Today in History—February 19: The Donner Party’s Devastating Predicament

On this day in 1847, the first of four rescue teams arrived to save the famously ill-fated Donner party from where they sat stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The initial group included the families of George and Jacob Donner, brothers from Springfield, Illinois, and of businessman James Reed—at its peak, about 87 pioneers. They began their journey west in April 1846 but were soon caught in the most unforgiving of circumstances.

The Donners and Reeds had been one of the last groups to leave Independence, Missouri, to begin the journey along the popular Oregon Trail. They then took an alleged “shortcut” (proposed by the ambitious Lansford Hastings, who had never actually taken the path himself) through the Wasatch Mountain Range and the Great Salt Lake Desert.

During the brutal summer journey on the lesser-traveled path, the pioneers lost almost 40 cattle and multiple wagons. Already low on supplies and slowed by the pace of exhausted animals, they reached the final phase of their travels, the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the very end of October—long after most other pioneers of 1846 had already reached California.

Early snows had sealed the mountain passes, turning the final stretch of their journey into an impassable barrier. They were stranded in a frosted, snowy death trap.

After setting up camp, the families hunkered down to wait for rescue, hoping the worst of winter could be endured. It could not. Baylis Williams, a Reed family employee, passed away of malnutrition in mid-December. He was the first of many casualties.

Food dwindled to almost nothing. As malnutrition and frostbite claimed more lives, the unthinkable became unavoidable: Survivors were forced to consume the bodies of the dead in order to stay alive.

Eventually 10 men and 5 women set out from the starving camp on improvised snowshoes to find help. Eight of these men died in the attempt, and their bodies were used to feed the others. (Two Miwok guides sent by Swiss pioneer John Sutter, Luis and Salvador, were, by some accounts, killed by others in the group when they attempted to flee their cannibalizing counterparts.) Upon arriving in Sacramento Valley, the group arranged a relief party that left Sacramento in late January.

This first rescue team found a devastatingly depleted group and was only able to transport 23 starving emigrants, including 17 children, from the camp. Subsequent teams saved others, but many of the unfortunate party died while being transported during rescue. In all, 42 members of the Donner Party died that winter.

Today the Donner Pass looms high in the Sierra, a reminder of the unlucky fate met by the Donners. A reminder, perhaps, that shortcuts are not always what they seem.