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Donner Party: still RSVP no
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In 1846, a group of 87 settlers on their way to California, led by George Donner, got caught in the Sierra Mountains by the worst snowstorm in 30 years. They set up camp, eventually ran out of food, and when other members of the party started to die off the surviving settlers ate them. At least, that's always been the story of California's most famous cannibals.
The ill-fated settlers split into two camps about 6 miles apart; the smaller group, including the Donner family, lagged behind, trying to fix a broken wagon axle. Both campsites have recently been poked and prodded by archeologists. The larger site — yep, they ate their dead. At the smaller site, no proof they ate their friends was found, LA Times reports today. They did, however, eat their pets. Anyway, while the cannibal story is true, the gist is that it shouldn't be connected to the Donners any more.
But archeology, the researchers say, can't reveal everything that happened. They can only analyze bones that were cooked in a fire. Now we've seen the 1993 movie Alive!, and we know sometimes you don't have to cook a bone to eat parts of a person. We're just saying.
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