The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate
is a powerful first-person account of one of the most infamous tragedies in American pioneer history, written by Eliza P. Donner Houghton, who was just a young child during the ordeal. The Donner Party set out in 1846 to reach California, lured by promises of a better life and misled by poor guidance. After taking an untested shortcut known as the Hastings Cutoff, they became trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains by early and relentless snowfall.
What followed was a brutal winter marked by extreme hunger, freezing temperatures, and desperate decisions, including the controversial act of cannibalism. Through this memoir, Eliza recounts the suffering and heroism of those months, not only drawing on her own childhood memories but also incorporating stories passed down from other survivors and documents of the time.
More than a historical record, the book humanizes the people involved-especially her own family-and seeks to correct misconceptions about the event. Eliza writes with compassion and dignity, offering an insider's view that is deeply moving, informative, and historically significant. Her narrative preserves the memory of the lost while honoring the endurance of those who lived.
Includes Exclusive Bonus Materials for Educators and Readers:
✅
20 Classroom Activities & Group Projects
designed for history and literature curriculum
20 Book Club & Discussion Questions
exploring themes of survival, migration, and morality
Detailed Family Trees
of the Donner, Reed, Breen, and Graves families
Historical Timeline
spanning the origins, journey, disaster, and aftermath
Short Biographies
of Virginia Reed Murphy and C.F. McGlashan
✅ Fully formatted for clean reading in both
print and eBook editions
Ideal For:
High school and university classrooms studying American migration and California history
Public and academic libraries building collections on 19th-century American frontier life
Book clubs and reading groups interested in survival stories and historical nonfiction
Readers of
Into the Wild
,
The Indifferent Stars Above
, and
Endurance
Historians and educators preparing for the
180th anniversary of the Donner Party in 2027
Why This Edition Matters:
With the 180th anniversary approaching in 2027, interest in the Donner Party and westward expansion is set to rise. This edition provides the most complete and accessible compilation available-ideal for students, researchers, and general readers. Beyond the story of starvation and survival, this is a chronicle of the American spirit: of what people hope for, endure, and remember.