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were it not for the onset of the winter weather. It seemed their fate was sealed when an unusually fierce winter storm hit the Sierra Nevada desert.
    It took the Donner party five days to cross the desert. Wagons which got stuck in the deep quagmire of wet salt and sand had to be abandoned. Their oxen went mad from the lack of water and either just ran away or died. The party decided to take inventory of the provisions and it proved that they did not have enough left to last them the 600-mile trek which was still ahead of them. They camped for the night, but when they woke in the morning they saw the mountain peaks were covered with a dusting of snow, and they realised that things were not going to improve. They managed to reach the Humbolt River by September 26, but it then hit them that the so-called diversion had cost them an extra 150 miles. As their nerves became more and more shattered, so the fights broke out. James Reed killed the Graves family’s leader, John Snyder – supposedly in self-defence – and he was subsequently banished from the party. He left his family behind, took a horse and rode on to California alone.
    As the family reached the base of the steep summit on October 31, the snow was starting to fall more heavily. Some of the group did manage to reach the summit, but they had to turn back because they realised that there was no way the entire party could make the ascent. Overnight the snow fell continually, and by the morning the pass had become completely blocked by extremely high snowdrifts. Frustration really set in now as they had made the 2,500 mile journey in seven months only to be beaten by the weather by one day. They were by now only 150 miles from their final destination of Sutter’s Fort, now known as Sacramento.
    The group, now realising that they were stranded, decided to make camps to see them through the worst of the winter. Their shelters were basic and crude. Using nothing but logs for the walls, wagon parts for the doors and leather hides for roofing, they managed to make cabins which provided them with minimal shelter. As the snow fell, the Donner party knew they were trapped, with steep slopes in front and behind them, there was absolutely nowhere they could go. The Donner brothers were old men, and there were very few left in the party who had any strength left in them. Over the following four months, the remaining men, women and children huddled together in their makeshift cabins. By now all the oxen had been killed and eaten, and by mid-December they lost their first casualty to malnutrition. They had nothing to do to occupy their time, but nevertheless they made the best out of the situation by chopping wood and attempting to fish and hunt. There was very little game in the area and the surface of the lake was frozen, so in the end they resorted to eating bark, twigs and boiled hides.
    Desperation set in and several attempts were made by small groups to cross the mountains. One group of 15 men, women and children did successfully cross the summit, but only seven of them survived to reach Sutter’s fort. Their arrival at the fort raised an outcry of alarm, and rescue attempts followed shortly afterwards.
     
    N O  O PTIONS  L EFT
     
    Back at the camp, food was now depleted, the snow would not let up, and the remaining members of the party left alive were losing all their strength and hope. They had nowhere to go, and as a gruesome reminder of their plight, the bodies of the dead were always in their sights. The suggestion of cannibalism had been made, but no one was sure about this, nor indeed were they looking forward to the fact that this is what they would have to resort to. Soon they had no options left . . .
    Desperation set in, and four of the dead bodies at the camp, now known as ‘Camp of Death’ were cut up, and the meat was dried. After all nobody had been murdered, they were only resorting to this desperate measure in order to survive. The survivors were very