Donner Party Archaeology Research Team 2004-2005
Drs. Kelly Dixon and Julie Schablitsky
Principal Investigating Archaeologists/Site Directors
Julie Schablitsky (left) and Kelly Dixon (right)
Kelly J. Dixon (Ph.D., University of Nevada) is an Assistant Professor at The University of Montana. She worked as an Archaeologist, Clerk and Inspector with the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office and directed the Comstock Archaeology Center to develop historical archaeological projects in the Virginia City, Nevada and the Comstock Mining District (1997-2002). Her book, Boomtown Saloons: Archaeology and History in Virginia City, Nevada (2005), is based on her archaeological fieldwork in Virginia City. Among her forthcoming publications is “Survival of Biological Evidence on Artifacts: Applying Forensic Techniques at the Boston Saloon,” Historical Archaeology (Spring, 2006). Her recent archaeological field and lab research (2003-2005) has focused on the encampments of the ill-fated Donner Party in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. She is now preparing to develop student-oriented multidisciplinary archaeological research at frontier and post-frontier-era sites in Montana. Other research interests and papers focus on the archaeology of western boomtowns, historic landscapes, extractive industries, forensic applications, and marginalized groups in the American West. Dr. Dixon also serves as the Society for Historical Archaeology’s Website Editor.
Dixon's resarch with the archaeological remains of the Donner Family Camp are expected to help navigate the trail of folklore, conjecture, and historical facts associated with the Donner’s snowbound winter of 1846-1847. The camp remnants are relatively discreet, however, and most of the artifacts comprise tiny fragments of ceramic, glass, metal, and slate. This inspired research methods to enhance the project’s holistic contributions to anthropology and history and to facilitate revisions of popular, sensational accounts of the Donner Party.
Julie Marie Schablitsky received her BA in anthropology from the University of Minnesota, her MA in applied anthropology from Oregon State University, and a doctorate in urban studies, with a concentration in archaeology and history, from Portland State University. Her knowledge of archaeological laws and cultural resource management was gained during her tour as the Oregon Department of Transportation’s archaeological program manager and team leader. Currently, her academic and research pursuits are launched from the University of Oregon, Museum of Natural and Cultural History where she teaches and leads excavations on historic-period homesteads, urban sites, and 19th century Chinatowns. Her most recent research has included the excavation of the Donner Family Camp at Alder Creek in California. Collaborating with experts in bone histology, forensic anthropology, and other scientific fields, she has contributed to a better understanding of how the emigrants survived while trapped in the Sierra Nevadas for four months.
Dr. Schablitsky is known for using creative and cutting edge applications to extract information from archaeological sites. In 2000 she discovered a mid 19th century hypodermic syringe and needles in Virginia City, Nevada. Applying forensic tests to this find, she was the first archaeologist to recover historic-period, human DNA from an artifact. In the spring of 2006, her edited volume, Remains of the Day: Forensic Applications in Archaeology, will be published by the Society for Historical Archaeology. She is also editing a book, Screening the Past: An Archaeological Review of Hollywood Productions, on movies and television series that depict famous historical people, places, and events. This group of essays collectively demonstrates the contribution archaeologists make to these famous stories.
Learn more about Julie Schablitsky!
Dr. Guy Tasa
Human Osteologist and Archaeologist
Guy Tasa is a human osteologist and archaeologist at the Museum of Natural History, University of Oregon. Dr. Tasa works as the teams lead human osteologist and faunal analyst.
Dr. Shannon Novak
Forensic Anthropologist
Shannon A. Novak (Ph.D., University of Utah) is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Trained in skeletal biology at the Smithsonian Institution, she has extensive experience in the analysis of skeletal remains from prehistoric, historic, and forensic contexts. Her field experience includes archaeological research in Jordan (1990) and osteological studies in England (1996, 1999), Croatia (1997, 2001), the United States (1990-2004), and Guatemala (2005). In 1999 she analyzed skeletal remains from the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre. Her research on the massacre continues through the study of oral and written traditions in both southern Utah and northwestern Arkansas. In 2004, she conducted field research at the site of the Donner Party camp in the Sierra Nevada. Novak’s recent research has focused on the anthropology of violence in an evolutionary perspective, including the political and symbolic use of dead bodies. Her publications include “Battle Related Trauma,” in The Battle of Towton AD 1461: Archaeology of Medieval Warfare (Oxbow, 2001); “To Feed a Tree in Zion: Osteological Analysis of the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre” (Historical Archaeology, 2003); “Beneath the Facade: A Skeletal Model of Domestic Violence,” forthcoming in the Social Archaeology of Human Remains (Oxbow, 2006); and “Remembering Mountain Meadows: Collective Violence and the Manipulation of Social Boundaries,” forthcoming in the Journal of Anthropological Research (Spring, 2006).
Cannibalism has been studied primarily in cases of violence between ethnic groups. A quite different form of cannibalism is associated with intense dietary stress, and may involve the consumption of members of one’s own group. Perhaps the most famous case of starvation cannibalism is that of the Donner Party, which was snowbound in the Sierras through the winter of 1846-47. Recent excavation of the Donner campsite at Alder Creek uncovered a hearth containing thousands of bone fragments. These were analyzed to assess the distribution of processing scars, including cuts, chops, percussion marks, and thermal damage. The results suggest that saws and knives were used to reduce the bone to shards. Pot polish and thermal damage indicate that the bones were boiled, probably to extract grease. In other archaeological contexts, such processing signatures may be used to identify conditions of intense dietary stress and to distinguish starvation cannibalism from other behavioral patterns.
