1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,200 Speaker 1: Did you catch Society of the Snow on Netflix? Of course. 2 00:00:03,200 --> 00:00:05,800 Speaker 1: It's the true story of a rugby team from Uruguay 3 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,399 Speaker 1: fifty years ago whose airliner crashed in the snowy mountains 4 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: of Argentina. They survived by eating their dead teammates. Well, 5 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:17,080 Speaker 1: in eighteen forty six, the Donner Party of Pioneers headed 6 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:20,000 Speaker 1: west and were stranded for the winter in the Sierra 7 00:00:20,079 --> 00:00:24,040 Speaker 1: Nevada Mountains. They had an even more gruesome survival story. 8 00:00:24,440 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. What would you do next? On the backstory? 9 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:36,440 Speaker 1: The backstory is back. If you watched the recent Netflix 10 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,960 Speaker 1: hit movie Society of the Snow, maybe you asked yourself 11 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:43,440 Speaker 1: what you'd be willing to do to survive. It's a 12 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:46,400 Speaker 1: true story about a rugby team from Uruguay in nineteen 13 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:50,559 Speaker 1: seventy two whose plane crashes in the Andes Mountains and 14 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:54,920 Speaker 1: cannibalism becomes the only way to survive. It's the ultimate taboo, 15 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,360 Speaker 1: but it begs the question would you be committed to 16 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:02,240 Speaker 1: survival at any cost? Well, that's a question that faced 17 00:01:02,280 --> 00:01:05,240 Speaker 1: a group of pioneers who took off from Illinois and 18 00:01:05,280 --> 00:01:09,119 Speaker 1: Missouri in the eighteen forties and headed west. Two families 19 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:12,040 Speaker 1: The Donners, headed by George Donner, and the Reeds, headed 20 00:01:12,080 --> 00:01:15,600 Speaker 1: by James Reed, hit the trail with nine covered wagons. 21 00:01:16,080 --> 00:01:20,039 Speaker 1: It was an incredibly difficult undertaking. They expected to cover 22 00:01:20,160 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: as much as fifteen miles a day, getting to California 23 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:27,120 Speaker 1: in four to six months, but timing was everything. They 24 00:01:27,200 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: had to leave early enough to make it past the 25 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:33,280 Speaker 1: Western Mountain ranges before winter set in, and late enough 26 00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:36,600 Speaker 1: to avoid getting bogged down in the mud from spring rains. 27 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:39,040 Speaker 1: And they also had to make sure to travel when 28 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 1: there was still enough spring grass for their cattle and 29 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:48,760 Speaker 1: horses to feed on along the way. Okay, it's May twelfth, 30 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:53,120 Speaker 1: eighteen forty six. The two families, around thirty two people 31 00:01:53,160 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: in all, with everything they owned packed into those wagons, 32 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 1: left for a new life in the West. They eventually 33 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:02,480 Speaker 1: met up with other folks looking for a new life, 34 00:02:02,800 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: making it a group of eighty seven pioneers. The early 35 00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: part of the trip when his planned, and by June 36 00:02:08,880 --> 00:02:13,160 Speaker 1: sixteenth they covered four hundred and fifty miles. After another month, 37 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:16,359 Speaker 1: the group made the fateful decision to break off from 38 00:02:16,400 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 1: the traditional Oregon Trail route and try a new trail 39 00:02:19,919 --> 00:02:22,960 Speaker 1: called the Hastings Cutoff. It was being promoted by a 40 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,920 Speaker 1: merchant named Jim Bridger. He suggested using a trail that 41 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:30,160 Speaker 1: would actually take them across a steep and craggy set 42 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:33,200 Speaker 1: of mountain ranges, as well as across the Great Salt 43 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:36,960 Speaker 1: Lake desert. Bridger had a trading post on that route, 44 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:39,480 Speaker 1: so he had a vested interest in steering them in 45 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:43,640 Speaker 1: that direction. Most other groups opted for the known route, 46 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:46,639 Speaker 1: but the Donner and Reed families and others traveling with 47 00:02:46,680 --> 00:02:49,959 Speaker 1: them took the bait. The first mountains they hit were 48 00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:54,080 Speaker 1: insanely difficult to cross with all those creaky wagons, and 49 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:56,440 Speaker 1: the group was only able to travel about a mile 50 00:02:56,480 --> 00:02:59,639 Speaker 1: and a half a day at that point. By August twentieth, 51 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:02,639 Speaker 1: they finally could look down from the mountains and see 52 00:03:02,680 --> 00:03:05,920 Speaker 1: the Great Salt Lake and the desert beyond, but it 53 00:03:05,960 --> 00:03:10,160 Speaker 1: took almost two more weeks to travel out of the mountains. Meantime, 54 00:03:10,440 --> 00:03:14,040 Speaker 1: the men started arguing about whether they'd chosen the right trail. 