Desperate Passage: A Critical Review of the Donner Party

Introduction: The Donner Party in American Memory

Ironically, one of the most often recounted stories centered on the pioneer trek to California is that of the group of 87 American pioneers known as the Donner Party. The wagons left in May 1846 and opted to try a new, faster route through Utah and Nevada, which slowed their progress and resulted in the loss of wagons, horses, and cattle. Hoping to be in California by September, the delay trapped them in the snowy Sierra Nevada Mountains by early November. Most of the party stayed in three cabins already on the route, but as food ran low, 15 members attempted to reach California on snowshoes. Rescue attempts originating in California were delayed because of the Mexican-American War and harsh weather. Of the 15 members who set out on snowshoes, only seven survived — by resorting to cannibalism.

In February 1847, the first rescue group reached the remaining members, only 48 of whom were still alive. Subsequently, the rescuers discovered that the surviving group, too, had eaten the flesh of their dead companions. In retrospect, this tragedy was a rare event, but it became notorious because of the focus on pioneers and cannibalism. Even today, the Donner story remains one of the most spectacular tragedies in the entire record of Westward Expansion:

In the long ordeal of their journey, they had survived accidents, misjudgments, inexperience, and disease. They had battled each other and helped each other. They had buried some comrades and abandoned another. They had hacked their way over trackless mountains and willed their way across murderous deserts. They had listened to the blandishments of a huckster promoting a shortcut that did not exist. Most important of all, they had fallen behind their fellow emigrants. That was the one unpardonable sin of the whole great venture, and now their penance was upon them (Rarick, 1).