Description
Book SynopsisIn 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
Trade ReviewRarick's retelling is solid, shored up with evidence, and complete withthe moral of the story cannibalism buffs look for. * Christine Quigley The Fortean Times *
Table of ContentsPROLOGUE ; 1. Jumping off ; 2. Catching Up ; 3. Vexatiously Slow ; 4. Pleasure Trip ; 5. Fine Style ; 6. The Crucial Decision ; 7. Gambling ; 8. A New and Interesting Region ; 9. Unearthly ; 10. One Bad Hill ; 11. Abandoned ; 12. The Mouth of Hell, The River of Life ; 13. A Great Snowy Range ; 14. This Prison ; 15. The First Death ; 16. The Forlorn Hope ; 17. A Low Situation ; 18. Taking the Field ; 19. Our Present Calamity ; 20. Fellowbeings ; 21. From California, or Heaven? ; 22. Threshold of Desperation ; 23. Weeping ; 24. Gruesome Sights ; 25. Terror, Terror ; 26. A Broken Promise ; 27. Alive Yet ; 28. None for Tears ; 29. The Last Man ; 30. A Beautiful Country ; 31. A Day of Renown ; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ; AUTHOR'S NOTE ; NOTES ; SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
