Post by Stan on Jul 24, 2013 12:45:21 GMT -8
So I watched "The Donner Party" on hulu last night and it was entertaining if not at least educational on what not to do. For anyone who lives in California and you think you can survive in the winter mountains with a 10 pound pack with trail mix and a windbreaker, please watch this movie.
Some take aways:
*Bad intel on the Hastings Cutoff which inhibited the use of their wagons and livestock. Replace wagon with your automobile, would/could you do it?
*The original plan was to get to California by September but the worst (and early) winter of the century changed their plans. Plan for the worst weather; if it wasn't for bad luck...Respect the mountains and respect the winter.
*For the most part the party was not a group of preppers, mountain men, etc. just people emigrating across the states. Not everyone knew how to hunt and shoot which would have been nice to know.
*Extreme circumstances brought out the pure, unadulterated instincts in them. What started as purely a means of food (the cannabalism) then turned to murder then to savagery (sleep with one eye open...)
*This happend in our own beautiful California so this should hit home. On the other hand this really could have happend anywhere and reports of cannabalism are throughout human history.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Donner_Party
www.imdb.com/title/tt1219336/
The Donner Party was a California Trail wagon train of 81 American pioneers who in 1846 found themselves trapped by snow in the Sierra Nevada. Thirty-six members of the party perished as a result of starvation, exposure, disease, and trauma, and some of the survivors resorted to cannibalism.
The wagons left in May 1846. Encouraged to try a new, faster route across Utah and Nevada, they opted to take the Hastings Cutoff proposed by Lansford Hastings, who had never taken the journey with wagons. The Cutoff required the wagons to traverse Utah's Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert, and slowed the party considerably, leading to the loss of wagons, horses, and cattle. It also forced them to engage in heavy labor by clearing the path ahead of them, and created deep divisions between members of the party. They had planned to be in the Sacramento Valley by September, but found themselves trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains by early November.
Most of the party took shelter in three cabins by Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake), while a smaller group camped in hastily constructed brush sheds and tents several miles away. Food stores quickly ran out, and a group of 15 people attempted to reach California on snowshoes in December, but became disoriented in the mountains before succumbing to starvation and cold. Only seven members of the snowshoe party survived, by eating the flesh of their dead companions. Meanwhile, the Mexican–American War delayed rescue attempts from California, although family members and authorities in California tried to reach the stranded pioneers but were turned back by harsh weather.
The first rescue group reached the remaining members, who were starving and feeble, in February 1847. Weather conditions were so bad that three rescue groups were required to lead the rest to California, the last arriving in March. Most of these survivors also had resorted to cannibalism. Forty-five of the eighty-one trapped members of the Donner Party survived to live in California. Although a minor incident in the record of westward migration in North America, the Donner Party became notorious for the reported claims of cannibalism. Efforts to memorialize the Donner Party were underway within a few years; historians have described the episode as one of the most spectacular tragedies in California history and in the record of western migration.[1]
Some take aways:
*Bad intel on the Hastings Cutoff which inhibited the use of their wagons and livestock. Replace wagon with your automobile, would/could you do it?
*The original plan was to get to California by September but the worst (and early) winter of the century changed their plans. Plan for the worst weather; if it wasn't for bad luck...Respect the mountains and respect the winter.
*For the most part the party was not a group of preppers, mountain men, etc. just people emigrating across the states. Not everyone knew how to hunt and shoot which would have been nice to know.
*Extreme circumstances brought out the pure, unadulterated instincts in them. What started as purely a means of food (the cannabalism) then turned to murder then to savagery (sleep with one eye open...)
*This happend in our own beautiful California so this should hit home. On the other hand this really could have happend anywhere and reports of cannabalism are throughout human history.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Donner_Party
www.imdb.com/title/tt1219336/
The Donner Party was a California Trail wagon train of 81 American pioneers who in 1846 found themselves trapped by snow in the Sierra Nevada. Thirty-six members of the party perished as a result of starvation, exposure, disease, and trauma, and some of the survivors resorted to cannibalism.
The wagons left in May 1846. Encouraged to try a new, faster route across Utah and Nevada, they opted to take the Hastings Cutoff proposed by Lansford Hastings, who had never taken the journey with wagons. The Cutoff required the wagons to traverse Utah's Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert, and slowed the party considerably, leading to the loss of wagons, horses, and cattle. It also forced them to engage in heavy labor by clearing the path ahead of them, and created deep divisions between members of the party. They had planned to be in the Sacramento Valley by September, but found themselves trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains by early November.
Most of the party took shelter in three cabins by Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake), while a smaller group camped in hastily constructed brush sheds and tents several miles away. Food stores quickly ran out, and a group of 15 people attempted to reach California on snowshoes in December, but became disoriented in the mountains before succumbing to starvation and cold. Only seven members of the snowshoe party survived, by eating the flesh of their dead companions. Meanwhile, the Mexican–American War delayed rescue attempts from California, although family members and authorities in California tried to reach the stranded pioneers but were turned back by harsh weather.
The first rescue group reached the remaining members, who were starving and feeble, in February 1847. Weather conditions were so bad that three rescue groups were required to lead the rest to California, the last arriving in March. Most of these survivors also had resorted to cannibalism. Forty-five of the eighty-one trapped members of the Donner Party survived to live in California. Although a minor incident in the record of westward migration in North America, the Donner Party became notorious for the reported claims of cannibalism. Efforts to memorialize the Donner Party were underway within a few years; historians have described the episode as one of the most spectacular tragedies in California history and in the record of western migration.[1]