If it wasn't for the protein supplied by the human flesh they brought on their escape, they would have had no chance of success. After 72 days of being trapped, they reached civilization. Of the original 45 passengers and crew, only 16 survived because of cannibalism. And now for our second place winner in the cannibalistic awards. It's hard not to pick the Donner Party being a former US history teacher. Now the gist of the story is that the Donner Party, and sometimes it's referred to the Donner-Reed Party because it was two families, was a group of 87 pioneers who migrated to California on a wagon train using the Oregon Trail. They first originated in Springfield, Illinois, and then they hit the trail where it began in Independence, Missouri in the spring of 1846.