[MUSIC PLAYING] The westward expansion around
the time of the California Gold Rush saw a gaggle of
pioneers and immigrants moving out west to seek a better
life, but the most infamous of these, the Donner
Party, ended in people eating other
people, and is often known as the most gruesome
tale of westward travel lore. So what went wrong exactly? Well, pretty much everything. Today, we're taking a
look at what went wrong with the Donner Party. But before we get started, be
sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel, and let us know
what friend or family member you would eat in a pinch. Now, uncover those eyes. It's about to get disastrous. [MUSIC PLAYING] April was considered
the prime time to make the trek west,
specifically mid-April, when the weather conditions were more
favorable for long wagon based travelers. Leaving around that time meant
missing the springtime muddy terrain unfavorable
for wheels, while also avoiding winter time
in the mountains and passing through before
winter's chilly arrival. It also meant the
grass on the plains was high enough to provide
food for the cattle should they start
feeling peckish. Once the snow hit
the ground, crossing a snowy landscape was a dicey
and slow process at best, and desperately eating your
human travel companions at absolute worst. The Donner Party hit the road
on May 12th, about a month later than desirable for
reasons unknown. [MUSIC PLAYING] The Donner Party, led by wealthy
brothers George and Jacob Donner, and their Irish
immigrant pal James Reed, found themselves in
trouble fairly quickly into the journey. They ended up on the
wrong side of the Big Blue River, which runs through
parts of Nebraska and Kansas. On May 26, 1846,
the Donner party reached the river, which
because of a recent heavy rain, raised the water by 20
feet, making it extra difficult to pass. They spent a few days chilling
on the banks of the river building rafts to carry their
wagons and belongings safely across. This process should sound
familiar to all those who played The Oregon Trail. Unfortunately, for
Sarah Keyes, the choice to wait it out and build some
rafts proved fatal for her. She succumb to
tuberculosis on May 29. Two days later,
the Big Blue River had subsided enough
to allow the group to pass with no further
casualties or sudden cases of dysentery. [MUSIC PLAYING] Before leaving
for any road trip, it's always important to assess
the food situation, which, unfortunately, didn't seem to be
a priority to the Donner clan, or at least not as
high of a priority as storage for the things. They left Independence,
Missouri with only enough food to tide them over for
four months, which had everything gone according
to plan would have been enough for the average
trek to California, if not a little scarce towards
the tail end of the journey. With a limited space available
in the covered wagons and a weight capacity
to account for, the Donners packed light
with only 150 pounds of flour and 75 pounds of meat for
each person traveling. The rations also included
rice, beans, and cornmeal to have more variety and balance
in their daily meals, something that later became less of
a priority for the starving travelers. [MUSIC PLAYING] By late June, the
Donner party had finally reached Fort Laramie, Wyoming,
over a week behind schedule. While at the Fort, they
were warned several times about the New
Hastings Cutoff Route. This shortcut would
lop off about 300 miles from other traditional
paths, but it was not the easy breezy shortcut
they were being sold. One man, James Clyman, recently
returned from the Hastings Cutoff with Landsford
Hastings himself, and reported back to
James Reed that the road was barely passable by foot. And with covered wagons, Clyman
said it would be impossible. Clyman suggested the Donners
stick to the conventional route and not get cute
within Hastings Cutoff. Unfortunately, for several
members of the later digested party, this
advice was ignored, and the party rolled the dice
with the path less traveled, the Hastings Cutoff. [MUSIC PLAYING] Speaking of Lansford Hastings,
boy did this guy kind of suck. Hastings claimed to have
discovered a new route to California. He went so far as to
boldly publish a guidebook, Lannsford Hastings
Immigrants Guide that included his cool
new shortcut, humbly named Hastings Cutoff,
which allegedly made the journey faster
since it was the most direct route to California. Hastings, who was the California
tourist bureau of his time, was one of the people
responsible for making the move out west to California
popular for settlers. There was just one
teensy little problem. Hastings had never
actually traveled the path he named after himself
until after his guide book became popular. He was one of only
two men documented to have taken the
route, neither of whom tested the path
with covered wagons. To promote this poorly
research guidebook, Hastings offered to lead
a group of travelers through the Hastings Cutoff. He wrote a letter
to the Donner Party, with a pitch to travel with
the Hastings of Hastings guidebook and Cutoff fame. Unable to pass up
this generous offer, the Donner Party planned
on meeting Hastings at Fort Bridger. But with their two
weeks lag time. Their paths never crossed. Hastings letter,
however, was so confident and convincing they soldiered
on without him, guideless through an unproven
path to the west coast. What could possibly go wrong? [MUSIC PLAYING] Edward Bryant was a
journalist with experience taking the Hastings Cutoff. He knew firsthand the
path was rough, untested, and potentially dangerous. Bryant was particularly
concerned about the women and children traveling
with the party. He knew the route was
far too treacherous to the point of impossible
for them to take safely. He let his concerns be known
in letters to the Donner party imploring them to take the
traditional route and not the doomed shortcut. Those letters fatefully
were never received. Bryant and Reed
both later accused Jim Bridger of intentionally
intercepting the letters. Jim Bridger, proprietor
of Bridger Trading Post, would benefit greatly if people
took Hastings cut off and did a little stop over at old
Bridger's Trading Post to stock up on supplies. Because of this, Bridger
was a huge advocate for people taking
Hastings path, which is why he most likely hid
the letters of warning not to take the cut off. Hope that $0.30 for the
guide was worth it Jimmy. [MUSIC PLAYING] Once the Donner party arrived at
the Wasatch Mountains, situated outside the Great Salt Lake
section of Hastings stupid Cutoff, they stumbled
upon a note Hastings left attached to a wooden stake. Because if etiquette
