What Was the Donner Party?

In the winter of 1846-47, a group of eighty-seven pioneers heading from the Midwest to California found themselves snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountain range with no way forward and no food or supplies. While forty-eight of the group members survived, the others perished due to extreme weather, starvation, and illness. To survive, the remaining people resorted to extreme measures...including cannibalism. Theirs is a story of miscalculations, bad decisions, and extreme weather--but it's also a story of survival and bravery among everyday people.