This is a scholastic published
book 2002, High Interest Books division. It gives the basic story and
facts with regards to the Donner party. Among this is the concise
information that 47 of the party survived and 44 perished. It also
gives some of the ideas as to why they were late. They took the
Hastings cut-off which had never been tried. They got caught in the
Wasatch Mountains having to chop there way through, and took a month to
go from Fort Bridger to the Salt Lake. They still had the Salt Flats,
and Nevada to travel before they would reach the Sierra Mountains. They
had divided into two groups, and the first almost made it over the
summit. However they had to turn back, and camped near Donner Lake.
The other group was slowed more because of a broken axel and were camped
near Adler Creek.
This
book talk of eating human flesh to stay alive. But it did not mention
that two of the forlorn party were Native American, and likely murdered
for their flesh. It also talked of the rescuers, but did not say that
for a time Dan Rhoads and his family had traveled with the Donner Party,
but determined to follow the traditional route rather than the cut-off;
and made it to California before the storms.
I really didn't like the introduction to this book. "You are in a storm." It seemed stupid to me. However the first chapter started getting better. There were a few factual errors I think as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment