Goings on

Lots going on on the Donner Party front, mostly writing: two articles in the last issue of Overland Journal, a review of Ethan Rarick's Desperate Passage for the next issue of OJ, co-authoring a chapter for the upcoming Donner Party archaeology book with Will Bagley, an article about the remains of a man found in 1847 and 1849 above Donner Lake for Crossroads, reviewing two manuscripts of Donner Party books, correspondence with Donner buffs, and oh, yeah, trying to finish my own chapter for the archaeology book. None of this would be particularly onerous in itself, but with the concomittant research, and coming all at once, it eats up an astonishing amount of time.

Other people have been busy, too. For instance somebody just posted these photos of the historical marker commemorating Johnson Crossing, near the site of Johnson's Ranch. The ranch was a landmark on the old emigrant trail, being the first American settlement on the western side of the Sierra Nevada; it was the staging area for the Donner relief parties. Johnson's Ranch is also commemorated by another marker in a Wheatland park, but this monument is some distance away from the actual ranch site.