and this design is called shell wear and its very diagnostic as far as time goes, show it, pearl, where it will be very consistent with an 1840s occupation and such as that of the donner party. As i was traveling around, i came across the round object. Well, as i started covering it here i see an eight team throw 0. 01 coin and it just was static. Now yesterday and today we found the coin one dating 1830 and the other one today 1839, which was just like rejoice. I mean, it was just wonderful to have you write something today to say what better thing than a coin with a date on it . You know, i mean, i think the dating finally also found a pewter button clue about this big around. We havent found a fire hearth and thats a little bit discouraged. The diaries tell us they had fires going 24 hours a day. We should be able to find good evidence of that active fire and we have fact we found scattered charcoal throughout the years weve been excavating, but not no concentration but it may be explainable by the fact that we have such tremendous growth in activity in the site and highly likely that almost every square inch of this metal has been moved around over the last 140 years by road. So a fire hearth may well be dispersed. Now, all over this metro area, we when we got here, we got glass, we got craft, we got boom. Well, we found like 25 tiny little pieces of bone, some of them no bigger than this in the screen yesterday. Were also finding hundreds and hundreds of pieces of very, very, very small pieces of bone. This bone appears to have been burned. It appears to have been broken up almost to the point of grinding. In other words, the pieces of broken bone indicates to us that whoever was camping here was on famine and that directly then points to a diner occupation. Although we have to be careful when we say that, but we know that another immigrant camp might not have this appearance, especially in terms of the burned down all of these things together would certainly suggest that this may indeed be a correct location of at least one of the older three camps. Now, the big question, of course, we have is whose camp is whose is that an indication of things across the meadow . Weve got some things here. History tells us that george and jacob camped real close together in the teamsters camp across the creek. Okay. Well, is this meadow . The creek that george and jacob over there, or is that george or jacob . Is this the teamsters . Those are the kinds of things the questions we want to try to explore more thoroughly with the additional work. What were finding during the course of this research is there assistance has been absolutely critical. There is no way we could have accomplished what weve been able to accomplish without the assistance and metal detectors. Were all learning its just been a real good experience and i think its been a real breakthrough in the future when theyre dealing with historical sites where metal involved that they will be using metal detectors first. They know when will you have a test of the fragments that will tell you, yes, no, these are not here. This could be months down the road, unfortunately. The question of cannibalism and the question of what goodies are we finding tends to make the top of the story. And this is a story were trying to turn around in terms of what were doing here is were trying to clarify some very important aspects of history. The unfortunate side is that the cannibalism gets gets the press or gets the the print. As far as books about the donner party and the real the real heart of the story seems to get lost. Whether or not the cannibalism actually did take place during the donner tragedy, i not even willing to speculate about certainly written accounts would suggest that it probably did archeologically given the fragmented nature of the bone that we have found and the disintegrated state of most of the remains of, we probably would not be able to add any Additional Information to that. But but certainly it has to be considered as one reason why the dawn or tragedy has maintained that it had over the years. That kind of the archeological prints of all that you always find the most interesting remains, just as youre preparing to leave. And this was definitely true here. We know were leaving tomorrow. And thats kind of a little disheartening that we didnt find these things sooner in the dig towards this, we spent so much time over at the georgetown three and found nothing, nothing at all except the batman ring. Our concern now is that, as usual, the most significant finds are found. If not the last day, the last week of the archeological project. And weve been finding some things that are really pretty interesting and probably of interest to collectors. And thats the downside of this is now that were wrapping it up, were going to be walking away knowing that theres work needed at the site. But our project is coming to an end. Basically, we would hope that the that comes across is were here trying to Research Significant events in history and these significant events of history, the information thats contained with the artifacts that are still in this ground belongs to all of us. So this is our concern and were hoping that we can put this in terms in a positive way and through public education, people can realize its much better to know about the larger picture in the history of this rather than to possess a coin or a musket ball, which then is depriving the rest of this of that information. But at this time now we have completed all the excavations that we anticipate doing here for the near future. Theres still potential to do more digging, but we really would like to not dig the whole site. While there are more things there, wed like to see them for the future because chances are, if 50 years from now, archeologists will have a whole lot better array of techniques to use to explore the past. And so we want to leave a portion the site for them. To. Okay, were going to go ahead and get started with our final session. Jonathan jones is currently asan