More than just cannibalism: Raleigh writer releases CD of Donner Party-inspired songs

Josh Shaffer

Of all the terrible stories in the world, few can match the dismal, unthinkable suffering borne by the Donner Party — the infamous snowbound settlers reduced to eating ox hide, shoelaces and finally each other.

In 1846, that luckless party of 87 reached the Sierra Nevada mountains on the last leg of what had already proved a disastrous journey, crossing desert so dry the children sucked on bullets to generate saliva.

But buried in 15 feet of snow, their misery intensified. One child’s feet got so frostbitten she couldn’t feel them burning in the campfire. Another bewildered settler stripped naked and fled into the wilderness, soon to be food for the others. Overall, the details are considered too ghastly for pop-culture portrayal.

Until now.

Raleigh writer Alice Osborn has released a CD inspired entirely by the Donner Party’s journey, each of its 13 songs narrated by a real-life character. She called her collection “Skirts in the Snow,” and she hopes to lift the luckless Donners beyond the cannibalism synonymous with their name, highlighting instead their stubborn courage.

Raleigh writer Alice Osborn has released the CD “Skirts in the Snow” inspired by the Donner Party, whom she has been researching extensively for more than a decade. She has previously published a book of poems based on the “Star Wars” character Boba Fett.
Raleigh writer Alice Osborn has released the CD “Skirts in the Snow” inspired by the Donner Party, whom she has been researching extensively for more than a decade. She has previously published a book of poems based on the “Star Wars” character Boba Fett.

“The cannibalism is what draws people into it,” said Osborn, who performed her album at Fainting Goat Brewery in Fuquay-Varina recently. “The stories make them stay. The hardship. The bad decisions. Redemption. It’s a Greek tragedy.”

Boba Fett to Donner

Readers may recall Osborn from an N&O column I wrote in 2016, praising the poetry she wrote from the point-of-view of Boba Fett. In that collection, the “Star Wars” bounty hunter gets reimagined as a recovering alcoholic working for a Chik-Fil-A in Hickory.

As she describes her Donner obsession, which dates to 2011, she asks a semi-rhetorical question that haunts the world’s eccentrics: “Am I a weirdo?”

The CD’s opening track, “Never Take No Shortcuts,” channels the words of Virginia Reed, the 13-year-old who survived the ordeal. She bragged about never eating human flesh, and she penned this advice to a cousin back East:

“Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can.”

“Skirts in the Snow,” a CD of songs by Alice Osborn
“Skirts in the Snow,” a CD of songs by Alice Osborn

For its second song, “Your Own Dear Eleanor,” Osborn takes the voice of Eleanor Eddy, who sneaked a half-pound of bear meat into her husband’s pack before he set off on a snowshoe party in search of aid. She attached a note to her starving husband, who would eventually return with a rescue party but find his entire family perished.

“Did you find the meat wrapped in your pack?” Osborn asks. “Don’t you dare share it with your friends. Did you read the note I wrote you? Did you cry at the very end?”

For some of its final notes, Osborn speaks as Tamsen Donner, who made the now-unthinkable choice to send her children into the snow without her. She stayed behind in their ramshackle cabin, trusting the little ones to strangers and harsh elements while she tended her husband, who was dying not only from starvation but also gangrene.

‘Heroes who can inspire us’

Around her neck, Osborn wears a brooch showing a portrait of Georgia Donner, who was 5 at the time.

“They’re heroes who can inspire us,” Osborn said. “They can inspire us to help a stranger, especially in these cynical times. It’s about trust issues. Do you trust these folks with your children? Do you trust them to come back?”

Donner party statue at Donner Memorial State Park in Truckee, Calif.
Donner party statue at Donner Memorial State Park in Truckee, Calif.

Out of the 87 stranded in the Sierras, 48 survived.

None of them killed themselves in the aftermath, Osborn notes.

William Eddy married a wealthy widow, then a schoolteacher before fading into quiet obscurity.

Lewis Keseberg, the Donner partier most associated with cannibalism and possibly murder, survived to make a bundle in the Gold Rush and then open a brewery in Sacramento. He died homeless in a hospital for the poor, but he is still credited with introducing lagers to California.

So as Osborn recognizes, the stuff of great art can be sifted from ashes, and the enduring stories of sacrifice can be often found in the scenes that make us look away.

‘Skirts in the Snow’

Alice Osborn’s “Skirts in the Snow” will be available for streaming and download on Tuesday at https://aliceosborn.hearnow.com/

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