Quotes About Donner Party

Of the eighty-one people who had been trapped by the early autumn snow at the eastern edge of the Sierra, thirty-six had died and forty-five had survived. No one remained at the high camps. For the Donner Party, the journey was finished.

The Donner Party is key because it's a study of group dynamics or rather, how group dynamics don't work. Few of us understand how quickly the veneer of civilization can be torn away from people.