What would one do if they were trapped in the mountains, barricaded in by snow with no food or water left. The Donner Party was a group of people traveling by wagon to the west. The Donner Party was a left Springfield, Illinois on a journey heading west in the spring of 1846. The Party was led by Jacob and George Donner decided to take the so called shortcut hastings passage. The poor decisions made throughout the journey westward contributed substantially to the failure of this journey westward. One of the worst decisions made was choosing poorly educated and experienced guides, George and Jacob Donner. As Peggy Saari stated in “Great Misadventures: Bad Ideas That Led to Big Disasters,” “neither brother had any mountaineering or frontier …show more content…
They did not expect for the trip to take as long as it did. Before they knew it, they were out of food and supplies. In Peggy Saari Great Misadventures: Bad Ideas That Led to Big Disasters she states, “Worn out and low on food, the group had lost its sense of unity” (95). The Donners did not pack enough food for the journey because they believed that the Hastings passage was a shortcut and would have not taken as long as it did. But in reality the “shortcut” actually took longer than the original path to the west. Before any of them even realized, they were not close to their destination they were out of food. By not packing enough supplies, they were forced to resort to cannibalism in the end. In The Donner Party: A Doomed Journey Tim McNeese stated, “Lacking food and adequate shelter, about half the group died during the winter of 1846-47… some members of the party resorted to eating the bodies of the dead in order to survive” (1). The Donners thought that the trip was much shorter than it actually was because of false advertising. If Hastings had not have told everyone that his passage was a shortcut this possibly could have been prevented. But the leaders of the group were influenced by people like James Reed, Jim Bridger, and Louis Vasquez. These men convinced them that it was a shortcut and they were
As we can see, these adventurers seemed to have learned just the right skills in their life times in order to go on their escapades. WHAT THEY HOPED TO ACHIEVE: Columbus was hoping to find a route to Asia. CHALLENGES: Columbus and Lindbergh faced many challenges on their expeditions. Some of the challenges Columbus faced included weather, dehydration, starvation, and even disease.
There were many goals and expectations for this expedition. First of all, the group aimed to find a route across the continent in order to reach the Pacific Ocean and also make a general map of western terrain. Secondly, they were
Why did the Donner Party get stuck in the Sierra Nevada Mountains? In April of 1846 90 emigrants led by Jacob and George Donner left Springfield Illinois in hopes of using a quicker, shorter route to Oregon. The party took the regular trail up to Ft. Bridger, Wyoming. There they were supposed to meet a trail guide, Lansford Hastings, to take them but he was gone, leading another party along the mountains. There was a note for the Donner’s to follow a trail to Weber Canyon, Hasting claimed it was an easier route to Oregon.
The Donner Party The Donner Party shows the next generation of Americans that cutting corners never leads to beneficial outcomes. The Donner Party wanted a shorter route to where they were going and thought it would be a lot easier, but it turned out many of them died and even had to end up eating each other's corps because they were lost, stuck and starving. If they would've took the the long way, those things would've never happened. A group of about 90 pioneers from Springfield Illinois, led by James F. Reed and George Donner wanted to find a better place to live.
On our trip to California, we (the Donner Party) were forced to face many unexpected hardships. At Alcove springs Grandmother Keyes died. Just past Fort Bridger we took the Hastings Cutoff, which we were informed saved 400 miles. The information was wrong. The shortcut added 100 miles to the journey.
The Donner Party had a great effect on the way pioneers traveled later on in time. The Miller and Reed families left on April 26, 1846 (Rosen). The Donners’ arrive at Independece, Missouri on May 10, 1846 (Rosen). The emigrants who would later form the Donner Party traveled with the Russell Party from Independece, Missouri to Alcove Springs in the Indian territory, which is now Kansas (Rosen). On Sunday November 1, 1846 the Donner Party decided to stay in Nevada for the winter (Rosen).
The Battle of Trenton was one of the battles of the American Revolution. The battle was fought in the morning of December 26, 1776. George Washington was the commander of the American Forces. Colonel Johann Rall was the leader for the Hessians. The war took place near Trenton, New Jersey.
After the victory for independence, the United States was formed; however, it still needed to face with another challenge: building its own governance. Making a nation is much easier than sustaining it, so the process of creating the republic by the Framers is worthy to be mentioned. During the years from 1781 to 1789, the United States was ruled under a document called the Articles of Confederations. As the first Constitution of the United States, it led the leaders to gain independence and have a governmental experience for the future powerful nation. Although the Articles created a ruling gate for the Framers, it was barely possible to operate the nation effectively.
Introduction This “think piece” will be covering the Westward Expansion from 1860 to 1890. During that time a lot of changes occurred to the American land. One of the major impacts, that was noticed, was the increase in railroads and cities. Without these railroads, traveling time to the west could to up to 6 months and the small cities were growing because of the railroads that were being created and were being called “Railroad Towns”.
Two famous explorers that both explored the Yellowstone National Park. And its harsh weather and one of the explorers back then exploring undiscovered. The similarities these two impacting the future of the park. These men have differences to make the park as it is now and what time difference then had. These brave men are John Colter and Tom Murphy, in at different time changed Yellowstone.
Reconstruction was a failure in many ways. Although Reconstruction did abolish slavery, African Americans did not truly gain their freedom and the nation was not unified. The Emancipation Proclamation that President Lincoln issued in 1863 to end slavery was unsuccessful. In a petition of black residents of Nashville sent to the delegates in 1865, they demanded slavery to be thoroughly abolished and for the right to vote (3). However, not only did many slave owners ignore Lincoln’s order, the Emancipation Proclamation did not eliminate slavery in the Union border states and states under control of the Union.
Dillon Edwards Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West, Ethan Rarick, Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2008. Desperate Passage is a good book that sheds light on a perilous journey taken by a group of strangers who come together to form a wagon train. It was written by Ethan Rarrick. In the book a group of strangers band together to form a wagon train to make the perilous journey west.
A simple journey to the California coast in order to make a better living is what the Donner Party believed lie ahead of them. Ethan Rarick, the lead author of the marvelous and suspenseful book, Desperate Passage: The Donner Party’s Perilous Journey West, describes in great detail what these families endured and encountered on their travels west. Heavy snowfall, little food, and lost time are just some of the interesting and intriguing items that Rarick talks about in his work of literature. Desperate Passage tells the story of the Donner Party, which was a group of American families who wanted to travel to the West Coast in order to live a more lavish and comfortable life.
I. The California Gold Rush is one of the most known gold rushes in the U.S. The phenomenon was started by James Marshall when he found gold in the American River and he said “My heart thumped for I knew it was gold.” Because of his findings the California Gold Rush was born in 1848, then died seven years later in 1855. During these seven years California accumulated over 300,000 people that left their homes to mine for gold.
This is because, in the end, the two guides were not careful or safe, each for their own reasons. “Likewise since he had failed to get anybody to the top in 1995, it would have been bad for Hall’s business if he failed again in 1996-- especially if Fisher succeeded(285).” This is Hall’s reason for pushing forward, the fact that it would be bad for his business if he didn’t keep on pushing forward, especially since he “was charging $65,000 a head to guide clients to the top of the world(37).” Fisher's reason was that “Fisher had never guided Everest before 1996. From a business standpoint, there was a lot of pressure on him to be successful(285).”