The Donner Party

Author : Michael Wallis
Publisher : Liveright Publishing
Page : 575 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2017-06-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9780871407702

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The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny by Michael Wallis Pdf

Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence Finalist for the Oklahoma Book Award A Publishers Weekly Holiday Guide History Pick “A book so gripping it can scarcely be put down.... Superb.” —New York Times Book Review "WESTWARD HO! FOR OREGON AND CALIFORNIA!" In the eerily warm spring of 1846, George Donner placed this advertisement in a local newspaper as he and a restless caravan prepared for what they hoped would be the most rewarding journey of a lifetime. But in eagerly pursuing what would a century later become known as the "American dream," this optimistic-yet-motley crew of emigrants was met with a chilling nightmare; in the following months, their jingoistic excitement would be replaced by desperate cries for help that would fall silent in the deadly snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada. We know these early pioneers as the Donner Party, a name that has elicited horror since the late 1840s. With The Best Land Under Heaven, Wallis has penned what critics agree is “destined to become the standard account” (Washington Post) of the notorious saga. Cutting through 160 years of myth-making, the “expert storyteller” (True West) compellingly recounts how the unlikely band of early pioneers met their fate. Interweaving information from hundreds of newly uncovered documents, Wallis illuminates how a combination of greed and recklessness led to one of America’s most calamitous and sensationalized catastrophes. The result is a “fascinating, horrifying, and inspiring” (Oklahoman) examination of the darkest side of Manifest Destiny.

Author : Charles F. McGlashan
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2013-10-10
Category : History
ISBN : 9780486287126

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History of the Donner Party by Charles F. McGlashan Pdf

This gripping account of the doomed expedition combines survivor interviews with diary entries to reveal not only a stark tale of desperation but also many inspiring acts of heroism.

Author : Ethan Rarick
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2008-02-04
Category : History
ISBN : 9780198041504

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Desperate Passage by Ethan Rarick Pdf

In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened, what it tells us about human nature and about America's westward expansion, remained shrouded in myth. Drawing on fresh archaeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. But Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. "The Donner Party," Rarick writes, "is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity." A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, A Desperate Hope casts new light on one of America's most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront.

Author : Emily Rose Oachs
Publisher : Lerner Publications (Tm)
Page : 44 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2016-08
Category : Donner Party
ISBN : 9781512411157

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Death in the Donner Party by Emily Rose Oachs Pdf

Explore the tragedy of the Donner party, a group of American pioneers trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the harsh winter of 1846-1847. Cause-and-effect analysis reveals how the decisions made by leaders of the expedition ended in disaster.

Author : Rodman Philbrick
Publisher : Scholastic Inc.
Page : 138 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2021-12-07
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9781338692303

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Stay Alive: The Journal of Douglas Allen Deeds, The Donner Party Expedition, 1846 by Rodman Philbrick Pdf

"Soon we will eat the frozen cattle.... And then, when that is gone, what shall we eat?Shall we eat the snow? Shall we eat the ice? Shall we eat the bark on the frozen trees?What shall we eat?"Spring, 1846: Douglas Allen Deeds dreams of starting a new life out West. When the opportunity to join the Donner Party Expedition arises, he leaves the life he's known behind to set out on the nearly 2,000-mile trek from Independence, Missouri to sunny California.But progress is slow. Brutal heat, poisoned water, and rough terrain slows the expedition down. Soon they have a choice: continue on the known but grueling trail, or take a shortcut that would cut 350 miles from their journey-but take them through unknown territory. Is it worth the risk?Winter comes quickly in the mountains, and the wrong choice could leave them stranded in the Sierra Mountains when the snow comes, with no shelter, supplies, or even food.Newbery Honor-winning author Rodman Philbrick brings to life the excitement, danger, and horrors of the Donner Party's journey west.

Author : Eliza Poor Donner Houghton
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
Page : 468 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 1997-01-01
Category : History
ISBN : 0803273045

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The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate by Eliza Poor Donner Houghton Pdf

George and Tamsen Donner and their children, among the very first to leave from Illinois, joined emigrants headed to California in the spring of 1846. Beyond Fort Bridger, Captain Donner led a large party through a much-advertised shortcut. Delays and difficulties caused them to be snowbound in the High Sierras, facing the grim specter of starvation and extreme suffering. Though only four years old at the time of the expedition, the captain’s youngest daughter, Eliza Donner, would never forget the excitement of crossing the prairies—or the horror of that winter. Details impressed on her young mind were later substantiated by the recollections of her older sisters and other survivors. Her book, originally published in 1911, is an intimate and authoritative account of the Donner disaster. George and Tamsen Donner and those who shared their fate are fully humanized in the telling. Eliza also relates what happened to her and a sister after being rescued and what it was like to grow up in a world that turned the Donners into a grisly legend.

