The Donner Party - Death on the Oregon Trail

Welcome to When It Goes Wrong, the podcast about disasters, accidents and when things fall apart. On this episode I discuss The Donner Party - the group set off to hike the Oregon Trail in 1846 - this is always a hard journey, but in this case they were struck by bad luck, wrong directions, accidental deaths and eventually being stuck in the frozen mountains for 3 months awaiting rescue. This would result in the deaths of almost half the party and the choice of whether to eat the dead.

Please subscribe and review for more! You can follow the podcast on instagram at @whenitgoeswrongpod , on twitter at @itgoeswrongpod or email me at [email protected].

Sources:

• Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West - Ethan Rarick
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party
• http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/donnerparty.htm
• https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-donner-party
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Donner-party
• https://www.legendsofamerica.com/ca-donnerparty/