They traveled most of the way without having hardly any trouble at all. At one point, Tamsen Donner even wrote in her journal "indeed, if I do not experience something far worse than I have yet done, I shall say the trouble is all in getting started." At this point in their journey, nobody was expecting any troubles at all. Then came a long a letter making them aware of a newly forged trail that was said to cut their traveling time by two weeks and was also said to have an abundance of grass for the oxen, plenty of water, and a smooth, nice trail.
But they were poorly decieved.
The trail was rocky and had tons of bumps. There was hardly any grass for the oxen. There was at least water and at the start of the trail they were recieving nice weather. Then, one day on the trail, they broke an axle. They were having trouble fixing it so the opted to stay the night where they were. That night, it snowed a lot and caused them to be stuck there all winter. when they ran out of food and some died, they turned to cannibalism to eat their deceased friends. Eventually about half of the people were rescued. Here I have a link to a very interesting video documentary that I enjoyed watching to get information. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/donner-rick-burns/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party
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