The Donner Party: When 87 Pioneers Became Cannibals to Survive

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]In 1846, 87 pioneers set out for California. They never made it. Trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains, they faced a winter that would break them completely. When the food ran out, they made an unthinkable choice. They began eating their own dead.

[00:00:15]>> [music] >> Families drew lots to decide who would die next. Mothers cooked their children.

[00:00:19]Husbands [music] consumed their wives.

[00:00:21]Their diary entries reveal the slow descent into madness as rescue attempts [music] failed again and again. The Donner Party became America's most horrific survival story.