The group left too late in the spring, so when they were getting into the mountains the winter snows hit. They were stuck.

The Donners and Reeds left Springfield, Illinois, on April 14, 1846.

They left Independence, Missouri, on May 12, 1846.

However, the Donner Party didn't actually exist until July 19, 1846, when George Donner was elected captain of a newly-formed wagon train.

Not entirely. His description of the route across Utah and into California was not accurate, misstating distances and availability of water. However, Hastings himself successfully crossed the same route. Other factors, especially the weather, were equally as important in the tragedy. Had the party gotten over the Sierra Nevada Mountains before the first heavy snow, they would have made it safely to California.

I disagree. Lansford Hastings recommended the route to California before he actually tried it. When he finally did try it himself, he did it on horseback, not with oxen and covered wagons. Oxen and covered wagons traveled at a much slower pace...duh... especially when navigating through forested valleys and salt deserts. Timing was everything when you needed to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains before the snow came, and Lansford Hasting's "times" were seriously inaccurate due to a fact he should have compensated for. His wrong ideas cost other people their lives. why?

George Donner was the leader

Because he a better life

The Donner Party took off from Independence, MO too late. Back then, you didn't have any good transpertation system like we do now. So they had to rely on wagons. They couldn't take off too early because the grass was needed the horse/mule/oxen to eat. They couldn't take off too late because they wouldn't be able to cross the Rockys because of the snow. So the timing was very important. The Donner Party took off too late so they got stuck on the Rockys.

45 people survived and three horses

There were 87 people not including the teamsters or Indians that travelled with them.

Three families, George Donner's, Jacob Donner's, and James Reed's, left Springfield, Illinois, on April 14, 1846. On May 19 they joined a large wagon train in Kansas. This train was led by William Russell. It broke up into smaller parties. The Donner Party didn't actually exist until July 19, 1846, when a new wagon train was organized and George Donner was elected the captain. This happened near South Pass in Wyoming.

No. He urged the Donner Party to take a shortcut which caused the party unnecessary hardship. If the Donner Party had not taken the shortcut, they would have made it to Sacramento before snow came to the Sierra Nevada mountains.

When the Donner Party was trapped at the beginning of November 1846, they had very little food. They slaughtered their cattle and put the meat in the snow to preserve it. Some of the emigrants had more than the others. When the meat was gone, they ate boiled oxhide and bones. They also ate their dogs. Finally, at the end of February 1847, some of the emigrants had nothing at all left to eat, so they started to eat human flesh. They didn't kill each other for food, they only ate the dead.

The Donner Party ran out of food and were trapped by a winter storm. Cannibalism was unheard of in civilized societies, so this was met with horror! The survivors weren't exactly welcomed neighbors.

They cooked with a Dutch oven or over a fire with a pan. They did not have stoves back then. Also what i did not say before is that a Dutch Oven in a huge ovel iron pot that cooks food in. The most thing that they put in there is stew. The most popular stew in venison stew. Venison is deer meat.

48 of 87 pioneers survived the trip. Near Truckee Lake, Northwest of Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada Mountains on the border of North California and Nevada, the Party could go no further. Most survived by cannibalizing their family members and others who died of starvation in what is now known as The Donner Pass.

1) desert

2) ran out of water

3) ran out of food

4) blizzard began

The Donnor Party happened during a very important part of American History. It was the journey west to expand the countries boundries, and explore new land. The Donnor Party was doing something that has been an obsession of human kind as long as we have existed. We want to discover and explore as far as possible. The reason they stand out from other pioneers' is because the cannibalism that occured during their entrapment in the Sierra Nevada's. But that is just the faucet to the story. The story of canabalism pulls people in, but they real story of how many people suffered and fought for their lives against mother nature is what keep the story present in our history. The Donnor Party is an interesting study because so many factors caused the story to unfold and events to occur. There is also a mistery about what actually happened, and they unknown is very appealing to human kind.

