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Donner PartyThe Donner Party was a group of California-bound American settlers in the 1840s. They became infamous for resorting to cannibalism while snowbound in the Sierra Nevada. The party was made up of 87 emigrants in 23 wagons traveling along the California Trail. The nucleus of the group consisted of the Donner and Reed families and their hired hands, some 31 people from Springfield, Illinois. They started out in Independence, Missouri and traveled the Oregon Trail along with a larger wagon train until July 19, 1846. The emigrants from Springfield who read Hasting's guide for emmigrants were fooled and decided to take the new "Hastings Cutoff". Hastings was a lawyer who had high ambitions for taking rule of California, and published a book about his "NEW and WONDERFUL" Hasting's Cutoff in his "guide for California bound emmigrants". He also exaggerated the splendor of California to entice people to come. Hasting's cutoff, which ran South of the Salt Lake, was actually 120 miles longer and much more difficult due to impassable terrain and deserts. Hasting himself had never seen if his "Hasting's Cutoff" worked or even surveyed the conditions on the route before claiming it to be the best trail to use. The "Donner party" formed their own wagon train in their attempt to use "Hasting's Cutoff". Although the obvious choice for a leader was James Reed, his aristrocratic way rubbed some the wrong way and the group elected George Donner captain instead. The Donner Party encountered great hardships crossing the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert (currently in the present state of Utah). As they crossed the desert, an oxen driver grew frustrated with the oxen and started beating them. As many of the animals died in the desert and they were therefore in short supply of animals, James Reed went up to try to stop and calm him down. The oxen driver however hit him on the head with the butt of the bull whip, as he was about to strike again, James pulled out his pocket knife and accidentally stabbed him in the chest. The victim staggered up a hill and died. The wagon train members decided to hang Reed, but after his wife implored them, banishment as punishment was later decided. Reed than moved on ahead, often leaving notes behind for his family. After they crossed the desert they stopped for four days to repair the wagons and let their oxen rest. When they reached the Sierra, by a strange twist of fate, it began snowing as they climbed the mountains. By nightfall on the first of November they were trapped by heavy snow in the Sierra. James Reed, however, made it over the day before and desperately went to the nearest fort to get help for his family. As the pass was blocked and it was impassable, they went back down by the lake and was forced to spend the winter here without any food. About two-thirds of the party camped at a small lake (now called Donner Lake), while the Donner families camped about six miles away at Alder Creek. In mid-December fifteen of the trapped emigrants calling themselves the "Forlorn Hope" set out for Sutter's Fort, about 100 miles (160 km) away to try the mountains with their snowshoes, the Indians Salvador and Luis guided them over the mountains, soon they were lost and their few days' rations ran out. Caught without shelter in a raging blizzard, eventually eight of the company died. As a result, they unwillingly resorted to cannibalism to survive. Luis and Salvador refused to participate, and as a result died, and were consumed by the others. Only seven out of the fifteen members of the "Forlorn Hope" survived and made it over the mountains onJanuary 19, 1847, nearly naked and close to death. Californians rallied to save the Donner Party and equipped a total of four rescue parties of which one Reed led. On April 29, 1847, the last refugee arrived at Sutter's Fort. Of the original 87 emigrants, 41 died and 46 survived; about half of the survivors had been compelled to resort to, as a rescue person said, "Live upon their unholy feast". A sight that they saw when they got there was George Donner and his wife dead, with his wife's heart and organs torn out, flesh cut off her arms and legs, with her child sobbing pitifully beside her, calling "Mother, Mother!". In August 2003 archaeologists found possible confirmation that cannibalism actually took place at Alder Creek, where the Donner families camped: they recovered from a campfire pit a bone fragment of a "large mammal" bearing butcher marks from an axe. Later excavations in July 2004 also recovered numerous fragments of bone. As of this writing (March 2005), none of the bone fragments have yet been identified as human. The Donner Camp has been designated a National Historic Landmark. Cannibalism per se is not a crime, and no legal action was ever taken against the survivors. During the Mexican War Northern California had been governed by U.S. naval commanders stationed in San Francisco Bay. Legal jurisdiction would shortly pass to the United States when California became a territory of the United States in 1848; it attained statehood in 1850. In another notorious case, the Colorado cannibal Alferd Packer was tried and found guilty of murder, not cannibalism. External links and references
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