donner party

• where did the donner party go and when?

  california in 1846
• what was in the Donner party?

  • 2 donner brothers
  • 300 people
  • 60 wagons
• when did the Donner party set off?

  may 1946 (later then usual)
• what mistake did the Donner party make?

  took more elderly, women and children then usual
• how many migrants from the Donner party took a shortcut from the Oregon in July?

  80
• when did the Donner party reach the Sierra Nevada mountains?

  mid-october
• what happened to the Donner party?

  • trapped by severe snow storms
  • died of starvation
  • only 40 survived
• when did the first migrant die of starvation?

  15th December 1846
• when did rescuers find the 40 migrants left?

  February 1847
• how many migrants were left alive?

  40
• how did the 40 migrants stay alive?

  by eating the dead corpses of the other migrants
• what were problems the breakaway group of the Donner party encountered?

  • longer
  • rugged and rocky
  • steep slopes
  • deep canyons
• why did the Donner party take a detour?

  shorter route written about in a guidebook from a trail guide called lansford Hastings

  PROBLEM=trail guide thought it would work but didn't actually take the route himself