Donner Party Departs Springfield: A Doomed Journey West
The Donner Party departed Springfield, Illinois, on April 14, 1846, a group of 87 emigrants heading for California. Their fatal mistake was taking the untested Hastings Cutoff through the Wasatch Mountains and Great Salt Lake Desert, which cost them three weeks and left them stranded in the Sierra Nevada when early snows blocked Truckman Pass in late October. Over the winter of 1846-47, the survivors resorted to cannibalism to stay alive, consuming the bodies of those who had died from starvation, exposure, and disease. Of the 87 original members, 48 survived, with women and children surviving at higher rates than men. The tragedy became a cautionary symbol of the dangers of westward expansion and the consequences of poor leadership on the frontier.
April 14, 1846
180 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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