The Donner Party is a large part of our collective American West mythology. In 1846, they set out for California, but through bad luck and bad planning were caught in the Sierra Nevadas as winter storms blanketed the mountains. This in itself is an interesting story, but add in the cannibalism of some of the survivors and you have a horror story that still resonates.
Read more about the Donner Party here:
IN THE LIBRARY
Nonfiction:
The Archaeology of the Donner Party by Donald L. Hardesty
The Donner Party Chronicles: A Day-by-Day Account of Doomed Wagon Train, 1846-1847 by Frank Mullen
The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate by Eliza Poor Donner Houghton
The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride by Daniel Brown
Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party by George Rippey Stewart
Unfortunate Emigrants: Narratives of the Donner Party edited by Kristin Johnson
Fiction:
The American River by Gary McCarthy
The Mothers: An American Saga of Courage by Vardis Fisher
Snow Mountain Passage: A Novel of the Donner Party by James D. Houston
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ON THE WEB:
The Donner Party (Nova ScienceNow)
The Donner Party (Wikipedia)
Living Through the Donner Party (Discover article by Jared Diamond)



