Bones Among Possible Donner Party Relics

Archeologists have unearthed a cooking hearth at a site in the Sierra where they believe the Donner Party gathered for meager meals in the months before starvation led to the country’s most infamous tale of cannibalism.

Government and university researchers said Wednesday that bone fragments they located appeared to be large enough to allow for DNA testing to determine whether they were human. They also found lead shot, musket balls, jewelry beads and wagon parts at the site in the Tahoe National Forest just north of Truckee, about 35 miles southwest of Reno.