What Was the Donner Party? [Hardcover]

The notorious true story of a group of pioneers forced to make impossible decisions when trapped in the mountains for an entire winter—part of the New York Times bestselling What Was? series, featuring 16 pages of photos.

In the winter of 1846-47, a group of eighty-seven pioneers heading from the Midwest to California found themselves snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountain range with no way forward and no food or supplies. While forty-eight of the group members survived, the others perished due to extreme weather, starvation, and illness. To survive, the remaining people resorted to extreme measures...including cannibalism. Theirs is a story of miscalculations, bad decisions, and extreme weather—but it’s also a story of survival and bravery among everyday people.Ben Hubbard is an accomplished nonfiction author for children and adults with over 130 titles to his name. He has written about many subjects, including space, the samurai, and sharks, to poison, pets, and the plantagenets. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages and can be found in libraries around the world.

Tim Foley's clients have included national and international magazines, book publishers and advertising agencies, such as The Wall Street Journal, Cricket Magazine, Barrons, New York Newsday, LA Weekly, Penguin Books, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and the Chronicle of Higher Education.What Was the Donner Party?

 
In late October 1846, one last push was all that was needed. One last push for the men, women, and children to reach the mountain summit—­its highest peak—­and cross to the other side. But the pass to the summit was a steep slope covered with several feet of snol³(