The Donner Party revealed what could happen, if things went wrong. Previous stories were always about the wonderful things that could happen when settlers went west, such as adventure and the possibility of finding one's destiny. The story of the Donner Party showed the dark side. The tale of cannibalism, and the loss of nearly half the party, took much of the glamour away from going west.

George, 60, brought his third wife, Tamsen, 45, their three children, Frances, 6, Georgia, 4 and Eliza, 3, and George's two daughters from a previous marriage, Elitha Cumi, 14, and Leanna, 12.

Jacob Donner, 56, and his wife Elizabeth, 45, brought their five children, George, 9, Mary, 7, Isaac, 5, Samuel, 4 and Lewis, 3, and Mrs. Donner's two children from a previous marriage, Solomon Hook, 14, and William Hook, 12.

The Reed family consisted of James Frazier Reed, 46, his wife Margaret W. Reed, 32, and their three children, Martha (called Patty), 8, James Jr., 5, and Thomas, 3. Also part of the family was Mrs. Reed's daughter from a previous marriage Virginia Backenstoe Reed, 13, and Mrs. Reed's mother Sarah Keyes, 75. Accompanying the family were five employees: a servant, Eliza Williams, 25, her half-brother Baylis Williams, 24, and three teamsters: Milford (Milt) Elliott, 28, Walter Herron, 25 and James Smith, 25. Hiram Miller also travelled with the Reeds as an employee.

The Breen family consisted of Patrick Breen, 51, his wife Margaret (Peggy), 40, and their seven children: John, 14, Edward, 13, Patrick, Jr., 11, Simon, 9, Peter, 7, James, 5, and Isabella

William Eddy, 28, was a carriage maker from Belleville, Illinois. With him was his wife Eleanor, 25, and their two children James, 3, and Margaret, 5. The Eddys had one wagon.

Lavinia Jackson Murphy, 50, widow of Jeremiah Burns Murphy of North Carolina, travelled with her seven children. Five were young: Landrum, 15, Mary, 13, Lemuel, 12, William, 11 and Simon, 10. The two eldest were married with children of their own: Sarah, 23, and her husband William Foster, 28, had a son George, 4. Harriet, 21, and her husband Willam Pike, 25, had two children, Naomi, 3, and Catherine, 1. The Murphys had two wagons.

Lewis (or Louis) Keseberg, 32, and his wife, Philippine, 23, left their Ohio home with a daughter, Juliane (called "Ada"), 3. Their son, Lewis, Jr., was born on the Trail.

A man named Wolfinger, about 26, and his wife Doriss, 19, had one wagon. Perhaps travelling with the Wolfingers, or perhaps travelling in their own wagon, at least for part of the journey, were two partners Augustus Spitzer and Joseph Reinhardt, about 30.

William McCutchen, 30, from Jackson County, Missouri, was travelling with his wife Amanda, 30, and their daughter Harriet, 1

Franklin Graves, 57, from Sparland, Illinois, and his wife Elizabeth, 47, travelled with their nine children. The eldest daughter, Sarah, 22, was with her husband Jay Fosdick, 23. The other children were Mary, 20, William, 18, Eleanor, 15, Lovina, 13, Nancy, 9, Jonathan, 7, Franklin, Jr., 5, and Elizabeth, 1. The Graves had three wagons, one driven by their teamster John Snyder, 25

Charles Stanton, 35, was born in Pompey

Luke Halloran, about 25, was a merchant from Missouri. Halloran was suffering from consumption, and had been put out by his former companions. He approached the Donners at the Little Sandy River in Wyoming, and rode in their wagons.

Somewhere along the trail Antonio, about 23, a shepherd from New Mexico, joined the Donners.

At Fort Bridger, the Donners hired Jean Baptiste Trudeau, 18, as an additional hand

They tried to take a shorter route to California but instead it took longer and was more difficult and that was their downfall. As Virginia Reed who survived advised - "Don't take no shortcuts and hurry along as fast as you can."

The Donner Party took place between May of 1846 and February of 1847.

to the gold rush because it was 1847 the year of the gold rush and they were going to california it says in the book read it find the answer like me a smart history loveing 8 year old

California.