User:Maralia/Donner

The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who traveled to California in a wagon train for several months from 1846 to 1847. Several delays and poor planning caused them to be trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter. They set up camp near Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake) from November to March. They ran out of food and many of them succumbed to malnutrition and starvation, while others resorted to cannibalism. Historians generally recognize that the company consisted of 87 members, most of whom belonged to large families or were employed by them to drive wagons. Some were unaffiliated with any families. Only 45 of the original 87 members survived. Some attempted to escape their improvised camp on snowshoes, but they got lost and the excursion took 33 days. Rescuers arrived on February 18 and again on March 1, and March 14, 1847. Each relief party took whoever was strong enough to walk, escorting survivors on foot. Not all who were rescued survived to California.

During the second relief party, the rescuers, led by James Reed, had to abandon thirteen members of the Graves and Breen families because they were too weak to go further. The emigrants were deeply affected by prolonged starvation which made them weak and apathetic, thus choosing to wait for the next relief party to come with food. Reed and the relief party had cached provisions by hanging them in trees, but animals had destroyed the provisions and those who were rescued, already weakened by at least two months of living on oxhide tallow, were unable to rouse themselves to walk through the snow to safety. Reed and others described this location as "Starved Camp". Several days later, the Graves and Breen families were found by the third relief party and evacuated, although three of the emigrants had died.

Most of the members of the Donner Party traveled in large family groups, which became a significant factor in the survival of many. Twenty of them were unrelated, most of them single men who had a high death rate. Women survived men two to one, and of the members of the party who died, women survived longer than men. The most significant factor in survival was age.