Camp of Death: The Donner Party Mountain Camp, 1846-47

Except for newspaper stories, the chapters in this book were the first published account of the Donner Party disaster of 1846 and 1847. They were published in 1849 in a 2-volume book dealing mainly with other matters of interest to emigrants, settlers, and prospectors in or on their way to the subject area, Oregon and California in 1848." This was soon enough to the time of the Donner Party's suffering that the 44 survivors were still recovering from both the physical and mental effects of their ordeal, in which 36 of their companions died, some to be eaten to sustain the living. Thorton's story is grotesque, gory, and tragic horror - a negative chapter in the Winning of the West made all the worse because it is true history and therefore important in understanding our roots.