Donner Party

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Image:Donner Party Memorial.jpg The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers caught up in the "westering fever" of the 1840s. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the winter of 1846–1847, some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism.

The nucleus of the party consisted of the Donner and Reed families, some 31 people in all, who departed from Springfield, Illinois, in mid April 1846 for California. The emigrants arrived at Independence, Missouri, on May 11, 1846, and left the following day. They joined a larger wagon train, with which they traveled until they reached the Little Sandy River, in what is now Wyoming, where they camped alongside several other emigrant parties. There, those emigrants who had decided to take a new route ("Hastings Cutoff", named after its promoter, Lansford Hastings), formed a new wagon train. They elected George Donner their captain, creating the Donner Party, on July 19.

The party continued westward, encountering great hardships while crossing the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert in present-day Utah. When they finally rejoined the California Trail near modern Elko, Nevada, they had lost three weeks' time on the "shortcut." They met further setbacks and delays while traveling along Nevada's Humboldt River.

When they finally reached the Sierra Nevada, a snow storm blocked the pass. Demoralized and low on supplies, about two thirds of the emigrants camped at a lake (now called Donner Lake), while the Donner families and a few others camped about six miles (ten kilometers) away, at Alder Creek.

The emigrants slaughtered their oxen, but there was not enough meat to feed so many for long. In mid December, fifteen of the trapped emigrants, known as Forlorn Hope, set out on snowshoes for Sutter's Fort, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) away, to seek help. When one man gave out and had to be left behind, the others continued, but soon became lost and ran out of food. Caught without shelter in a raging blizzard, four of the party died. The survivors resorted to cannibalism. Three more died and were eaten before finally, nearly naked and close to death, seven of the original fifteen snowshoers reached safety on the western side of the mountains on January 19, 1847.

Californians rallied to save the Donner Party and equipped a total of four rescue parties. By the time the second of these parties arrived in March, the remaining emigrants at the camps had also begun to eat the dead. On April 29, the last refugee arrived at Sutter's Fort.

Of the original 87 pioneers, 41 died and 46 survived.

Donner Memorial State Park, near the eastern shore of Donner Lake, commemorates the disaster; the area where the Donner families camped at Alder Creek has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

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