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Donner Party
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The Donner Party was not the Donner Party when it headed west. It was part of a much larger emigrant train that split and joined many times. While crossing the Continental Divide at South Pass, Wyoming, the train got word of a new route to California. Lansford W. Hastings had written a book describing the route to California, and he recommended a cutoff through Fort Bridger that would save over 300 miles.
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The tales of the Donner Party and the Andes Plane Crash are both well-known examples of survival under extreme circumstances. Although the two stories occurred in different centuries and on different continents, there are a few eerie similarities. In both, the weather and environment —and, arguably, poor judgment— played a major role. But one gruesome parallel overshadows the others: cannibalism. The outcome of the two events... was quite different — one is considered a great tragedy, while the other has been characterized as a human triumph. Here are their stories.
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On April 14, 1846, the Donner Party set out from Springfield, Illinois, in search of a better life in the largely unsettled California territory. The trip started well but eventually questionable choices and infighting delayed pioneers' attempt to cross the Sierra Nevada until winter. As the impassable snows closed in and their supplies dwindled to nothing, the group faced an almost hopeless struggle for survival that would push some toward the final taboo of cannibalism. Nearly half the members of the Donner Party were children. This account, filled with selections from the survivors' letters and diaries, focuses on the children's experiences, making it uniquely compelling and accessible to young readers. Index, bibliography, chronology, group rosters, suggestions for further research.
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On 31st July the Donner Party left Fort Bridger. They did not come out of the Echo Canyon until the 6th August. What they expected to take them four days had actually taken them seven days. They found a letter from Lansford Hastings advising them to camp at the Weber River and to send a man ahead to find him so he could show them a new route to California. James Reed and Charles T. Stanton went off in pursuit of Hastings. When they found him he refused the offer of becoming the personal guide to the Donner wagon train.
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The tale of the 1846-1847 Donner Party whose members were snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Anthropologist, Terry Del Bene uncovers the layers of social and cultural belief and action that resulted in the tragedy. To lighten the mood, the author ... includes 19th century recipes that the travelers cooked on the trail--before the food ran out.
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In 1846 the Donner Party was trapped by the snow high in the Sierras of California; of the 89 members of the wagon train, 42 died; most of the other 47 resorted to cannibalism to survive! Donner-Reed Tragedy vividly brings to life the sensational shocking details of one of the most gruesomely riveting tragedies of American history.
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Donner Party