Sutter's Fort in Sacramento

March 4th, 2014

Mostly sunny, mild

Lat/Lon 38.57N 121.47W

Sutter's Fort

Last fall, Charley and I went to the Donner Memorial on Interstate 80 near Truckee Lake.  The Memorial sits on the site of the camp where the ill-fated Donner Party suffered through that terrible winter of 1846/47.  As we walked past the remains of a cabin and a bolder used as shelter, I was struck by the incredible beauty of the area. But at the same time, I could also feel an almost ghostly sadness in the air.  The visit made me realize how little I knew about the Donner Expedition.  So, as often happens, I began reading everything I could get my hands on about the Donner Party.   

If interested, this link will take you to the blog post of our visit to the memorial. 
It's the lower half of the page.

Our visit to the Donner Memorial

It was at the Memorial that I realized the significance of Sutter’s Fort, not only to the Donner Party, but to so many of the immigrants that crossed the planes, the deserts, and the Sierras headed west.  

I was also mesmerized by the fact that 8 year old Patty Reed, one of the 45 children in the Donner Party, managed to keep a small doll, which she called simply, Dolly.  I learned at the Memorial that the doll was on display at Sutter’s Fort. 

When Charley and I headed to northern California to see his family and friends, he wanted to take me to Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento.  I wanted to see Sutter's Fort, and I wanted to see that doll.

John Sutter built his fort in 1839, mostly by native americans, Chinese, and (believe it or not) Hawaiians.   It was the first non-native american community in central and northern California and a major trading post and way station to immigrants. But it’s life was short lived.  When gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, some 45 miles away, the Fort was basically abandoned and mostly dismantled. Recognizing the Forts historic significance to California’s history, it was rebuilt and preserved in 1891.  It became a California State Park in the 1940’s and was designated a National Historic Monument in 1961.

As luck would have it, the day Charley and I went to Sutter’s Fort there was a group of 4th graders, (from a private school), and their parents there doing an overnight field trip.  The parents and the children all dressed in period clothing and were doing hands-on learning about the lifestyle of those early settlers. It was a flurry of activity, probably much like it was in the 1840’s. The whole Fort had literally come to life just for us!  (We were the only tourists there!)

The parents had taken classes two weeks previous to learn different aspects of life at the Fort, (work, duties, and chores),  so that they could teach the children during the field trip.  The children moved from ‘station’ to ‘station’ throughout the day to see and participate in all aspects of pioneer life.  It was wonderful! 

Here, two mothers teach a group of children the techniques of dipping, hanging and drying to make candles.  They had a big 30” cast iron pot on a fire in one corner of the room with melted wax in it.  They would dip the wicks, then hang them to dry, and dip the next pair of wicks.  They worked their way around this rack, re-dipping and re-hanging, over and over, until all the candles had enough layers of wax that they were thick enough to stand up in candle holders.

In this photo, a father teaches three children how rope was made.  They used a wonderful machine I had never seen before! (The red one at the right of the photo.) The girl in purple holds a handle with strands of twine attached, the girl in blue feeds another strand of twine in, and the boy in brown, turns a crank handle on the machine that keeps the tight twist needed to keep multiple lines of twine together as rope.

Next we went to see the blacksmith shop.  This man was not a parent, but a real blacksmith.  He’s been doing demo’s at the Fort for over 18 years. We watched, along with the children, as he pounded, bent and flattened the red-hot steel into a horseshoe. He even showed us how he punched the holes in it for the nails to go through.  It was so interesting. He would have the children take turns pumping the huge bellows behind him to heat up the fire (right side of photo).  He also had the kids dip the finished product, (using big tongs of course), into a barrel of water in front of the fire to cool it. 

Charley and I were both fascinated and asked lots of questions, which he enjoyed answering.   After making the horseshoe, he made a square nail.  He said a good blacksmith could make up to 1800 nails in a day.  Because we asked a lot of questions, and were clearly interested, he gave us the nail!  So cool! 

 

There was another station where the kids learned carpentry, and built their own little foot stools, (using square nails of course!).  But I didn’t get a picture of it. 

In this photo, two fathers teach a group of boys about tanning furs and hides.  They showed the kids how to stretch, clean and soften the underside of a beaver hide.

