James F. Reed

The group now consists of 87 people, 9 families, and 16 single men.

George Donner's two brothers, Jacob and James Reed, follow with their families.

[dramatic music] Donner has read one of the many popular new trail guidebooks by Lansford Hastings.

Hastings was trying to garner support from the government for his so-called shortcut to the West.

Tomorrow, I turn my wagons to the Hastings Cutoff.

Now, who will follow?

George Donner's brother, James Reed, wrote in his diary on July 31st, 1846.

Hastings Cutoff is said to be a saving of 400 miles.

He offered to guide them personally.

James Reed, whose confidence in his own judgment made him susceptible to the confidence of others, was persuaded.

George Donner was persuaded.

Some members of the company were not.

The animals, desperate for water they could not find, broke free during the night and ran back the way they had come, and the men spent days searching for them in the desert heat, finding most, but not all.

The Reeds lost their heaviest wagon in the desert crossing.

Unable to move it with the animals remaining to them, they cached it in the salt and took what they could carry and abandoned the Pioneer Palace Car that James Reed had been so proud of in Springfield.

It was a small loss compared to what was coming, but it was the first concrete reduction of the resources that were going to determine whether these people lived or died.