Donner party

Ill-fated US expedition of pioneers from Missouri to California 1846–47, led by George and Jacob Donner. A group of 87 left the main party and travelled across the Great Salt Desert, reaching the Sierra Nevada mountains too late to cross before the onset of winter. Cut off by snow, they became stranded through the winter of 1846–47. By the time rescuers reached the party, more than half its members had died, many of hypothermia or starvation; the survivors were thought to have resorted to cannibalism when their food supplies ran out.