Searching for Tamsen Donner

ISBN: 9780803236387 出版年：2009 页码：329 Burton, Gabrielle University of Nebraska Press

The story of the Donner Party of 1846 has been told by novelists, poets, filmmakers, and scholars, and it continues to fascinate because it's the American dream turned nightmare. En route to California, Tamsen and her husband, George Donner (the leader of the Donner Party), their five daughters, and eighty other pioneers were trapped by early snows for more than four months in the Sierra Nevadas. Nearly half the party perished, some resorting to cannibalism to survive. Tamsen Donner sent her daughters out of the mountains with the first two rescue parties and stayed with her dying husband. The fi nal rescue party found George's body wrapped for burial, but Tamsen's body was never found. In 1972 Tamsen Donner came unexpectedly to our family and took up permanent residence. Over the years I have read widely and deeply on the Donner Party, including the original Patrick Breen diary and many out-of-print books found through rare-book dealers; corresponded with numerous historians, librarians, and genealogists; traveled to cities where Tamsen Donner lived; and retraced the Donners' overland Copyrighted Material Searching for Tamsen Donner Gabrielle Burton University of Nebraska Press