Trapped in the Sierra: 15 Harrowing Facts About the Donner Party

1. It began as a hopeful journey from Illinois.

In April 1846, the families of brothers George and Jacob Donner and of businessman James Reed set out from Springfield, Illinois, for California. They joined thousands of other emigrants heading west that year in covered wagons, hoping for fertile land and a mild climate. Reed even brought a luxurious two-story wagon that his daughter later called the "Pioneer Palace Car."

2. A shortcut sealed their fate.

The party chose to take the Hastings Cutoff, a route promoted by Lansford Hastings in a popular guidebook as a faster way to California. Hastings had never taken a wagon along it. Instead of saving time, the "shortcut" cost the travelers weeks of precious time before winter.

3. They had to cut their own road through the mountains.

In Utah's Wasatch Mountains, the party had to clear a path for their wagons through thick brush and trees, advancing only a mile or two a day. They then crossed the Great Salt Lake Desert, which Hastings had described as about 40 miles across. It was closer to 80, and the crossing killed many of their oxen.

4. James Reed killed a man and was banished.

Tensions boiled over in October 1846, when James Reed stabbed and killed teamster John Snyder during a fight on a steep hill in Nevada. The party banished Reed, who rode ahead to California alone. The punishment turned out to be a stroke of luck, because Reed later helped organize the rescue of the group, including his own family.

5. Snow trapped them just a short distance from the summit.

By the end of October, the exhausted travelers reached Truckee Lake, now Donner Lake, at the foot of the final pass over the Sierra Nevada. Heavy snow began falling unusually early, and their attempts to cross the pass in early November failed. Most of the group built crude cabins by the lake, while the Donner families camped a few miles away at Alder Creek.

6. They boiled hides and bones to survive.

As their supplies ran out, the snowbound emigrants slaughtered their remaining cattle and then ate ox hides boiled into a gluey paste, bones, bark, twigs, field mice and even their dogs. Snow piled so high around the cabins that some people had to climb in and out through holes in the roof.

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7. A group called the Forlorn Hope set out on homemade snowshoes.

In mid-December 1846, 17 people made snowshoes and set out across the mountains to get help. Two turned back. Of the remaining 15, only seven, two men and five women, reached a settlement in California after a month of horror in the snow.

8. Starvation drove them to cannibalism.

Members of the Forlorn Hope and later some of those left in the camps survived by eating the bodies of those who had died. Two Miwok men, Luis and Salvador, who had been sent from Sutter's Fort with supplies before the snow closed the pass, were shot during the trek so that they could be eaten, the only people known to have been killed for food.

9. It took four rescue missions to bring everyone out.

The first relief party reached the lake in February 1847. Three more followed between March and April. Each rescue was a grueling ordeal through deep snow, and some rescued emigrants died on the way down the mountain. The last relief party arrived in April and found only one survivor left in the camps, Lewis Keseberg.

10. Only about half of them survived.

Of the 87 people who were snowbound in the Sierra that winter, 48 survived. Most of the dead were men, especially young single men traveling without families. Researchers later concluded that women survived at much higher rates, possibly because their bodies were better at conserving energy and because people in family groups looked after one another.

11. Tamsen Donner chose to stay with her dying husband.

George Donner had badly injured his hand while repairing a wagon, and the wound became infected. His wife, Tamsen, was healthy enough to leave with a relief party, but she chose to stay by his side. She sent her three young daughters to safety. Both she and George died before the last rescuers arrived.

12. A diary recorded the winter day by day.

Patrick Breen, an Irish-born father of seven, kept a diary at the lake camp from November 1846 to March 1847. His short daily entries record the weather, the deaths of companions and the dwindling food, often ending with a prayer. The diary is now held at the University of California's Bancroft Library.

13. A little girl's doll survived the ordeal.

Eight-year-old Patty Reed secretly hid a tiny wooden doll in her dress throughout the journey and the terrible winter. Both Patty and her doll survived. The doll is now displayed at Sutter's Fort State Historic Park in Sacramento.

14. A survivor's letter offered famous advice to future emigrants.

In May 1847, 13-year-old Virginia Reed wrote a letter to her cousin describing the family's suffering. It ends with a now-famous piece of misspelled advice, warning readers to "never take no cutoffs and hury along as fast as you can." Every member of the Reed family survived.

15. The tragedy left its name on the mountains.

Donner Lake, Donner Pass and Donner Peak are all named after the ill-fated party. Just over two decades later, the first transcontinental railroad was built through Donner Pass, and today Interstate 80 crosses the Sierra nearby. Donner Memorial State Park now stands near the site of the lake camp.