Download or read book The Opening of the California Trail written by George R. Stewart and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2022-09-23 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1953.
Download or read book What I Saw in California written by Edwin Bryant and published by IndyPublish.com. This book was released on 1849 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book History of the Donner Party written by Charles F. McGlashan and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2013-02-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1846, a band of California-bound pioneers took a fatefulshortcut that left them stranded in the frigid Sierras— horrifyingly, some resorted to cannibalism to survive.Newspaperman Charles F. McGlashan, who interviewed survivorsand studied the party members’ journals, declaredtheir story “more thrilling than romance, more terrible thanfiction.” His gripping account reveals not only a stark tale ofdesperation but also many inspiring acts of heroism.Reprint of the A. L. Bancroft, San Francisco, 1880 edition.
Download or read book The Lincoln Highway Iowa written by Gregory M. Franzwa and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate written by Eliza Poor Donner Houghton and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1997-01-01 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The Best Land Under Heaven The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny written by Michael Wallis and published by Liveright Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-06 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Sierra Crossing written by Thomas Frederick Howard and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1998-06-30 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A critical era in California's history and development—the building of the first roads over the Sierra Nevada—is thoroughly and colorfully documented in Thomas Howard's fascinating book. During California's first two decades of statehood (1850-1870), the state was separated from the east coast by a sea journey of at least six weeks. Although Californians expected to be connected with the other states by railroad soon after the 1849 Gold Rush, almost twenty years elapsed before this occurred. Meanwhile, various overland road ventures were launched by "emigrants," former gold miners, state government officials, the War Department, the Interior Department, local politicians, town businessmen, stagecoach operators, and other entrepreneurs whose alliances with one another were constantly shifting. The broad landscape of international affairs is also a part of Howard's story. Constructing roads and accumulating geographic information in the Sierra Nevada reflected Washington's interest in securing the vast western territories formerly held by others. In a remarkably short time the Sierra was transformed by vigorous exploration, road-promotion, and road-building. Ox-drawn wagons gave way to stagecoaches able to provide service as fine as any in the country. Howard effectively uses diaries, letters, newspaper stories, and official reports to recreate the human struggle and excitement involved in building the first trans-Sierra roads. Some of those roads have become modern highways used by thousands every day, while others are now only dim traces in the lonely backcountry.
Download or read book Desperate Passage written by Ethan Rarick and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-02-04 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Backcountry Ski Snowboard Routes California written by Jeremy Benson and published by Mountaineers Books. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After some dreadful years for Sierra skiers, the snow is back and the pent-up demand to ride it is satisfied by this book! From Bishop to Tahoe to Shasta, and multiple slopes in between, California has a big ski and snowboard culture and this backcountry guide describes 97 of the state’s best routes. Part of our critically-acclaimed series, Backcountry Ski & Snowboard Routes: California is written by Tahoe-based professional skier, Jeremy Benson, and covers the best of the state, featuring advanced backcountry descents with serious verticals. The northern region of the book focuses on Mount Shasta and Tahoe, while the central region includes Mammoth, Bishop, and Sierra Club hut trips, and to the south, 14ers Mount Whitney and Mount Langley and more.
Download or read book Plants of the Tahoe Basin written by Michael Graf and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The reader could hardly be disappointed with this book. More than simply a 'flower key, ' it deftly describes each species and its requirements for survival in the high Sierra. In addition to presenting an impressive collection of spectacular photographs, Graf describes the myriad physical aspects of the Basin which control the flora's vitality, its evolution and its future. This is a wildflower book with the depth and richness that will satisfy Tahoe plant lovers for a long time to come."--Joseph L. Medeiros, Sierra College
Download or read book An Archaeology of Desperation written by Kelly J. Dixon and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2014-10-20 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Donner Party is almost inextricably linked with cannibalism. In truth, we know remarkably little about what actually happened to the starving travelers stranded in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846–47. Combining the approaches of history, ethnohistory, archaeology, bioarchaeology, and social anthropology, this innovative look at the Donner Party’s experience at the Alder Creek Camp offers insights into many long-unsolved mysteries. Centered on archaeological investigations in the summers of 2003 and 2004 near Truckee, California, the book includes detailed analyses of artifacts and bones that suggest what life was like in this survival camp. Microscopic investigations of tiny bone fragments reveal butchery scars and microstructure that illuminate what the Donner families may have eaten before the final days of desperation, how they prepared what served as food, and whether they actually butchered and ate their deceased companions. The contributors reassess old data with new analytic techniques and, by examining both physical evidence and oral testimony from observers and survivors, add new dimensions to the historical narrative. The authors’ integration of a variety of approaches—including narratives of the Washoe Indians who observed the Donner Party—destroys some myths, deconstructs much of the folklore about the stranded party, and demonstrates that novel approaches can shed new light on events we thought we understood.
Download or read book The Newlands Project written by William Joe Simonds and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Indifferent Stars Above written by Daniel James Brown and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the #1 bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat comes an unforgettable epic of family, tragedy, and survival on the American frontier “An ideal pairing of talent and material.… Engrossing.… A deft and ambitious storyteller.” – Mary Roach, New York Times Book Review In April of 1846, twenty-one-year-old Sarah Graves, intent on a better future, set out west from Illinois with her new husband, her parents, and eight siblings. Seven months later, after joining a party of pioneers led by George Donner, they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains as the first heavy snows of the season closed the pass ahead of them. In early December, starving and desperate, Sarah and fourteen others set out for California on snowshoes, and, over the next thirty-two days, endured almost unfathomable hardships and horrors. In this gripping narrative, New York Times bestselling author Daniel James Brown sheds new light on one of the most legendary events in American history. Following every painful footstep of Sarah’s journey with the Donner Party, Brown produces a tale both spellbinding and richly informative.
Download or read book Ordeal by Hunger written by George R. Stewart and published by HMH. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “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.
Download or read book Deceived written by Peter R. Limburg and published by Ipswich Borough. This book was released on 1998 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Challenging readers to think about what they would do under the same circumstances, Deceived tells the true story of the infamous Donner Party, stranded in the Sierra Nevadas during a brutal winter, who resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. Includes maps especially created for this volume. Photos.
Download or read book Ghosts of Gold Mountain written by Gordon H. Chang and published by Mariner Books. This book was released on 2019 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guangdong -- Gold Mountain -- Central Pacific -- Foothills -- The High Sierra -- The Summit -- The Strike -- Truckee -- The Golden Spike -- Beyond Promontory.
Download or read book The Donner Party Chronicles written by Frank Mullen and published by a Halycon. This book was released on 1997 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
