Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party

Such a sad sad story. I nearly came to tears at every chapter. The author did a great job describing the parrel that these people went through.

This book presents an account of the Donner Party, a wagon train of about eighty-seven people who in July 1846 started off for California via a new, untried route through the Sierras. Unfortunately, this particular wagon train of pioneers would go down in history due to the horror and tragedy that it was to meet along its way. Stranded in the Sierras amidst its harshest winter in years, with unparalleled snowfall and frigid temperatures, only little more than half, mostly women and children, were to survive their unbelievable deprivation and suffering. This wagon train was a loose confederation of strangers who originally were part of another wagon train, but who collectively branched off by consensus to try a new, though untried and unproven, overland route through the Sierras that was alleged to be shorter. Their decision to take this new route was one that would haunt them for the rest of their journey, as it was not what it was purported to be. The inexperience of these travelers, the poor decisions that were sometimes made, and their seeming inability to truly unify as one entity contributed to their ultimate debacle. They were, after all, representative of humanity at large. Some of them were good, brave, and unselfish. Some were people with whom one would not wish to shake hands. Beleaguered by thirst as they trekked across a desert, marauded by Indians along the way, plagued by the loss of necessary oxen and cattle, beset by accidents and personal squabbles that would sometimes turn deadly, they would finally reach the Sierras and begin their perilous crossing, only to find themselves snowbound at the summit while within sight of the pass that they needed to cross to be home free. Trapped by the weather in early November, they would set up a make-shift camp, never thinking about just how long their encampment would last. With minimal food supplies at their disposal, these intrepid, westward-ho emigrants would find themselves trapped for months, facing incredible hardships that would tax them beyond human endurance. Some would resort to cannibalism in order to survive. This is a riveting story about survival of the fittest, about personal sacrifice, and human foibles. It is a story not only of those ill-fated pioneers but of those who would attempt to rescue them, often at great personal cost. It is a story that reflects the human spirit, both good and bad, in time of crisis. It is a story of often selfless heroism. It is also a story of greed and craven opportunism. While some of the book is politically incorrect, it is reflective of the times in which these pioneers lived, as well as that of when this book was first written. It is, however, remiss that the maps included in this book do little to illustrate the deadly journey undertaken by these pioneers. Still, the lack of comprehensive maps does not unduly detract from the powerful impact that this story has on the reader. Moreover, although the book was published in 1936, the a

Yes, the maps are next to useless. Yes, Stewart probably has some facts skewed. Yes, he had his biases.BUT, this book WILL leave you paralyzed with horror and wonder. The Donner Party saga may be one of the greatest "If Only..." stories of all time. For updated details of the story, see Kristin Johnson's superb web site. But for sheer electrifying narrative, this is the place to start!!!(Frankly, I can't even imagine giving this book less than four stars. One star??? Hello???)

The basics of this classic human story of survival used to be common knowledge to every Western schoolchild. Perhaps political correctness has taken the sting out of it by avoiding the difficult details, labeling them as being unsuitable for children. But in doing so, Westerners have reduced the Donner Party story to a spurious stain on American character--a ghastly blot to be rubbed out and forgotten, when it is in fact a triumphant lesson, an epic of Shakespearian porportions. And the man who best told the story of these 80-odd Americans, wrenching it away from the penny-dreadful press of the 19th Century, slicing away the innuendo and whispers, giving it poignancy and humanity, was George Rippey Stewart and his book, "Ordeal By Hunger". Seventy years later, it still triumphs as a classic of its kind.Stewart's style, which is searching and quiet, epitomizes the newspaperman's emphasis on fact. Yet there are passages in "Ordeal" that are so delicately humane, so generous and compassionate, that you will wish Mr. Stewart was still alive, so that you may thank him. Again and again, he emphasizes what should be obvious--that cannibalism was only a part of the ordeal, a symptom of that place in human experience where only Will stands between life and oblivion. That is a dark country, indeed--darker, even, than cannibalism.There have been a dozen or more major books on the Donner Party catastrophe since the mid-1800's. The first were obsessed with shocking detal. The more recent books have left a strange impression of sanitized, reductionalist "cheerfulness"--a sign, I fear, of our own time's obsession with relativist pragmatism. The man who saw the Party's members for what they were--a slice of the humanity of us all, acting out a Morality Play that is timeless--was George Stewart. "Ordeal By Hunger" should stand with the very best works of American letters.

This is the first nonfiction history book that I read in three days. If the days had fallen on a weekend, it would have been quicker. Here is a recounting that does not point fingers...or maybe points them at everyone. I was with the party, I wanted to be in the first party to march out, regardless of the menu. I cringed and groaned toward the end as the rescue parties must have. I shivered for the book is a page-turning experiece of how far one can go.A must read for anyone interested in the American West, and those who wonder if they could do it.

This book is well worth reading. It follows the Donner Party from their unfortunate choice of a bad route after they crossed the continental divide in Wyoming to their final "walk" over the Sierras. It concludes with several chapters discussing their ordeal, its causes and consequences, including some postscripts about the fate of each individual afterward.First, the story does not focus on the cannibalism, which members of the party independently resorted to on several occasions. As Stewart writes, "the cannibalism, although it might almost be called a minor episode, has become in the popular mind the chief fact to be remembered about the Donner Party. For a taboo always allures with as great strength as it repels." Instead, the story places the Donner Party in the setting of this country's westward migration, identifying its challenges and the diverse solutions the pioneers developed along the way.It includes several compelling human interest stories. It's hard to forget how one member, Reed, who was earlier ostracized from the party and went ahead, returned to meet his starving wife and two children, staved and barely walking down the west side of the snow-covered Sierra Nevada. Reed then goes ahead to try to save their other two children, who were in worse condition at Donner Lake. When the wife sees bare ground for the first time in months, she observes the leader of the "official" rescue party having his men rub his feet, because he thought he might have frostbite. The irony is obvious in the wife's sardonic comment: "we had better take care of him, reverse the order of things." It's also apparent that the leader's role in the rescue was important, even though he was content to send others ahead to brave the dangers while he ran things from camp.More irony is apparent when the second rescue party, composed mostly of mountain men and trappers, get the worst of it due to a late March storm in the Sierras. The perverse side of human nature comes out when one of the rescue party, rather than carrying out the one remaining baby, makes off with its weight in booty.Stewart also leaves in the ambiguities. Was the only survivor in the cabins in spring, really evil, enough to strangle a boy in his sleep before hanging him up the next morning like a piece of meat to be devoured? It's impossible to know. Yet the telling brings out another side of human nature --- in facing some evidence of this, the rescuers, the boy's father among them, were moved by pity and, although they thought of it, didn't simply kill him then and there..Yes, this is a good store about human nature, what it takes to survive, and that motivation can be a stronger force than experience.