# @sachistorymuseum on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C8hylu9y_bX
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/76084191-sachistorymuseum-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/809fa6eea4.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-06-22T18:26:07.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Sacramento History Museum (@sachistorymuseum) — https://gondola.cc/sachistorymuseum

## Caption

June 22, 1847

On this day in 1847, while heading back east, General Stephen Watts Kearny and his detachment of U.S. Army soldiers reached what they called “Cannibal Camp,” the site of the Donner Party encampment made by the group of American immigrants the previous winter near Truckee Lake (now known as Donner Lake).

Most of the perished members of the Donner Party were initially buried under snow during the winter. Since Kearny and the other men arrived in June, the snow had all thawed exposing all the remains of not only the perished members but also the remains of their livestock. Kearny and his soldiers were horrified at what they saw. Kearny ordered the men to bury the dead that were lying around the former camp site. The remains were buried under the Breen family cabin, along with animal remains and any belongings left at the camp. The soldiers then set the cabin on fire.

Edwin Bryant said it was, “A more revolting and appalling spectacle I never witnessed.” Bryant also wrote about the condition of the human remains in graphic, probably exaggerated, detail in his book “What I Saw in California,” which was published in 1849 and helped perpetuate further myths about cannibalism and the Donner Party that had already been greatly exaggerated in California newspapers.

Copy of a lithograph of the “Camp at Donner Lake” in November 1846 from Thompson and West’s “History of Sacramento County (1880).”

#TodayInHistory #OnThisDay #donnerparty #donnerlake #californiahistory #SacHistoryMuseum

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## Credits

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## Tags

donnerlake, todayinhistory, californiahistory, onthisday, donnerparty, sachistorymuseum

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