94 - The Donner Party: Cannibalism, Cholera, and More Horribleness

Timesuck with Dan Cummins

Dan Cummins

True Crime, Society & Culture, Religion, Conspiracies, History, Biographies, Education, Adult Humor, Comedy, Dark Humor, Conspiracy, Cults

4.7 • 21.6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2018

⏱️ 104 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The story of the Donner Party is one of the most disturbing tales of western migration during the time of Manifest Destiny, the common 19th-century belief that the United States was destined to expand across the entire continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Well, the destiny of many of the members of the Donner Party was to spread their actual bones around a frozen Sierra Nevada mountain camp as they were eaten by other members of their party. That's what they manifested. Theirs is a fascinating tale of bad decisions that led to much worse decisions that led to, well, cannibalism. Learn about their tragic journey and also about life for settlers as they traveled West in the mid-19th century, today on Timesuck! NOTE: Working through some volume issues as we make changes. Sorry! My new free Behind the Bit Pandora station with Chad Daniels talking about our favorite bits! https://www.pandora.com/station/play/3978690913982414208?ag=17920720304261509 Timesuck is brought to you today by AmeriGas! Go to MyTimeSuckGrill.com between now and July 4th and enter your name and email to register to win a free Weber Spirt II – E 210 grill ($400 value). Timesuck is brought to you be Leesa! We love Leesa! Get $160 off when you go to Leesa.com/timesuck Timesuck is also brought to you The Great Courses Plus! Do yourself a HUGE favor and get a month of SO MUCH amazing, interesting, and informative content for FREE: https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/timesuck Merch - https://badmagicmerch.com/ Want to try out Discord!?! https://discord.gg/tqzH89v Want to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :) For all merch related questions: https://badmagicmerch.com/pages/contact Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG, @timesuckpodcast on Twitter, and www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcast Wanna be a Space Lizard? We're over 2500 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast Sign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits. And, thank you for supporting the show by doing your Amazon shopping after clicking on my Amazon link at www.timesuckpodcast.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ever had to eat a human being? No? Well, then there's one thing you don't have in common with some of the characters from today's tale
0:07.0	The Donner party just under 90 mid 19th century settlers looking to make new lives themselves in central California
0:14.3	They left late from Missouri headed west not taking off until mid May if you've ever played the old Oregon Trail
0:20.2	Video game, you know that's a no-no. You pick April not May always April
0:25.0	I know the Donner party took the California Trail for you history buffs not the Oregon Trail, but May still too late
0:32.4	I had to play a free online game of the old Oregon Trail last night because this episode still pretty fun holds up
0:38.6	Lindsay got lost Penny got sick and Monroe died. Sorry Monroe
0:42.4	But the rest of us we made it west and why do we make it west because we left in April
0:45.8	It greatly reduced our odds of getting stuck in a mountain snowstorm and having to eat each other to survive
0:51.5	After leaving a full month late the Donner party lost another full month head and west on the California Trail
0:56.9	Taking a new route across the great salt lake desert called Hastings cut off
1:00.8	Which was supposed to shave a few hundred miles off their journey and it did shave off some miles
1:05.1	It also added several weeks to a month because of treacherous conditions
1:10.2	No wagon road at all in places a terribly long stretcher waterless salt flats of northern Utah that nearly killed all of their supply
1:17.8	Animals and then after all that things got real ugly the Donner party made it to the last big mountain range of the trip
1:23.9	The Sierra Nevada's a few weeks too late and they got stuck in one of the heaviest winter snowfalls in the mountain ranges recorded history
1:30.9	Blizzard after blizzard after blizzard hit the sellers and after being snowed in at a rickety quickly built camp a shitty cabins and shitty or tense
1:39.4	Their rations long depleted the travelers made a few desperate escape attempts that failed miserably
1:45.1	And then some of them made the more desperate decision to eat their dead and a few made the even more desperate decision to kill fellow party members in order to eat them
1:55.0	Life was hard in the mid 19th century the journey west especially hard and it was hardest on the Donner party
2:00.5	More so than on any other group of pioneers who helped settle what is now the American west of the continental divide
2:06.7	Past the continental divide and we dig deep on this go west young man, but don't eat anyone
	...

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