One of the most famous groups of people who attempted to travel to Sutter's Fort in the 1840s is the Donner Party. On May 12, 1846, the Donner and Reed families departed from Independence, Missouri, the jumping off point for the Oregon-California Trail. Roughly 2,000 miles were ahead of them before their planned destination of Sutter’s Fort, but what went wrong? In this video, Jared discusses the history of the Donner Party including what contributed to the tragic journey and their eventual rescue. We wish we could cover the entire history of the Donner Party but at least there are a lot of books out there to read. #onthisday #suttersfort #donnerparty #castateparks #museumtok