On February 19, 1847, the first rescuers reached surviving members
of the Donner Party, a group of 89 California-bound emigrants led
by the Donner and Reed families, stranded by snow in the Sierra
Nevada Mountains. Three additional rescue parties arrived later.

The trip back to Sutter’s Fort was also brutally hard. Only 45 of the original 89 members of the Donner Party survived.