In the spring of 1846, a caravan of pioneers left Independence, Missouri, and began the long trek toward California. The group mostly comprised of families who hoped to start a better life out West.
The pioneers initially followed the Oregon Trail until Wyoming. Relying on advice from a guidebook, they took what promised to be a shortcut. But the new route was longer than expected and trapped them in the Sierra Nevada mountains over the winter.
“By the time they got back on the established trail, they were a month behind, and they were exhausted,” says Bill Schutt, a biologist and the author of Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History.
Half the group had died by February 1847, and survivors resorted to eating the dead. Historians have long accepted the group descended into cannibalism. But in recent years, misinformation sparked a debate that some historians call unfounded.
