The Donner Party was a group of American pioneers who migrated to California in a wagon train from the Midwest in the spring of 1846. The party was named after its captain, George Donner, and at its peak, it numbered some 87 people in a column of 23 ox-drawn wagons. The party encountered many hardships and delays along the way, including the loss of time due to breaking a new trail through the Wasatch Mountains and crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert.

In early July, the Donner Party left the wagon train to follow the Hastings Cutoff to California, a route that was supposed to take them about one week to travel. However, the party encountered heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada and became trapped. When food ran out, some members of the group reportedly resorted to cannibalism.

During the winter of 1846 to 1847, the party remained trapped in the snow, and nearly half of them died from starvation and illness before rescue parties, which failed repeatedly due to blizzards and deep snows, finally were able to reach them. The attention directed at the Donner Party is made possible by reliable accounts of what occurred, according to Stewart, and the fact that "the cannibalism, although it might almost be called a minor episode, has become in the popular mind the chief."