Arts
The act of cannibalism to survive desperate times is not uncommon in U.S. history. Perhaps the most famous case is The Donner-Reed Party. In the late spring of 1846 a wagon train set out from Missouri, heading West to California and Oregon. Along with a number of other bad decisions that led to the stranding of the Donner Party, the most fateful decision was to follow a new route West, called the Hastings Cutoff, that directed travelers through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Bad timing and choosing to follow this new route noted by Hastings caused the Donner Party to become snowbound in the Sierras for months. After eating all of their food stores, the pack animals, and even the leather they carried, only then did the members of the Donner Party turn to cannibalism. There were 87 members of the Donner-Reed Party and at the end of their journey only 48 remained. One of the the survivors was the daughter of James and Margaret Reed. Virginia Reed was thirteen when the family decided to travel West. She was one of the few survivors who did not eat human flesh. However, the experience proved so traumatic that until her death in 1921 she always carried food with her wherever she went. What was life like for the survivors of the Donner Tragedy? This question inspires our tale, “Mrs. Crumbs, The Cannibal.”