Ordeal by Hunger

American author and historian George R. Stewart’s non-fiction book Ordeal by Hunger (1936) recounts the deadly, grisly journey of the Donner Party, a group of American pioneers bound for California who in 1847, after becoming stranded in the snowy Sierra Nevada Mountains, reportedly resorted to cannibalism to survive. Though the travails of the Donner Party were well known to Americans and the world well before 1936, Ordeal by Hunger attracted particular praise for its emphasis on both research and storytelling; Kirkus Reviews calls it, "important for reference and good for adventure as well."

In the 1840s, large numbers of pioneers traveled from the Eastern and Midwestern United States to the Oregon Territory and California, motivated by economic opportunity or in search of personal and religious liberty. Most of these families traveled the Oregon Trail, a perilous but well-tested route that avoided the most treacherous deserts and mountain passes by traversing present-day Wyoming and Idaho to reach Oregon. California settlers could then travel south from there. However, in 1846, Leonard Hastings began promoting a new wagon trail he called "The Hastings Cutoff" that would provide a more direct route to California. Rather than snaking up through Idaho, Hastings's route led settlers through Utah's Great Salt Lake Desert and over the Sierra Nevada mountains. This terrain was far more treacherous to cross than the significantly flatter and more temperate Oregon Trail.

Nevertheless, thirty-two members of the Donner and Reed families chose to follow Hastings on this newer, largely untested route to California. Over the course of the trip, they were joined by numerous other wagons. The final count of what is colloquially referred to as "The Donner Party" was eighty-seven people. During the first leg of the journey, the Donner Party fell significantly behind Hastings who led a forty-wagon procession known as the Harlan-Young Group. This is probably because the Donner Party contained so many women and children and thus traveled more slowly. On July 27, 1846, the Donner Party reached Blacks Fork, Wyoming, essentially the last point where wagon trails could change course and head for the safer Oregon Trail. Hastings was already gone, but a journalist Edwin Bryant had left letters warning the pioneers that the Hastings Cutoff was too treacherous for a party with so many women and children. However, Jim Bridger, who ran the supply outpost at Blacks Fork, allegedly concealed the letters as he hoped to benefit financially by leading more settlers down the Hastings Cutoff and past his outpost.



The first major obstacle was the Wasatch Mountains. Not only was the terrain far rockier than what their wagons were designed to handle, but the route itself was also difficult to find. Unlike the Oregon Trail, where years of use resulted in a well-trod path across the terrain, the Donner Party was among the first to ever travel this route. Hastings had left notes and letters along the way for the party to find, but his directions, which often diverged from the original path he charted, resulted in even more confusion. Due to rocky terrain and broken wagon wheels, the party was only traveling at a speed of about one and a half miles a day, compared to the fifteen miles a day an average wagon managed on the Oregon Trail.

By late August, the Donner Party finally escaped the Wasatch Mountains, only to reach the vast and imposing Great Salt Lake Desert. Save for a few affluent families, most of the group had neared the end of their food and water reserves. A note from Hastings stated that, though the terrain would be dry and difficult, it should only take two days to cross the desert. It ended up taking six days, resulting in the abandonment and eventual death of many of the oxen that could no longer press forward in the oppressive heat. The party miraculously made it through the desert and had a chance to catch their breath and replenish their water at a spring. However, the losses in supplies and animals had been large, and party unity began to disintegrate. Families turned on one another and, at one point, the patriarch of the Reed family was banished from the group altogether.

The final push would bring the Party through the Sierra Nevada mountains treacherously late in the season. The date was October 20, and the families believed they had until at least November before the snow would make the mountain pass impossible to breach. Unfortunately, the snow had already blocked the path, forcing most of the party to hunker down for the winter in a cabin built two years earlier near Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake) along with some makeshift tents. Groups of scouts traversed the mountain in order to get help, but all returned finding it impossible to pass on foot, let alone in wagons. After what little food remained was eaten, the pioneers began to eat the oxen. When the meat ran out, they would char the animals' bones and hide until they were edible, though these scraps were low in nutrition. The pioneers were lucky if they were able to catch mice to eat. By January, ­they even ate the ox hides they had used as makeshift roofs to their tents. Men, women, and children of all ages began to die off and the desperate survivors began to cut off pieces of the bodies and eat them. Most of the acts of cannibalism were of people who had died of natural causes. However, in at least one instance, two men close to death were shot so others could eat their bodies. Another man was accused of murder when other party members discovered a pot full of human flesh in the man's tent and the belongings of George Donner next to it.



Finally, in February, a seven-man team was sent to rescue the Donner Party at the urging of Reed, who had made it through the mountains on his own after the banishment. What they found at Truckee Lake was beyond description. The dead were mutilated by cannibalism, and the survivors were sick, starving, and gangrenous. In one case, a child survived the ordeal only to die while gorging on food once he was brought back to civilization, effectively eating himself to death. In the end, thirty-nine of the eighty-seven members of the Donner Party died as a result of the trip.

Though deeply researched and exceedingly well written, Ordeal by Hunger is unlike most survival stories in that it is more disturbing than it is inspiring.