The Trial of the Donner Party

By Barbara Rush, Legal Assistant, Research & Writing Specialist at Feldman, Franden, Woodard & Farris in Tulsa, Oklahoma

This is a courtroom scene depicting a hypothetical jury trial of the Donner Party, settlers in 1846 who were trapped in snowy Sierra Nevada Mountains.  The surviving members of the Donner Party have historically been regarded as cannibals.

(Text reads: “I have admitted into evidence the empty vehicle, chocolate bar wrapper and the graham cracker crumbs. Anything else, counsel?”)