55 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 1: Worse yet, food and supplies began to run out for 56 00:03:17,680 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: some of the families. The unity they once had started 57 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:24,560 Speaker 1: to crumble under the weight of hunger, exhaustion, and fear. 58 00:03:27,880 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 1: As they began to cross the Great Salt Lake Desert. 59 00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,560 Speaker 1: In the heat of the day, the moisture underneath the 60 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 1: salt crust rose to the surface and turned it into 61 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:40,600 Speaker 1: a gummy mess. In some cases, the wagon wheels sank 62 00:03:40,680 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: so far into it it was right up to the 63 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:46,920 Speaker 1: wheel hub or axle. The days were ferociously hot and 64 00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 1: the nights freezing. After three days, the water was gone. 65 00:03:51,160 --> 00:03:54,080 Speaker 1: Some of the animals were so weak they were abandoned, 66 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: and in some cases so crazed with thirst they bolted 67 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: off into the desert. The journey across the eighty miles 68 00:04:01,040 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 1: of Great Salt Lake Desert took a week, but it 69 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:07,880 Speaker 1: was pure hell. As autumn wound down, things started to 70 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:12,560 Speaker 1: get even more complicated. More vicious fights broke out. James 71 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:15,440 Speaker 1: Reed got into a battle with another man and wound 72 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:18,280 Speaker 1: up stabbing him to death. Some in the group thought 73 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:21,799 Speaker 1: Reed should be hanged, but instead they banished him, allowing 74 00:04:21,880 --> 00:04:24,839 Speaker 1: him to leave the camp, but without his family or 75 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:28,799 Speaker 1: any supplies, although his stepdaughter secretly gave him a rifle 76 00:04:28,839 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: and some food. And yet another bit of bad luck, 77 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:36,000 Speaker 1: the pioneers were attacked by unfriendly natives who killed or 78 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,800 Speaker 1: stole many of their remaining animals. On the upside, they 79 00:04:39,839 --> 00:04:43,000 Speaker 1: received some supplies, as well as the assistance of two 80 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,640 Speaker 1: friendly native guides who would travel with them. They just 81 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:50,119 Speaker 1: needed to get past the biggest mountain ranges before winter. 82 00:04:50,880 --> 00:04:54,239 Speaker 1: By early November, the group had reached the Sierra Nevada 83 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:57,440 Speaker 1: Mountains and the last one hundred miles, but this was 84 00:04:57,480 --> 00:05:00,600 Speaker 1: the most difficult part of their journey. That's where they 85 00:05:00,640 --> 00:05:04,960 Speaker 1: were trapped by an early heavy snowfall. The blizzard lasted 86 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: eight days. This is a region with hundreds of peaks, 87 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:11,760 Speaker 1: some topping out at twelve thousand feet, and an area 88 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:14,720 Speaker 1: that gets as much as five hundred inches of snow 89 00:05:14,920 --> 00:05:18,720 Speaker 1: every winter. Each family built a small hut made from 90 00:05:18,839 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: sticks and strips of ox skin covering the roof. Most 91 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:26,320 Speaker 1: of their cattle were either dead or dying. Families became 92 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:29,320 Speaker 1: so desperate for food they were forced to eat the 93 00:05:29,360 --> 00:05:32,680 Speaker 1: ox hides that had been used as roofing. Now they 94 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:35,760 Speaker 1: were stuck in massive snow drifts high in the mountains, 95 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:39,960 Speaker 1: more snow fell, their food supplies were almost gone. By 96 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:44,120 Speaker 1: mid December, a group of seventeen decided to leave, wearing 97 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:47,279 Speaker 1: snow shoes to try to get help. What they did 98 00:05:47,320 --> 00:05:50,400 Speaker 1: in the meantime was horrific, but for some it was 99 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:58,760 Speaker 1: the only way to survive. For those trying to get help, 100 00:05:58,839 --> 00:06:03,200 Speaker 1: supplies ran low. After several days without any food, one 101 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:07,200 Speaker 1: man proposed that someone should volunteer to die in order 102 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:10,279 Speaker 1: to feed the others. At first, they suggested a duel 103 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:14,159 Speaker 1: or possibly a lottery to choose who to sacrifice, but 104 00:06:14,279 --> 00:06:17,920 Speaker 1: trapped in the snow, they started dying naturally. That's when 105 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:20,359 Speaker 1: the others began to eat the body parts of the 106 00:06:20,400 --> 00:06:24,599 Speaker 1: first victims. The next day, they stripped muscle and organs 107 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,880 Speaker 1: from the other three bodies and preserved them by drying. 