STORM2K

Cooking hearth discovered, may be Donner site

Bone fragments to be tested for human DNA
July 15, 2004




ASSOCIATED PRESS

TRUCKEE -- Archaeologists have unearthed a cooking hearth at a site in the Sierra where they believe the Donner Party gathered for meager meals in the months before starvation led to the country's most famous tale of cannibalism.


Government and university researchers said Wednesday that bone fragments they located appear to be large enough to allow for DNA testing to determine if they are human. They also found lead shot, musket balls, jewelry beads and wagon parts.


In addition, dogs trained to find graves in criminal investigations are repeatedly signaling the presence of human remains at the site in the Tahoe National Forest just north of Truckee, about 35 miles southwest of Reno.


"There's many, many people ... who sincerely believe that this is the site based on the artifacts, the types of artifacts and what we call the archaeological assemblage that is here," Forest Service spokeswoman Carrie Smith said.


Before the latest discoveries, researchers had worried about not finding a hearth that they thought would be present at an authentic Donner Party site.


"We are very excited to find what we believe is ground zero for this location," said Julie Schablitsky, a co-leader of the dig from Oregon State university's Museum of Anthropology.


"The big discovery is a definitive hearth. We also found large piece of charcoal and pieces of bone 1 to 11/2 inches long."


Some of the bones clearly are not human -- probably deer, she said. But others could prove to be through nuclear DNA testing.


Adela Morris of the California-based Institute for Canine Forensics said search dogs had been trained to locate where a human body decomposed even if the remains are gone. They have been able to locate soil samples from grave sites 2,000 to 3,000 years old, she said.


"The dogs agree this could be the location of the camp," Morris said. "The dogs are not interested in any of the other sites."


The dig is taking place at a picnic area at Alder Creek Camp, where it's believed the George and Jacob Donner families were trapped during the fateful winter of 1846-47. A Discovery Channel team found the site last summer by using ground-penetrating radar.


This summer's dig found the hearth buried about a foot deep in a meadow covered with foot-high wildflowers and surrounded by 100-foot-tall ponderosa pines -- much as it looked a century and a half ago when the party found a tract not yet covered by snow.


Although the Donner Party members are famous because starvation reduced them to eating their dead companions, archaeologists and Donner family descendants said the project is focused on more than cannibalism.


"Cannibalism is part of their story, but it's not the most important part," Lochie Paige, a Sacramento nurse who is a great-great granddaughter of George Donner told the Reno Gazette-Journal.


"To me, the real story is how they lived day-to-day, starving in the deep snow, and how terrible that must have been for them," she told the newspaper.


The Donner Party families traveled west in the spring and summer of 1846 to claim free land in California. The party took an unproven "shortcut," and was delayed on the trail in Utah and Nevada. The 81 men, women and children reached the Sierra in late October and were trapped in the snow at two camps, one at Donner Lake and the lower camp at Alder Creek.


About half the pioneers died, and some survivors ate the flesh of their dead companions to stay alive. The last survivor, Lewis Keseberg, was brought off the mountain in April 1847.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/local/cali ... pireb.html

Archaeologists Seeking to Unearth Truth About Donner Party




Sunday, July 18, 2004; Page A02



Archaeologists Seeking to Unearth Truth About Donner Party


Mealtimes with the famous Donner Party may have been a highly civilized affair, with members dining on painted dinner plates and drinking from delicate teacups before the party was forced to resort to cannibalism to survive the harsh winter in the Sierra Nevada.

A cooking hearth and bones unearthed by archaeologists at a site in the Tahoe National Forest, about 35 miles southwest of Reno, Nev., could provide valuable clues into what really happened during the four months the party was snowbound in the winter of 1846-47.

In addition to shards of dinnerware, medicine bottles, musket balls, wagon parts and jewelry beads were found at the hearth.

Newspaper accounts sensationalized the claims of cannibalism told by camp survivors, but there has been no physical evidence discovered to support the tales.

"Despite their desperate situation, they were trying to act like real humans, eating off of plates and drinking out of teacups," said Kelly Dixon, an archaeologist from the University of Montana and co-leader of the dig. "If we could identify the bones as human and could locate cut marks, we would have the grounds to settle this controversy once and for all."

The bone fragments will be tested to determine whether they are human and whether there is evidence of cannibalism.

-- Kimberly Edds

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... Jul17.html