Many thought he killed her for the one horrid purpose.*
* Many years later (1879) Keseberg declared under oath to C. F.
McGlashan that he did not take her life. See "History of the
Donner" Party, pp. 212, 213.
Such then is the story of one of the great emigrant parties who
started West on a hazard of new fortunes in the early days of the
Oregon Trail. Happily there has been no parallel to the
misadventures of this ill-fated caravan. It is difficult
--without reading these, bald and awful details-- to realize the
vast difference between that day and this. Today we may by the
gentle stages of a pleasant railway journey arrive at Donner
Lake. Little trace remains, nor does any kindly soul wish for
more definite traces, of those awful scenes. Only a cross here
and there with a legend, faint and becoming fainter every year,
may be seen, marking the more prominent spots of the historic
starving camp.
Up on the high mountain side, for the most part hid in the
forest, lie the snowsheds and tunnels of the railway, now
encountering its stiffest climb up the steep slopes to the summit
of the Sierras.
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