On this day in history, the Donner Party was founded.
In the mid-19th century, America was gripped with a fever of expansion, largely influenced by the “Manifest Destiny” outlook. Thousands of people made it their life mission to leave whatever life they had built in the east and head for the barely-settled, magnificent, and illustrious West.
California became a hotspot for travelers, fueled by the discovery of gold, which led to the infamous Gold Rush. Countless families braved the extremely dangerous cross-country journey in hopes of reaching California. One such family was the Donner-Reed family of Illinois, with the travel party composed of 89 people in total, with 31 hailing from either the Donner or Reed families.
They opted to forgo the blazed trail west and instead follow a new one called the “Hastings Cutoff,” which was newer, more challenging, but allegedly quicker. This proved to be a devastating miscalculation; in addition to losing most of their supplies during this trek, it set the party behind schedule by a staggering three weeks. Eventually, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains in October 1846 and were trapped by an early winter storm.
Nearly a month into the unforgiving elements, some of the party were forced to resort to cannibalizing recently deceased members. This desperate act would later cement them in history as a cautionary tale against hubris and underestimating the power of nature.
Although they were eventually found by rescuers, the last survivor did not reach safety until April of the following year.