This is a picture of a bobcat hide that was hung in John Sutter’s office. It’s a quiver for arrows. It doesn’t look like a lot of time and effort was put into it’s ‘design’.  But I’m sure what it lacked in creativity it made up for in ease of assembly.  And it was clearly functional.

 

The kitchen had three mothers teaching the children about cooking using wood stoves. The whole area smelled of fresh baked bread and cinnamon rolls. Kids were churning butter, kneading bread dough, and chopping vegetables. 

The children at the Fort not only learned about the life of the early settlers, but were also going to live it. The bread, butter and veggies they were making was going to be part of their dinner that night.  They would be using the candles they had made after dark.  The boys were going to sleep in tents out in the courtyard, while the girls were going to be sleeping in the meeting hall.

Here, a father is tending several dutch ovens full of potatoes, stew and cobbler for dinner.  I REALLY wanted to stay the night with them, but Charley wouldn’t let me.

Finally, as we made our way around the Fort, we came to a room that was dedicated to the Donner Party.  Now I was going to see Patty Reeds doll. This is a photograph of Patty Reed when she was a teenager.

This is a map James Reed made of his early crossing over the Sierras to Sutter’s Fort.  He hoped to use it when he returned with a rescue party to retrieve his family and others from the ‘winter camp’ near Truckee Lake.

I’ve said before that one of the things I love about this RV lifestyle is the people I meet along the way.  

This is Cindi Allen Schmerber and her uncle, John Allen. Cindi and John have a unique connection to Sutter’s Fort and California in general. I don’t remember for sure, but I think they were visiting from Texas. I should have taken better notes, but I was jotting things into my phone as I talked with Cindi.  We talked for 10 or 15 minutes.  

John and Charley talked separately, realizing they were both Nagivators on airplanes, Charley in the Air Force, John in the Army Air Corps in WWII. 

Cindi told me that her great, great, grandmother, (John’s great grandmother), Mary Jane Lamon Glover, and her husband James Glover were some of the first settlers to the Yosemite area.  James Glover was from Illinois and his attorney was a young Abraham Lincoln.

The part of Cindi’s story that really enthralled me, however, was that one of their ancestors, Aquilla Glover, participated in the first rescue attempt of the Donner Party.  Here is what happened.

In February of 1847, Aquilla Glover was at Sutter’s Fort.  He was recruited to be part of a rescue team to take food and supplies over the mountains to the people stranded near Truckee Lake.  The hope was to also bring some, if not all of them back to Sutter's Fort. 

As the seven man team headed up into the Sierras, they endured many hardships of their own. Horses laden with supplies and food were unable to make it through the twenty feet of snow and had to be abandoned.  The men continued on with what they could carry on their backs.  They made it over the Sierras to the winter camp where 60 members of the Donner Party tried to wait out the harsh winter.  The rescuers were shocked at the conditions at the camp.  Snow so deep it completely covered the cabins and tents. Holes were dug down to the doors.  Fifteen people had already died from cold and/or starvation, and were loosely buried in the deep snow.  

Abandoning the horses greatly reduced the supplies the rescue team had for the survivors.  Leaving what food they could, they headed back up into the mountains with 23 of the survivors, one of which was 8 year old Patty Reed. Patty and her younger brother were soon too weak to continue through the deep snow.  Their mother was torn between continuing on with her two older children, or turning back with her two youngest. Aquilla Glover promised Mrs. Reed that he would get the children safely back to the winter camp. Carrying them a good share of the time, Glover did get the children back to the camp.  The survivors at the camp did not welcome the children back. It was more mouths to feed.  Glover had to leave the last of his food to get one of the families to take the children back into one of the cabins.

The second rescue attempt was in March of 1847.  Seventeen survivors were taken, thirteen of which were children, including Patty.  Through it all, Patty managed to keep the doll.  She kept her through the crossing plains and deserts, surviving that terrible winter and through two rescue attempts. During that winter, the survivors used everything for survival, no luxuries were spared. They burned furniture and shredded cloth to keep warm. They boiled hides, leather shoe laces, and belts to keep from starving. 
  

  

Nevertheless, upon arrival at the Fort, secretly sewn into the hem of Patty’s tattered dress by her own small hands, was Dolly.  She is a tiny doll, (less than three inches high), but one with a BIG history.