---
title: "Donner Party Disaster"
year: 1846
country: "United States"
canonical: "https://recap.at/1846/donner-party"
slug: "donner-party"
recapType: "global_event"
startDate: "1846-01-01"
---

# Donner Party Disaster

> The stranded wagon train's winter entrapment in the Sierra Nevada became American frontier's most notorious survival catastrophe.

## Summary

The Donner Party, sometimes called the Donner–Reed Party, was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest. Delayed by a multitude of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–1847 snowbound in the Sierra Nevada. Some of the migrants resorted to cannibalism to survive, mainly eating the bodies of those who had succumbed to starvation, sickness, or extreme cold, but in one case murdering and eating two Miwok guides.

## Sources

- [Donner Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party) - Wikipedia

---
Canonical: https://recap.at/1846/donner-party