Donner Party: Trapped and starving
When the Donners tried the Hastings Cutoff, not knowing that the trail was nearly impossible, they became the most famous of all Oregon Trail emigrants. They started the trail too late in the season, putting them at a disadvantage. Despite Clymer’s warning at Fort Hall, they decided to take the Hastings Cutoff because it would (apparently) take three hundred miles off their trip, a decision they would regret.
After wasting weeks trying to follow Hastings’ advice, they became trapped in the mountains near modern Truckee, California and set up camps for the winter. Food ran out, and there was no game in the area that time of year. They tried to eat the hides of their oxen, shoelaces, their livestock, their pets, but when all of these ran out, they turned to a desperate source of food. They were out of food, and out of hope.
