It's one of the greatest tragedies of all time, yet few of us know the whole story. The story is of the misled, inexperienced Donner Party. It is the story of eighty-one emigrants who traveled in hopes of reaching the land of California. Forty-seven, whose hopes were crushed by many contributing factors. The most horrible and misleading factor of all was the human mind and its persistent need to explore and conquer everything, whether within reach or not in the shortest and fastest way possible. This aspect of taking the shortest route that led to the downfall, and in some cases, to death, of the Donner Party. The Donner Party was led by both Jacob and George Donner on a journey to California looking for better life (Manifest Destiny). The Party consisted of about 90 southerners that began their route in 1846 in Springfield, Illinois. The party had bought a guide but was not accurate and had little information on the path to California. When they had reached Fort Bridger, Wyoming heading through the Oregon Trail they had decided to take a shorter route. This route was supposed to take off 2 weeks of travel or 400 miles. Yet they did not now this route would bring many hardships and would add 100 miles, called the Hastings cutoff. The Hasting cutoff had led to pass the Great Salt Lake Desert and the Wasatch Mountains. They had reached the Sierra Nevada’s where it began to snow and had been stuck in snowfall for 5 crucial months. Many stayed in cabins near Tuckree Lake and