In May 1846, the nine covered wagons made the slow journey from Springfield, Illinois to Independence, Missouri. The Donner Party would purchase provisions here for their long, arduous journey to ...

Ric Burns wrote, directed and co-produced the film The Donner Party. He describes why the story of the Donner party has had such a lasting resonance, and how it fits into America’s grand fascination ...

Introduction: 1846 -- Prologue: Donner Lake, June 6, 1918 -- Call of the West -- A migrating people -- The best land under heaven -- Gray gold -- Snake heads -- California dreaming -- The bold plunge ...

In the year 1846, when Polk was in the White House, forces were at work which would determine within the twelvemonth the destiny of Oregon, Texas, New Mexico, and California. At the beginning of the ...

A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives. On Feb. 19, 1847, the first rescuers reached members of the Donner Party, who had been snowbound in the Sierra Nevada ...

The answer haunted the 87 migrants of the Donner Party, who in 1846 attempted a shortcut to the Western frontier but instead lost 39 of their group to a winter of hunger and fierce blizzards.

RENO, Nev. — No one really knows how much snow fell on the infamous Donner Party when the pioneers were trapped atop the Sierra Nevada for months and dozens died near Lake Tahoe in the winter of ...

WENDOVER, Utah (AP) — For a second time, federal land managers have rejected a mineral exploration company’s proposal to prospect for potash on a section of the western Utah desert crossed by the ...