Daniel James Brown

And they're starting to have to jettison things now just to lighten the wagons to make it possible for the oxen to proceed.

Right.

Do they know they're in trouble at this point?

I think they must because they're looking at this point.

They're at the Humboldt River.

They can see the Sierra Nevada ahead of them, and they see that there's snow up in the mountains already.

To be honest, they should still have been able to get over the mountains.

What's about to happen happens a little earlier in the winter than it ordinarily would.

Ah, interesting.

As late as they are in another year, they might have made it over, but they're not going to make it over in 1846.

Yes.

So John Snyder was the teamster for the Graves family.

He got into it with Reed over these tangled up teams and wound up stabbing.

James Reed wound up stabbing John Snyder and Snyder died lying there in the sand.

And this, as I mentioned earlier, Reed was not particularly popular in the party.

And now he's murdered this very popular young man, the Graves family's teamster.

And so many of the party wanted to hang him right then and there.

And particularly a character named Louis Keesburg wanted to upend one of the wagons and hang Reed.

Finally, they decide against that, but they exile him from the party.

They send him ahead with no resources at all, no gun, no mount, no food, nothing.