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August 4, 1846. A few months into their journey from Illinois to California, a group of pioneers finds bad trouble. They’re in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah and they’ve just found a note from their guide. It essentially says, “That shortcut I told you take – don’t.” The setback disastrously delays their trip. Weeks later, when they Sierra Nevada, it’s dangerously late in the season. Soon, an early winter snow traps them in the mountains. What did they have to do to survive? And what’s the truth behind the legendary Donner Party?

Special thanks to our guest: Daniel James Brown, author of The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride.

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