Archaeologists using ground-penetrating radar might have pinpointed the site of the lower camp of the Donner Party about 30 miles west of Reno and might have found the evidence of cannibalism that has eluded researchers for 150 years.

Artifacts dug up two weeks ago still are being examined, scientists said, but archaeologists located what might be a campfire pit in the area of Alder Creek near Truckee. They also found a bone fragment of a large mammal that bears the butcher marks of an ax.

The bone could be from an ox or horse, or it could be human, scientists said, and further tests are planned. If it is a human bone, it would be the first physical evidence of cannibalism linked to the Donner Party saga.

Scientists probed the Alder Creek area as part of a Discovery Channel program called “Unsolved History,” scheduled to air in October. They plan to use DNA tests to provide other answers to Donner mysteries — including linking the possible human remains to the descendants of the Donner family survivors.

“This is a very exciting find,” said Frankye Craig, a Donner Party researcher in Reno. “Even though some people don’t think that’s the Donner campsite, Donner descendants have been going there since the 1960s, and they always thought it was the place.

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And another article regarding the site...

Donner Party's former camp found -- may prove cannibalism
Group's possible hearth discovered outside Truckee


Archaeologists have found the strongest evidence yet that the 1846 Donner Party -- trapped in the Sierra Nevada by early blizzards and ultimately forced to eat some of their companions -- made their winter camp at Alder Creek on the outskirts of modern Truckee.

Although parts of the site have been excavated before, the team found what appears to be the camp's hearth, a key piece of evidence, as well as Donner- era artifacts and what may be a human bone scarred by the butcher marks of an ax.

If the bone is human, "that would really be the smoking gun" -- the first physical evidence that the Donner Party resorted to cannibalism to survive the harsh winter, said team leader Julie Schablitsky, an archaeologist who now works for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

It would also provide strong support for the idea that the Alder Creek site is the actual winter camp. Although many descendants of the Donner Party view it as such, some historians claim the actual camp site is now submerged under the nearby Prosser Reservoir, and thus lost to history.

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