Search results
Sep 14, 2024 · Donner party, group of American pioneers stranded en route to California in 1846. The group was named for the expedition’s captain, George Donner. It was widely circulated that members of the party resorted to cannibalism after their food ran out, giving the party its lasting notoriety.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Mar 5, 2010 · The Donner Party was a group of 89 emigrants from Illinois who purportedly turned to cannibalism to survive after getting trapped by snowfall while on a westward journey in 1846.
- Missy Sullivan
- 4 min
The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, were a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada.
- The Donner Party started its trip dangerously late in the pioneer season. Travel on the California Trail, the route heading west from the middle of the country, followed a tight schedule.
- They fell behind schedule after taking an untested shortcut. After reaching Wyoming, most California-bound pioneers followed a route that swooped north through Idaho before turning south and moving across Nevada.
- The emigrants lost a race against the weather by just a few days. Despite the Hastings Cutoff debacle, most of the Donner Party still managed to reach the slopes of the Sierra Nevada by early November 1846.
- The majority of the Donner Party emigrants were children. Like most pioneer trains, the Donner Party was largely made up of family wagons packed with young children and adolescents.
Mar 1, 2024 · The wagon train known as the Donner Party suffered horrific tragedy when they were stranded by snow in the mountains of eastern California in late 1846. Everyone knows what the Donner party did, but just how did they get to that disastrous point in the first place?
- Kaleena Fraga
The Donner Party was a wagon train of about 80 pioneers who set out for California from Independence, Missouri, in 1846. Hoping to make the Sacramento Valley by autumn, they fell behind...
People also ask
Who were the Donner Party?
Why was the Donner Party named after George Donner?
What happened to the Donner Party?
How did the Donner Party get to California?
Jul 1, 2017 · California's Donner Lake got its name from the Donner Party, whose members endured a terrible winter nearby in 1846. Photograph by Jason O. Watson, Alamy. BOOK TALK.
