The Donner party was named after the expedition’s captain, George Donner. He led a group of some 87 people—29 men, 15 women, and 43 children—in a column of 23 ox-drawn wagons on the journey to California. The party became stranded in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–47. Dozens died, and some of the survivors reportedly resorted to cannibalism.
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