Lochie Paige, the great-great-granddaughter of George Donner, says she hopes archaeologists prove her ancestors weren't cannibals.
Posted on 04/26/2005 12:08:46 AM PDT by nickcarraway
The clues are covered by snow now, 158 winters removed from events that haunt these hills and the history books.
Back before railroads and interstates and ski towns, the families of George and Jacob Donner hunkered down here during the terrible winter of 1846-47, snowbound in a pine-ringed meadow a couple miles north of the old pioneer trail now flanked by vacation homes.
We all know the Donner Party story — or at least think we do. A wagon train of 81 emigrants is trapped in the Sierra. Desperate rescue attempts flag, nearly half die and many survivors resort to eating the dead.
But the soil still holds secrets. Those long-ago tales of cannibalism have endured for generations without scientific proof.
Intent on bringing a full account of the Donner Party to light, a team of archeologists has over the last two summers combed a 10-by-20-foot checkerboard of earth with the meticulous care of homicide detectives.
They've deployed ground-penetrating radar and turned to DNA tests more common in murder cases. Forensic tracking dogs sniffed the site. Call it CSI: Donner Party.
A bounty of evidence emerged, tiny fragments that look innocuous to the layman but unlock long-ago stories for archeologists. They unearthed shards of 1840s hand-painted china, antique buttons and a chunk of slate from a child's chalkboard. A link from a woman's gold chain surfaced. So did pioneer wagon hardware and pea-size musket balls, some dented as if chomped by teeth during a meal.
There has also been bone, thousands of beige crumbles no bigger than a bottle cap, lurking amid the charcoal stain of an old campfire hidden by time and topsoil. The unsettled question, of course, is whether it is the butchered bone of humans.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
In other Mormon news, I'd be ashamed if I were a Mormon, to not have Harry Reid excommunicated or whatever Mormons do with lying frauds.... is there such a thing as a Mormon in Name Only?
I'm pretty sure that surviving members and journals say cannibalism happened.
There are plenty of other things all over North America that morons did that they should be ashamed about.
I don't know what the big deal is about this particular story, and after all this time bone fragments, human or not, aren't proof of cannibolism.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.