The Donner Party :: essays research papers

DAVID McCULLOUGH, Host Good evening and welcome to The American Experience. Im David McCullough. At the start of spring in the year 1846 an likeable advertisement appeared in the Springfield, Illinois, Gazette. Westward ho, it declared. Who wants to go to California without costing them anything? As many as eight young men of good character who can force an ox team will be accommodated. Come, boys, you can have as much land as you want without costing you anything. The notice was signed G. Donner, George Donner, leader of what was to become the most famous of all the hundreds of wagon trains to start for the far west, the tragic, now nearly mythic Donner Party. For years Western scholars and novelists have been drawn to the story, til now until now there has been no documentary. Ric Burnss film is a first. Westward ho, indeed. If ever there was a moment when America seemed in the grip of some great, out-of-the-ordinary pull, it was in 1846. The whole mood was for movement, expan sion, and the whole direction was westward. It was in 1846 that the Mormons set out on their trek to the Great Salt Lake. It was in 1846 that the Mexican war began and efficaciously all of Texas, Mexico and California were added to the United States. And it wasnt just young men who answered the call. Whole families and people of all stations in life joined the caravan, which is part of the enchantment of our haunting story. One is struck, for example, by how many women there were in the Donner party and how many of them survived the horrific ordeal they met. Imagine packing up an entire household, verbalize good-bye to all youve known and setting off to walk essentially to walk to California, a continent away, little knowing what was in store. ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE It is odd to look with what feverish ardor Americans pursue prosperity. Ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they may not have chosen the shortest route to get it. They pose to the things of this world as if assured that they will never die, and yet rush to snatch any that comes within their reach as if they expected to stop nutriment before they had relished them. Death steps in, in the end, and stops them before they have grown tired of this futile pursuit of that complete felicity which always escapes them.