The Donner Party’s Horrific Winter Survival Story Still Haunts This Sierra Nevada Mountain Crossing

Donner Pass, California

The California dream nearly became a nightmare for 87 people stuck in the Sierra mountains during winter 1846.

Heavy snow blocked their path west, and food ran out fast. Families faced choices no human should ever make in their fight to live.

Here’s what happened at Donner Pass.

The Journey to California Begins

Eighty-seven pioneers left Springfield, Illinois on April 16, 1846. Brothers George and Jacob Donner and businessman James Reed led the wagon train west toward California.

The group joined a larger caravan in Independence, Missouri on May 12. Women, children, elderly, and hired teamsters filled the nine brand-new wagons.

Most wagon trains completed the 2,000-mile journey in four to six months. Timing was crucial, leave too early and spring rains created mud; too late and snow blocked mountain passes.

None imagined the nightmare that awaited them.

The Path That Sealed Their Fate

At Little Sandy River in Wyoming on July 19, 1846, the pioneers faced a choice. Most settlers continued northwest on the established California Trail.

The Donner group chose Lansford Hastings’ new “shortcut” across the Great Basin. Mountain man James Clyman had just traveled this route eastward and warned Reed against it.

Hastings claimed his cutoff would save 350 miles, but no wagon train had ever used this passage successfully.

George Donner became captain on July 20 as the party turned toward Fort Bridger.

Fighting Through Wilderness

The party reached Fort Bridger on July 27, but Hastings had already left. They pushed forward with only vague directions.

Men hacked through dense forests in the Wasatch Mountains to make roads for their wagons.

Progress slowed to just one mile per day. Three times they hit impassable terrain and backtracked. On August 30, they faced the Great Salt Lake Desert.

Hastings promised a two-day crossing. It took five.

Thirty-six oxen died or fled in search of water. Four wagons stood abandoned in the salt flats as the emigrants staggered out on September 3.

Violence Splits The Party

By October, tempers flared as the delayed pioneers raced toward the Sierra Nevada. Teams of exhausted oxen struggled with the heavy wagons.

On October 5, James Reed intervened when teamster John Snyder whipped an ox. The argument ended when Reed stabbed Snyder to death, and the party held a makeshift trial.

Lewis Keseberg wanted Reed hanged but the majority voted for banishment. Reed rode ahead to California alone, leaving his wife and four children behind.

This split removed one of the party’s strongest members. The struggling caravan continued forward while Reed reached California safely.

Winter Traps The Caravan

Snow began falling on October 28 as the party approached the Sierra Nevada summit. Five feet of heavy snow made it impossible for wagons to continue.

Just 12 miles from Donner Pass, with California tantalizingly close, the group halted. The mountain crossing lay within sight but completely unreachable.

Sixty people camped near what is now Donner Lake in three crude log shelters. The Donner brothers stopped six miles back at Alder Creek with their families and employees. Twenty-five people huddled there in hastily built tents.

George Donner couldn’t travel due to an infected hand wound, while storm after storm buried the camps deeper throughout November.

Life In The Shadow Of Death

Three rough cabins with log walls housed the main group, and leaky roofs made from oxhide and canvas offered little protection from constant storms.

The Breen family occupied one cabin, the Eddys and Murphys another, and the Reeds and Graves families shared the third. Keseberg built a lean-to against the Breen cabin.

At Alder Creek, the Donner families lived in three flimsy tents with even less protection from howling winter storms. Snow reached depths forcing people to cut trees 20 feet above ground level.

By December, they had slaughtered and eaten all their cattle.

They boiled hides into glue-like soup and gnawed on leather straps, desperately seeking anything edible.

Walking Into The Unknown

Fifteen of the strongest members strapped rawhide onto wooden snowshoes on December 16.

Ten men and five women volunteered for this desperate trek to find help.

They carried minimal food, expecting to reach settlements within days. Charles Stanton, who had earlier brought supplies from Sutter’s Fort, led them over the pass.

Blizzards trapped them repeatedly. Stanton, going snow-blind, told the others to continue without him and died alone. The survivors got lost.

Food ran out after six days, and for three more days they pushed forward starving. Several died from exposure, and survivors faced their most terrible choice.

They began consuming the bodies of their dead companions.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

January brought deepening starvation to both camps. Families boiled ox hides, belts, and shoes before turning to the grim alternative.

Bodies of those who died from starvation were preserved in snowbanks. Survivors later retrieved this frozen flesh, knowing their children would die without protein.

Georgia Donner, just four years old, recalled her father George crying as he prepared human meat for his youngest children.

Patrick Breen kept a diary from November to March.

His simple entries documented the deteriorating conditions and deaths at the camp. The emigrants killed no one for food at the mountain camps.

They consumed only those who had already died from starvation or exposure.

Hope Arrives At Last

Seven survivors from the snowshoe party reached Johnson’s Ranch on January 19, 1847. Their skeletal appearance and tales of the trapped emigrants spurred immediate action.

The First Relief Party, seven men carrying limited supplies, left on January 31. They fought through storms and deep snow for nearly three weeks.

On February 18, they finally reached Donner Lake. Mrs. Murphy emerged from a snow tunnel asking if they came from heaven. The rescuers found thirteen dead and the survivors unrecognizable.

The Race To Save Lives

The First Relief evacuated twenty-three survivors, including seventeen children. Those too weak remained behind, hoping more rescuers would come.

James Reed, the banished party member, led the Second Relief in February. He found his family alive but barely surviving, and evacuated seventeen more people.

A massive blizzard on March 5-7 forced Reed’s group to leave several people at “Starved Camp.” Three died there before help arrived.

William Eddy and William Foster led the Third Relief in mid-March. John Stark, a member of this group, heroically carried nine children through deep snow when others said it was impossible.

The Final Survivors

By late March, few remained alive at either camp. George Donner lay dying from his infected wound at Alder Creek.

His wife Tamsen sent her three young daughters with the Second Relief but refused to leave her husband’s side.

The Third Relief evacuated four more people but left behind George and Tamsen Donner, Elizabeth Donner, and Lewis Keseberg who was too weak to travel.

The Fourth Relief, reaching the camps on April 17, found only Keseberg alive. George Donner had died, and Tamsen had apparently visited the lake camp before perishing.

Keseberg became the final Donner Party member rescued on April 21, 1847.

Of the original 87 emigrants, only 48 survived.

The Legacy Of Suffering

Survivors struggled with trauma and public fascination with their ordeal.

Mary Graves, who survived the snowshoe journey, later said she could no longer cry. Nancy Graves, nine years old during the ordeal, never acknowledged her participation in cannibalism.

Lewis Keseberg faced accusations of murder and theft. Though acquitted for lack of evidence, he lived his remaining years in poverty.

The children fared better than adults, and most orphans found homes with California settlers and went on to lead productive lives.

Visiting Donner Pass

Donner Memorial State Park preserves the site where emigrants spent that terrible winter. Located near Truckee, California, the park welcomes visitors year-round.

Six miles north of Truckee on Highway 89, the Alder Creek camp site offers an interpretive trail through the area where the Donner families camped.

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