Donner Party

The Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers in the 1840s. They became infamous for resorting to cannibalism while snowbound in the Sierra Nevada. The party was made up of 87 emigrants in 23 wagons traveling along the California Trail. The nucleus of the group consisted of the Donner and Reed families and their hired hands, some 31 people from Springfield, Illinois.

They started out in Independence, Missouri and traveled the Oregon Trail along with a larger wagon train until July 19, 1846. Following advice given in the newly published book, The Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California, by Lansford Hastings , they elected to follow a new route described in the Guide as Hastings Cutoff , which ran south of the Salt Lake. Unfortunately, it seems that Hastings was motivated to write the Guide more by his own ambitions for taking rule of California than by interest in the safety of emigrants; he had never seen if the new route worked or even surveyed the conditions on the route before claiming it to be the best trail to use. His cutoff was, in fact, 120 miles longer and much more difficult than the more established routes due to impassable terrain and deserts.

The emigrants formed their own wagon train in their attempt to use Hastings' Cutoff. Although the obvious choice for a leader was James Reed, his aristrocratic manner made him less popular and the group elected George Donner captain instead. The party encountered great hardships crossing the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert (currently in the present state of Utah).

As they crossed the desert, an oxen driver named John Snyder grew frustrated when the team he was driving became entangled with the oxen of another wagon. Many of the animals had already died in the desert so they were in short supply; James Reed tried to intervene. In the resulting fracas Reed was hit over the head with the butt of the bull whip, pulled out a pocket knife and accidentally stabbed his opponent in the chest, who staggered up a nearby hill and soon died. Some accounts record his last words as being "Uncle Patrick, I am dead," spoken to Patrick Breen.

The other wagon train members decided that Reed must be hanged, but after his wife implored them to spare him, they chose to banish him instead. So, Reed went on ahead of the rest of the party, often leaving notes behind for his family. After crossing the desert the main party stopped for four days to repair their wagons and let their beasts rest. When they reached the Sierra it began snowing as they climbed the mountains and by nightfall on the first of November they were trapped by heavy snow. Finding the pass blocked, the party had to turn back, to try to find a safe place to wait out the winter, without any food. About two-thirds of the party camped at a small lake (now called Donner Lake), while the Donner families camped about six miles away at Alder Creek . James Reed, however, made it over the pass before it became blocked, and was able to make his way to the nearest fort to get help for the stricken party.

In mid-December, guided by the Indians Salvador and Luis, fifteen of the trapped emigrants calling themselves the "Forlorn Hope" set out in their snowshoes for Sutter's Fort, about 100 miles (160 km) away. Soon they were lost and their rations ran out. Caught without shelter in a raging blizzard, eight of the company died. In desparation, they resorted to cannibalism to survive. Luis and Salvador refused to participate, and as a result died, and were consumed by the others. Only seven out of the fifteen members of the "Forlorn Hope" survived and made it over the mountains on January 19, 1847, nearly naked and close to death. Californians rallied to save the Donner Party and equipped a total of four rescue parties, one of which led by James Reed. On April 29, 1847, the last refugee arrived at Sutter's Fort.

Of the original 87 emigrants, 41 died and 46 survived; about half of the survivors had been compelled to resort to, as a rescue person said, "Live upon their unholy feast". A sight that they saw when they got there was George Donner and his wife dead, with his wife's heart and organs torn out, flesh cut off her arms and legs, with her child sobbing pitifully beside her, calling "Mother, Mother!".

In August 2003 archaeologists found possible confirmation that cannibalism actually took place at Alder Creek, where the Donner families camped: they recovered from a campfire pit a bone fragment of a "large mammal" bearing butcher marks from an axe. Later excavations in July 2004 also recovered numerous fragments of bone. As of this writing (March 2005), none of the bone fragments have yet been identified as human.

The Donner Camp has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Cannibalism per se was not then, and is not now a crime, and no legal action was ever taken against the survivors.

External links and references

• New Light on the Donner Party
• New York Times on the Donner Party
• PBS on the Donner Party
• Museum of San Francisco on the Donner Party