# Canonical recap data for Donner Party Disaster (1846)
# Source: https://recap.at/1846/donner-party
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: donner-party
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1846/donner-party"
title: Donner Party Disaster
subtitle: The stranded wagon train's winter entrapment in the Sierra Nevada became American frontier's most notorious survival catastrophe.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1846-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1846
decade: 1840
country:
name: United States
slug: united-states
summaryShort: 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 e
summaryLong: 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.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9d/PatrickBreenDiaryPage28.jpg/1280px-PatrickBreenDiaryPage28.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Donner Party"
importance: 74
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts: []
timeline: []
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party"
  title: Donner Party
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
categories:
- disaster
metaDescription: 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
wikidataQid: Q788771
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260702065135/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party"
  capturedAt: 2026-07-02
  label: Donner Party
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party"
