The Donner Party

The Donner Party got stranded near here (Truckee, CA) in the winter of 1846/47.  I enjoy parties but I‘m glad I missed that one: no music, no beverages other than melted snow, and no food except frozen mules, oxen, dogs and the corpses of the 40 pioneers who died from exposure and starvation.

The Donner brothers, George and Jacob, organized the train of 20 wagons in Springfield, IL and headed west in April, 1846.  The Donners and wagon master John Reed opted to take a ‘shortcut’ through the rugged Wasatch Mts of Utah and across Great Salt Lake.  Experienced mountain men warned them against taking the untried route but they ignored the advice.  The shortcut was mentioned in the book, The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California, written by Lansford Hastings, an arrogant, unscrupulous lawyer who had neither seen nor traveled the dangerous route. 

The so-called shortcut added a month to the travel time, causing the travelers to reach the high Sierras late in the season.  They were stopped cold (very cold, indeed) by heavy October snows and were stranded for 4 months at an altitude of 6000’.  Rescuers finally reached the survivors, half the group that started out, in February, 1847.  

One wonders how many other pioneers read Hastings’ Guide and ran into trouble.  In today’s world he would have been found guilty of multiple counts of manslaughter and sentenced to a few thousand years in prison.