108 00:06:28,480 --> 00:06:32,040 Speaker 1: When that food ran out, the group secretly discussed killing 109 00:06:32,120 --> 00:06:35,520 Speaker 1: and eating the two native guides. Those guys heard about 110 00:06:35,520 --> 00:06:38,920 Speaker 1: the plan and escaped, but nine days later were found 111 00:06:38,960 --> 00:06:43,120 Speaker 1: in weak condition, shot and butchered for meat. They finally 112 00:06:43,160 --> 00:06:46,120 Speaker 1: reached a settlement for help, and it wasn't much different 113 00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:49,200 Speaker 1: back at the camp. The first relief party didn't derive 114 00:06:49,320 --> 00:06:53,000 Speaker 1: until the middle of February eighteen forty seven, almost four 115 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 1: months after the wagon train was trapped by that early blizzard, 116 00:06:56,960 --> 00:07:00,600 Speaker 1: and what rescuers found was disturbing. One said he spoke 117 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:03,279 Speaker 1: with a woman who told him her family was considering 118 00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:06,080 Speaker 1: eating one of the wagon drivers they'd hired for the trip. 119 00:07:06,640 --> 00:07:10,360 Speaker 1: That man's mutilated body was later found. In another case, 120 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:13,120 Speaker 1: the first two members of the relief party saw a 121 00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:16,360 Speaker 1: man carrying a human leg. When he saw them, he 122 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:19,160 Speaker 1: threw it into a hole in the snow. That hole 123 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:23,320 Speaker 1: contained the mostly dismembered body of George Donner's son, who 124 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:26,560 Speaker 1: had died of natural causes, but his young wife, while 125 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: refusing to eat her husband's remains, was feeding them to 126 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 1: her children. The rescuers noted that three other bodies had 127 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: already been eaten. Ironically, when the first of those rescued 128 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: reached civilization, George Donner's twelve year old step grandson broke 129 00:07:42,400 --> 00:07:45,760 Speaker 1: into a food storage container and ate so much he 130 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:49,320 Speaker 1: foundered himself to death. Of the eighty seven members of 131 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:53,240 Speaker 1: the party, forty eight survived the ordeal, although their pain 132 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 1: didn't end there. Some got death threats, some were shunned 133 00:07:57,280 --> 00:07:59,960 Speaker 1: by people who couldn't get past what they'd done to Sura. 134 00:08:01,080 --> 00:08:04,360 Speaker 1: On the other hand, some including the Reed family, went 135 00:08:04,400 --> 00:08:07,560 Speaker 1: on to actually create the life they'd dreamed of before 136 00:08:07,560 --> 00:08:11,640 Speaker 1: heading West. James Reed, who'd been banished for killing a 137 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:14,600 Speaker 1: man who'd attacked him, and his wife, found his way 138 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:18,040 Speaker 1: back to his family and settled with them in California. 139 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:21,560 Speaker 1: During the gold Rush of eighteen forty nine, he became 140 00:08:21,640 --> 00:08:26,040 Speaker 1: super wealthy. The state of California eventually recognized the Donner 141 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:29,280 Speaker 1: story as the most dramatic of the full story of 142 00:08:29,320 --> 00:08:32,720 Speaker 1: Western migration. They built a memorial on the site of 143 00:08:32,760 --> 00:08:35,280 Speaker 1: one of those cabins in the Donner Camp, which had 144 00:08:35,320 --> 00:08:38,720 Speaker 1: all been burned in the immediate aftermath, and that site 145 00:08:38,920 --> 00:08:42,680 Speaker 1: has hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. Their story 146 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:46,240 Speaker 1: tells us that the sheer strain of survival can bring 147 00:08:46,280 --> 00:08:49,920 Speaker 1: out both the best and the worst in people, and again, 148 00:08:50,280 --> 00:08:53,080 Speaker 1: much like with Society of the Snow, you have to 149 00:08:53,120 --> 00:08:56,320 Speaker 1: ask yourself how far you'd be willing to go to 150 00:08:56,400 --> 00:09:00,199 Speaker 1: save your children and yourself when put to that kind 151 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:14,400 Speaker 1: of existential test. I'd like to thank Judy Cohen for 152 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:17,920 Speaker 1: suggesting this incredible story. If you have a story you'd 153 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:20,199 Speaker 1: like me to take a deep dive into and share, 154 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:24,040 Speaker 1: please dm me on Facebook at Patty Steele or on 155 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:33,439 Speaker 1: Instagram at real Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories 156 00:09:33,480 --> 00:09:37,640 Speaker 1: a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis Duran Group 157 00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:41,480 Speaker 1: and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser, Our 158 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:45,640 Speaker 1: writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday and Friday. 159 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:48,240 Speaker 1: Feel free to reach out to me with comments and 160 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:52,240 Speaker 1: even story suggestions on Instagram at real Patty Steele and 161 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:55,320 Speaker 1: on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening to the 162 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:59,080 Speaker 1: Backstory with Patty Steele, the pieces of history you didn't 163 00:09:59,160 --> 00:10:00,240 Speaker 1: know you needed to know.