teaches anything, it's always good to leave a
note attached to a wooden stake in the wilderness. Hastings wrote that the
road ahead was rough, and he didn't think it was
wise to continue on this way, saying he'd meet
up with the party and guide them towards a
better, less impossible path. The Donners and their
fellow traveling immigrants decided to stick around and
see what Hastings had to say. They stayed, despite
having reservations about being at a standstill,
since they had already lost so much time. After eight days and Hastings
seemingly ghosting the group, James Reed and two
companions set off to find their missing guide
and keep the party moving. Reed eventually found
Hastings, though his companions ended up lost and soon so
desperate for food they almost ate their horses, a
treat by comparison knowing what was down the road. Hastings directed Reed towards
a different nameless route through the Wasatch Mountains
he assured them would be better. Despite Hastings
having given them several reasons not
to trust him at all, Reed took this new
route back to the group and it proved, not
shockingly, to also be bad. This allegedly new
and improved route was so full of obstacles
difficult for a wagon train to pass through, little
things like trees that had to be physically moved,
adding days onto the trip that it desperately didn't have. At their lowest,
the party was only traveling a mile and a half a
day when on average pioneers would travel about 15. [MUSIC PLAYING] Despite this sounding like
a disheveled chaotic group of ragtag misfits,
people were clamoring to join this disastrous
little group. At several different
points, they picked up the
occasional stray family to beef up their numbers. In July, they picked up more
immigrants at Fort Bridger. Then, in August, as they
were cutting their way through the Wasatch
Mountains, the coincidentally named Graves Party join
in and all the fun too. Once the Graves Party was in,
this brought the group size up to 87 people, a strain
to the already low amount of provisions. [MUSIC PLAYING] The Donner Clan was also
ill prepared for the travel conditions in the desert which
surrounded the Great Salt Lake. Wagons were getting stuck
in the sandy elements. And what a time to
get bogged down. With desert conditions
grinding the wagon trains to a stop and
parched party members hitting the water
supply pretty hard, those water rations
were going faster than they had planned for. Some of the oxen grew so weak
they were left in the desert to die, while others just
ran away saying, nope, fleeing towards a
better life for an ox, and a death march
through the desert. Had they just taken one of
the more well traveled routes to Cali, the ox most likely
would've been spared. [MUSIC PLAYING] The Donner Party took a breather
at Humboldt Sink, a dry lake bed in Nevada, for
several chillaxing days. The cattle needed
a break and a meal to remain nice and alive for
the duration of the journey to California. One night on the
staycation, however, things took a turn when 21
cattle were stolen by a local Native
American tribe. This became a bit of
a theme for the party over the duration of their trek. Native Americans continued to
shoot/and or steal their cattle until they had lost
almost 100 cows. Losing their cattle
also meant losing the drivers of the
covered wagons, which meant some wagons had
to be left behind. The burden of
hauling all the stuff then fell onto the
literal backs of people walking with heavy loads. It also ruined their backup
plan of eating the cows. [MUSIC PLAYING] From the jump, things were not
copacetic with the full group. Rival factions
divided the party. And in July 1846, the wagon
train split for the first time. The majority chose to travel
along the traditional safer route, with the smaller
group opting fatefully to go through Hastings Cutoff. When the crap started to hit
the fan in Wasatch Mountains, the group grew hostile. They blamed James Reed for
pitching this dumb, troublesome round in the first place. As the trek grew more
and more precarious, people really started
to get hangry. On October 5th, two
wagons became ensnared and John Snyder, driver
on one of the wagons, started whipping oxen, much
to the distaste of James Reed, who didn't care for this
treatment of the animals. Reed ordered the man to stop. And when Snyder
kept on whipping, Reed straight up stabbed
the man in the stomach. John Snyder died
from his wounds. With no judicial system
on the wagon train trail or jails to throw
Reed in for murder, the group had to bring him
to justice in their own way. Some thought hanging him was
the right call, but others said, maybe let's just exile him. That's quite a punishment. The second group won out, and
Reed was sufficiently shunned casting off the man who
murdered another man over an ox. Barely recovered from this
incident, two days later, the group lost another
member when a 70-year-old man grew too weak to continue. Growing desperate,
the group decided just to leave him behind to die. Grandpa would've wanted
it that way, son. [MUSIC PLAYING] Finally, by October 1846,
the Donner Party technically made it to California. Alder Creek to be more exact,
a part of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range just
past the state line, but still, in California. So they made it, right? It all turns out OK, right? Right. No. The party was told it wouldn't
be snowing until November, but seeing how this
trip seemed cursed, it was snowing in October,
and the group found themselves once again unprepared. As they tried to push their
way across the mountains, they caught an early
snowstorm which left them marooned for months. The decision to eat people
wasn't the first move of the stranded
group of settlers. Once they ran out of food, they
first ate cow bones and hides, followed by second course of
leather, tree bark, or the oxen hide. The hide we should
note, was being used as roofing for
their makeshift shelters. And, finally, in the
last bit of desperation, to get them through the winter,
they eat their fallen settlers. Not everybody eight human
being hoagies though. Some chose to starve
themselves to death instead. Of the 87 people who entered
the Wasatch Mountains, only 48 people and
three mules made it to California alive, which
if you think about it, isn't exactly a ringing
endorsement for a mule meat. See, they didn't eat
the mules everybody, so that means the
mule meets bad. I didn't get it the
first time either. It's OK, you'll catch up. So what do you think? How would you prepare
your friend or family? Let us know in the comments
below, and while you're at it, check out some of these other
videos from our Weird History.
