MovieChat Forums > The Donner Party (2009) Discussion > Why didn't they eat trees?

Why didn't they eat trees?


There were trees all over the place. If I was starving, I would eat leaves or bark. They must have some nutritional value.

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What would a wood bowel movement be like?! Yew must be an authentic health nut.

Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it.

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Judging by the characters in this film, they'd never have thought of it. Based on the paltry amount of meat they were seemingly able to get from a full bodied human corpse, they'd never have figured it out.

I'm sure the actual people who experienced this were far smarter. There has to be more edible meat on a human than they let on in this film.

"The beatings will continue until morale improves!"

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[deleted]

I hope you're kidding.

Winter in the Sierra Nevadas. Only evergreens would have leaves. I'm in the southeast U.S. and there aren't many evergreens here I'd care to eat--holly leaveas have sharp points and the berries are poisonous to humans. I suppose eating some of the cypress or spruce might help keep my teeth clean, though. Hmm. How about a big bowl of pine needle-Os.

What kind of protein content would you find in tree bark? Not likely to find bugs unless you go digging waaay down below the snow and the dirt.

I don't eat meat and I wouldn't expect to be able to survive a winter in Donner Pass on just tree bark.

The people who made this trek were underprepared and not too bright (no offense to any living relatives). Why make this trip at that time of year through the MOUNTAINS??? But people do this kind of thing all the time. Anyone remember the Stolpas? They had a baby with them. By the time they were rescued, both parents had frostbite on their feet and lost some toes. For anyone unfamiliar with their story: http://bethspotswood.blogspot.com/2010/02/stumping-stolpas.html

And it will happen again. Eat trees. That's funny.

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I believe they ate twigs, bark and whatever they could get from the trees. There was so much snow and everything was pretty much frozen. I read somewhere that some families had rationed out their food better than others.

All I know is that once they got to that salt desert---I would have turned around and went back to Illinois. That is real nasty stuff! Sorry if I offend any relatives, but those people were Nuts!

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Aloha!

Actually if you watch the Ric Burns documentary "The Donner Party" it actually indicates that once their few remaining cattle had been consumed, they started boiling their hides, leather, etc. into a type of "glue" and then combining that with bark, leaves, etc. from trees.

This was from one of the survivor's memoirs I believe. They ate everything they possibly could until there was simply nothing left.

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I think a better question is why didn't the entire party just stay at the cabins and FISH at nearby Donner Lake? Out of 86 people, and not a single party member thought of this? Along with fishing, hanging around the lake would have to present dome hunting opportunities.

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Maybe they didn't have the necessary tools to get through what was probably VERY thick ice, or didn't have proper fishing tools. Remember they had left the wagon train behind, and were carrying all their supplies on their backs. And they were incredibly weakened physically by their ordeal, so maybe they just didn't have the strength to go fishing.

Also bear in mind these were not well trained wilderness folk...these were city people, who were used to buying what they needed, not have to fend for it.

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I think the answer would be they DID think of it. Do you really think that an entire group of starving people wouldn't have looked EVERYWHERE possible for a source of food?? Seriously?

That winter was declared the coldest winter of the century. Things everywhere were frozen. They were blinded by blizzards. 8' snowdrifts covered any path or road.

To think all these dying people just sat down and drooled with idiocy is ridiculous, and frankly, offensive. It's absurd that you actually think this group of people would somehow put in LESS effort to survive than you would.

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You have to remember that the snowfall that winter grew as high as 30 feet. They ate everything they could but there is precious little available at that level above earth. The winter came early and it was relentless.

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"Some" nutrinional value yes, but what the body has to do in order to take advantage of them is too costly. There are too much junk and possibly poisonous stuff in a tree to be worth the effort since the possible nutrional value is negligible. And we're just talking about bark since it was winter...

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