Author : Nathan Hale
Publisher : Abrams
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2013-08-06
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781613125243

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Donner Dinner Party (Nathan Hale's Hazardous Tales #3) by Nathan Hale Pdf

In author-illustrator Nathan Hale’s Donner Dinner Party, discover the shocking and true story of the ill-fated expedition in this Hazardous Tale from the New York Times bestselling graphic novel series. “These books are, quite simply, brilliant. . . . Thrilling, bloody, action-packed stories from American history.” —New York Times In the spring of 1846, a group of families left Illinois and began the long journey toward a new life in California. To save time, they took an ill-advised shortcut—with disastrous consequences. Their story would not take them to California but into history. Bad weather, bad choices, and just plain bad luck forced the pioneers to spend a long, cold winter in the mountains, slowly starving. What they did to stay alive and the lengths that others went to in order to rescue them make this one of the most tragic and infamous stories of the American frontier. Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales take young readers into American history with graphic novels that bring the dangerous, bloody, exciting history of America to life. The Revolutionary War and the Civil War, World War I and World War II, the Donner Party, the Marquis de Lafayette, Harriet Tubman, the Alamo, and more all come to life in a way that will excite young readers of history. Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales! Read them all—if you dare! One Dead Spy: A Revolutionary War Tale (#1) Big Bad Ironclad!: A Civil War Tale (#2) Donner Dinner Party: A Pioneer Tale (#3) Treaties, Trenches, Mud, and Blood: A World War I Tale (#4) The Underground Abductor: An Abolitionist Tale about Harriet Tubman (#5) Alamo All-Stars: A Texas Tale (#6) Raid of No Return: A World War II Tale of the Doolittle Raid (#7) Lafayette!: A Revolutionary War Tale (#8) Major Impossible: A Grand Canyon Tale (#9) Blades of Freedom: A Tale of Haiti, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase (#10) Cold War Correspondent: A Korean War Tale (#11) Above the Trenches: A WWI Flying Ace Tale (#12)

Author : Lansford Warren Hastings
Publisher : Applewood Books
Page : 157 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 1994
Category : History
ISBN : 9781557092458

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The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California by Lansford Warren Hastings Pdf

Published in 1845, this guidebook for pioneers is a reproduction of one of the most collectible books about California and the Western movement. It was the guidebook used by the Donner Party on their fateful journey. In addition, because Hastings' shortcut route through the Rockies produced such tragedy, the War Department commissioned The Prairie Traveler.

Author : Susan Sales Harkins,William H. Harkins
Publisher : Mitchell Lane
Page : 41 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2020-02-10
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9781545750438

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The Donner Party by Susan Sales Harkins,William H. Harkins Pdf

Tells the story of a group of California bound American settlers who set out in the spring of 1846and became snowbound in the Sierra Nevadas during the winter of 1846 and 1847.

Author : Frank Mullen
Publisher : a Halycon
Page : 384 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 1997
Category : History
ISBN : 1890591017

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The Donner Party Chronicles by Frank Mullen Pdf

The Reno Gazette-Journal and the Nevada Humanities Committee present Frank Mullen's account of the Donner Party, accompanied by hundreds of historical illustrations and Marilyn Newton's photographs of the trail today.

Author : Edwin Bryant
Publisher : IndyPublish.com
Page : 500 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 1849
Category : Fiction
ISBN : NYPL:33433081811766

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What I Saw in California by Edwin Bryant Pdf

Author : Scott Peters,Ellie Crowe
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2020-08-19
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 195101913X

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I Escaped the Donner Party by Scott Peters,Ellie Crowe Pdf

The Survival Series that celebrates the awesome history of us. "a must for every reading list" The shocking story of the doomed Donner Party expedition is told through the eyes of a brave young pioneer in this powerful survival adventure. From multi-award winning Ellie Crowe and Scott Peters.15-year-old Zeke is thrilled to be heading west with over eighty settlers on the famed Oregon Trail. But when their wagon train takes an ill-advised short cut, the pioneers find themselves trapped in a frozen mountain pass. As howling winter storms rage around the Donner Party, there's no way forward or back. Soon, starvation sets in. Zeke is faced with a terrible choice: join the other survivors in an unspeakable deed to survive, or attempt to walk out of the wilderness on sheer willpower alone. Can he ever hope to make it to California? Can he ever hope to escape? This is the 5th children's book in the I Escaped Series about brave kids who face real world challenges and find ways to escape. Sure to appeal to fans of books like I Survived by New York Times Bestseller Lauren Tarshis, stories about the Titanic, and readers of Alan Gratz. An important, relevant read about bravery and friendship during a terrible tragedy in American history.

Author : George Keithley
Publisher : George Braziller
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 1989-09-01
Category : History
ISBN : 0807612359

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The Donner Party by George Keithley Pdf

The Donner Party consists of three books of poems. Each book has nine poems.

Author : George R. Stewart
Publisher : HMH
Page : 419 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2013-09-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780547525600

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Ordeal by Hunger by George R. Stewart Pdf

“Compulsive reading—a wonderful account, both scholarly and gripping, of a horrifying episode in the history of the west.” —Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. The tragedy of the Donner party constitutes one of the most amazing stories of the American West. In 1846 eighty-seven people—men, women, and children—set out for California, persuaded to attempt a new overland route. After struggling across the desert, losing many oxen, and nearly dying of thirst, they reached the very summit of the Sierras, only to be trapped by blinding snow and bitter storms. Many perished; some survived by resorting to cannibalism; all were subjected to unbearable suffering. Incorporating the diaries of the survivors and other contemporary documents, George Stewart wrote the definitive history of that ill-fated band of pioneers; an astonishing account of what human beings may endure and achieve in the final press of circumstance.

Author : Terry del Bene,Terry Alan Del Bene,PH. D. del Bene
Publisher : Horse Creek Pub
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Cooking
ISBN : 0972221735

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Donner Party Cookbook by Terry del Bene,Terry Alan Del Bene,PH. D. del Bene Pdf

The tale of the 1846-1847 Donner Party whose members were snowbound in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Anthropologist, Terry Del Bene uncovers the layers of social and cultural belief and action that resulted in the tragedy. To lighten the mood, the author also includes 19th century recipes that the travelers cooked on the trail--before the food ran out.