Dr. G. Richard Scott
Physical Anthropologist
G. Richard Scott is a physical anthropologist at the University of Nevada, Reno and his expertise has focused on the signature of cannibalism on skeletal remains. His research also deals with dental anthropology and skeletal biology, with special emphasis on tooth morphology and bioarchaeology.
My expertise falls within the fields of bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology. Although not my primary area of research, I have extensive familiarity with prehistoric Anasazi cannibalism and its taphonomic signature. As one of three skeletal biologists on the Donner team, my contribution focuses on a comparative analysis of Donner party cannibalism in a worldwide context.
Gwen Robbins
Gwen Robbins is a PhD candidate in Biological Anthropology at the University of Oregon. Her dissertation research is focused on looking at the bioarchaeology of subsistence transition using sub-adult long bone growth and development. Gwen’s research has also looked at using cementum annulations to estimate age at death in prehistoric teeth and other aspects of histology, forensic anthropology, paleopathology, and bioarchaeology.
Learn more about Gwen Robbins!
Mark McLaughlin
Weather Historian/Writer/Publisher
Biographical Information
Mark McLaughlin is an award-winning, nationally published author, photographer, and weather historian, with four books and more than 350 articles in print. Educated as a historian and cultural geographer at the University of Nevada - Reno, Mark's work appears regularly in California and Nevada media; he was awarded the Nevada State Press award five times. As a professional free-lance writer and speaker, Mark teaches Sierra Nevada pioneer history firsthand, using stories, slideshows, and field trips. He is a frequent guest on regional television and PBS programs, and has consulted for The History Channel.
Learn more about Mark McLaughlin!
Research Contribution
A comprehensive overview and analysis of the weather conditions in northern California and at the Donner Lake and Alder Creek encampments during the winter of 1846-1847 is lacking in the Donner Party literature and research.
Solid, instrument-derived weather data is virtually non-existent in the Far West at this time. (Official precipitation observations in northern California did not begin until 1849 when weather data collection began in San Francisco.) Much of what historians know of the weather during the winter of 1847 comes from a few diary entries and recollections of survivors and rescuers after the event.
For a researcher attempting to reconstruct storm periods and fair weather patterns, the Patrick Breen diary is a unique document that reveals many details about the weather and snow conditions as he experienced them at the Donner Lake. Breen’s observations, however, are limited in scope and location.
This general analysis and reconstruction of weather conditions and the pace of storm events in California and the Sierra mountains during the winter of 1847, has been documented by using diaries, ship log records, eyewitness accounts, memoirs, books, letters, newspaper articles, military journals, physical artifacts and National Weather Service climatology.
I approached the challenge of this research objective like a paleontologist, but instead of gathering bones, I collected as many relevant documents and sources as possible. However, due to the lack of accurate and dependable measurements (nothing is known of temperatures, wind speeds, precipitation amounts, etc.), how does one fill in the blanks?
In order to help convey a sense of the weather that winter, in particular at the Donner Pass, Donner Lake, and Alder Creek locations, I have included my own observations and experience (both on-site and photographic) of nearly 30 years living in the Truckee-Tahoe area.
Stacy Schneyder
Drs. Ripan Mahli and Jason A. Eshleman of TraceGenetics
Kristin Johnson
Donner Party Historian
Kristin Johnson is considered one of the foremost authorities on Donner Party history. To keep interest in the Donner Party alive, she has created the most comprehensive website on the subject. Ms. Johnson's detailed observations and scholarly interpretation of primary and secondary Donner Party documents, help accurately direct the team's research questions and archaeological investigations. Kristin has also published a book entitled Unfortunate Emigrants. In the photo at left, Kristin Johnson (standing on the right side of the photo) explains to the archaeology crew how the Donner family used various materials at the Alder Creek encampment.
Ken Kamler
Jim Reed
Dr. Doug Scott
Forensic Munitions Analysis Expert & Archaeologist
Dr. Scott is a forensic archaeologist with the National Park Services Midwest Archaeological Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Dr. Scotts will analyze lead shot, musket balls, percussion caps, raw lead bar, and gun flints recovered from the Donner family encampment. This will add information about the munitions capabilities of the Donner Party and will explore their attempts at hunting and protection.
The Institute for Canine Forensics
- John Carnes
- Eva and Ludwig Cecil and Nessie
- Rhonda Dyer and Déjà Vu
- Shirley Hammond and Twister
- Warren Kirsch and Kea
- Adela Morris and Riley
- Bev Peabody and Legend
- Meet the representatives from the Institute for Canine Forensics
In May 2004, the ICF dog handlers and their trained canines were happy to accept the invitation to help with the Donner Family Camp Archaeology Project.
The dogs were deployed at several sites in the area. Independently of one another, each performed their trained alert on the meadow. Such alerts are reserved for situations where human skeletal remains are present.
We believe that in the near future, the trained canines will assist the archaeologists and the anthropologists in locating unmarked, buried human skeletal remains and are raising our own research questions to take this work beyond the meadow where the Donner Family camped. These questions include:
Can a trained canine detect buried ancient human skeletal remains?
Is there a human signature in ancient bones that the trained canine recognizes?
Can a trained canine be used as one of many noninvasive methods of searching for buried human remains?
Meet ICF Trainer, Adela Morris
Carrie Smith
Truckee Ranger District Archaeologist
Carrie Smith has worked on Alder Creek, Donner Party surveys and excavation projects for the past 13 years. Her expertise on the area is an invaluable contribution to the mission of our work. She also designed the interpretive trail that takes visitors around the Donner Family Camp; this trail is featured on this website’s “Virtual Trail.”
Donner Family Descendent Lochie Paige
