Who Is The Donner Party?

They left Independence, Missouri, in May 1846. The party followed the Oregon Trail until they reached Fort Bridger. There they met Lansford Hastings. Lansford Hastings claimed his route - known as Hastings Cutoff - would remove 300 miles to their way to California. This cut-off meant crossing the Wasatch Mountains, round the Great Salt Lake to the south, then due west to the Humboldt River in Nevada, before returning to the main trail from Fort Hall. Hastings told Donner Party that the desert was only 40 miles across and that they would find water after 24 hours. In fact, it was 82 miles mide and water could be found after 48 hours.
Donner party had poor time so far and was already behind the other wagon trains. Therefore they decided to take