The Donner Party

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).

All of these risks were put on “jeopardy” by going out west. By having the courage to risk it all shows the human spirit is one of bravery and boldness. The Donner Party faced many challenges on their journey out west. They had to cross huge landscapes and rocky terrain. They also were following a new and inexperienced cut off or “short cut”, that “claimed” to “shave”

He was the the third eldest out of six children and his parents were wealthy plantation owners. He was married to Martha Skelton who bore six children with him, however only two of them lived more than a few years.("Thomas Jefferson")

David Laskin’s The Children’s Blizzard explains the devastating force of an intense blizzard, which caught several people unprepared, and it tells the tragic stories of these people. On January 12, 1888 a massive blizzard struck the center of North America, killing between 250 to 500 people and affecting thousands. There were many factors that made this blizzard exceptionally deadly. Many farmers and children who were outside were unprepared to deal with any cold conditions, “a day when children had raced to school with no coats or gloves and farmers were far from home doing chores they had put off during the long siege of cold” (Laskin 2).

His mother was Nellie Conway Madison and his father was James Madison Sr. After being born, his mother traveled back to Montpelier estate, in Orange County which became his lifelong home. He was the oldest of twelve children and a descendant of the planter aristocracy. When he was a child, he received

Giving is the most important part of Thanksgiving. Another important part of Thanksgiving dinner is to be able to sit down, relax and enjoy your meal with the company of your loved ones. By taking steps in advance you can assure a successful Thanksgiving dinner, minimizing being overwhelmed. Start with your guest list and planning your dinner menu. While searching for recipes, look for simple and easy.

Journal Entry 1869. By: Sophie Osmani September 28th, 1869: As a 15 year old, its hard to travel west. With barely any money. But I have to do it.

This statement, made by Shaun Callarman, pertains to Chris McCandless’s trek into Alaska that ultimately led to death by starvation. Since the recovery of Chris’s body, there has been much speculation about the prevention of Chris’s death and the possible causes. Despite Callarman’s plea of craziness, there have been both eye-witness accounts showing that Chris was sane and prepared when leaving for the Alaskan wilderness, many natural

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.

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.

The Alaskan Bush is one of the hardest places to survive without any assistance, supplies, skills, and little food. Jon Krakauer explains in his biography, Into The Wild, how Christopher McCandless ventured into the Alaskan Bush and ultimately perished due to lack of preparation and hubris. McCandless was an intelligent young man who made a few mistakes but overall Krakauer believed that McCandless was not an ignorant adrenalin junkie who had no respect for the land. Krakauer chose to write this biography because he too had the strong desire to discover and explore as he also ventured into the Alaskan Bush when he was a young man, but he survived unlike McCandless. Krakauer’s argument was convincing because he gives credible evidence that McCandless was not foolish like many critics say he was.

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.

“Food for us comes from our relatives… That is how we consider food. Food has a culture. It has a history. It has a story. It has relationships.”

In the 2013 online article, “The Chris McCandless Obsession Problem”, author Diana Saverin describes the Alaskan wilderness travel phenomenon along with attempting to uncover the ‘McCandless Pilgrims’ “root of motivation. Sparked by the release of both Jon Krakauer’s and Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild”, numerous individuals pack their backpacks and eagerly step into their (sometimes newly-bought) hiking shoes and tramp into the Alaskan Wild to pay homage to their hero Chris McCandless. Filled with personal anecdotes and interviews, Severin’s Outside article takes a new approach Into the Wild commentary by directing attention to the lives McCandless’s story affected indirectly rather than critiquing on McCandless himself. In response to what appears to be a huge amount of troubled McCandless-inspired tramping stories, Saverin provides an unbiased rationale as a attempt to explain why so many are “willing to risk injury, and even death, to..visit the last home of Alaska’s most famous adventure casualty”. Saverin begins her article with anecdote- telling the unfortunate experience of young lovers and adept adventure seekers, Ackerman and Gros.

In between California and the rest of the country were the Great Plains which were not heavily populated so there was no easy way of trade and transportation to the growing western territories. A group of men called the “Big Four” which consisted of Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker and Mark Hopkins, decided what the country needed was a transcontinental railroad. Their company, The Central Pacific Railroad company would hire 15,000 Chinese men to work on constructing the railroad due to the fact that they would work for less than the average American. This made transportation cheaper and quicker than ever