tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364212732008-07-10T20:18:39.414-06:00Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-58238199247141191392008-07-10T20:11:00.003-06:002008-07-10T20:18:40.436-06:00

A good friend and Donner Party buff was inspired by the last blog entry to compose a poem of his own: There once was a boy name of Donner Who feared he would soon be a goner. So he munched on his Pa And made lunch of his Ma But kept mum as a grim point of honor. Needless to say, he wants to remain anonymous.

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-13421562302394515572008-07-09T11:06:00.003-06:002008-07-09T11:37:06.717-06:00

Shana Youngdahl's Donner: A Passing has just become available from Finishing Line Press -- I haven't read it myself yet, but Cynthia Reeser and blogger Amy think it's great. I'll take their word for it because I'm not into modern poetry. Youngdahl isn't the first to write a verse interpretation of the Donner Party story -- Julia Altrocchi took it on in 1936 with Snow Covered Wagons, George

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-4501508600880401652008-06-22T22:23:00.003-06:002008-06-22T22:34:19.828-06:00

Remember a few posts ago I mentioned Rush Spedden's Overland Journal article about the Donner Party's route across the Salt Lake Valley? Well, as I expected, the latest issue has a response in a letter to the editor by Roy Tea, arguing that the Korns-Morgan hypothesis is correct and Rush is mistaken. I don't have an opinion myself, but if you're interested, check out Overland Journal 26:2.

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-55163020947132062008-06-22T09:26:00.004-06:002008-06-22T14:20:51.889-06:00

Dedicated in September 1962, the Emigrant Trail Museum at Donner Memorial State Park is now aging and inadequate, and is scheduled for replacement. However, the construction of the new High Sierra Crossing Museum, slated to begin last month, has been pushed back a year due to a delay in matching federal transportation grants. The new museum is now expected to open in 2010. In the meantime, the

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-21441416388349528062008-05-29T07:10:00.005-06:002008-05-29T07:41:01.097-06:00

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

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-5963510370113063962008-04-10T21:54:00.005-06:002008-04-11T07:05:21.770-06:00

Those who're interested can purchase Overland Journal 26:1 (Spring 2008), which contains three Donner Party articles, from the Oregon-California Trails Association. Phone (888) 811-6282, toll-free, to make a credit card purchase. $5.00 per copy, plus postage. (Disclaimer: I have no financial interest in sales of the issue.)

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-14463991134088835632008-04-10T19:46:00.009-06:002008-04-15T11:30:44.591-06:00

So much has been happening on the Donner Party front this spring that it's hard to know where to start. Yesterday I was surprised and pleased to hear of another book in the works, this one with a very different approach. In 1973 Gabrielle Burton was bitten by the Tamzene Donner bug. Over the years she's pursued Tamzene, traveling to Newburyport, Mass., Elizabeth City, N.C., Springfield, Ill.,

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-28140065733785219142008-03-08T18:04:00.005-07:002008-04-10T21:54:18.120-06:00

The latest issue over Overland Journal, the quarterly of the Oregon-California Trails Association (OCTA), is full of Donner Party material, including some new primary documents. First are three letters by rescuer Selim E. Woodworth. Two were written while he was on the trail to Oregon in 1846, the third on February 6, 1847, the eve of his departure to the mountains to rescue a party of "

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-92006800254905821292008-02-25T17:37:00.004-07:002008-03-23T09:49:54.367-06:00

Ruth Whitman's poem cycle Tamsen Donner: A Woman's Journey has inspired yet another artistic interpretation, described as an "operatorio in one act." On March 14 and 15 the Seattle EXperimental Opera (SEXO) will present Tom Baker's Hunger: The Journey of Tamsen Donner at 8:00 PM at the Chapel at Good Shepherd Center in Seattle -- see Tom's website or the press release for more information.

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-60981178250680515942008-02-22T07:57:00.004-07:002008-04-12T10:17:43.731-06:00

The URL for New Light on the Donner Party has been changed, for some mysterious reason. It's now http://www.xmission.com/~octa/DonnerParty/. However, the old one still seems to be functioning, too. Very strange.

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-20679909219386545012008-02-22T07:23:00.007-07:002008-04-12T10:16:02.042-06:00

Over the years there have been several plans to make a feature film about the Donner Party but none has ever been completed. Previous flutters about Donner movie projects have followed a predictable pattern: an initial announcement, sporadic follow-up reports, and then a deafening silence. Why? I can't say for certain, but suspect that these projects' demise can be attributed to the ever-tricky

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-36952814036747370412008-02-02T07:40:00.001-07:002008-02-22T07:56:10.387-07:00

Well, Ethan Rarick's new book on the Donner Party is officially out. Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West (Oxford University Press) has been available at Amazon.com for about a month now, but today's New York Times, the San Jose Mercury News, and other papers have published reviews, generally favorable. At last we have an up-to-date narrative history of the Donner Party

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-23101260018224345992007-12-03T07:43:00.000-07:002007-12-03T08:07:54.024-07:00

Well, it looks like geography will prevent me from seeing another Donner Party performance -- Stuart Richel informs me that he will be reprising his role as James F. Reed in "Mortal Decisions, a Diary of the Donner Party." Richel [pronounced rih-SHELL] wrote this one-man show, which premiered in San Jose, California, in 1994, and has presented it at other venues, including the first-night

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-76485801793419954072007-11-20T07:34:00.000-07:002007-12-03T08:06:55.325-07:00

When I first heard about Ron Cunningham's Donner Party ballet performed recently in Sacramento, I was sorry to have missed it. Not anymore! A correspondent wrote to the paper and learned of a "plot twist" -- George Donner didn't die of gangrene, no, no! Instead, the ballet suggests he was beaten to death by disgruntled party members. Tch! As if the memories of Donner Party members haven't been

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-6362374270975502642007-10-26T22:44:00.000-06:002007-10-28T16:28:13.117-06:00

The Donner Party has inspired a lot of artistic interpretations over the years -- novels, short stories, children's books, poems, paintings, plays, even an opera. Two works in the news of late are Jim Shaw's The Donner Party and Ron Cunningham's A Woman's Journey: The Tamsen Donner Story. Shaw's work was in the news a while back when it came up for auction at Christie's. It's an installation

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-35703121160449726692007-07-19T16:05:00.000-06:002007-07-19T17:10:46.139-06:00

An alert Donner buff sent me the following link to an article in the San Jose Mercury News of today, July 19, 2007: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6411936 Oh, I am sick about this! A San Jose preservationist contacted me for information about Eliza Donner Houghton back about 2002. I was pleased to learn that Eliza's home was still standing and had been deemed a local landmark. Last I heard, there

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-77133523049649292742007-06-24T09:02:00.000-06:002007-06-24T14:29:01.718-06:00

Lots of newish Donner Party books out there or on the way. First, I recently acquired Green Light (2000), by Patrick Breen. (No, not that Patrick Breen!) It's a horror story about a teenager named Patrick Breen who goes to a creepy summer camp in the Sierra Nevada and... well, let's just say there's a reason why it was published by a vanity press. Although it's not as awful as one might expect,

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-84212192770063969772007-06-24T08:24:00.000-06:002007-06-24T09:01:52.087-06:00

Well, it's been a long time since I blogged, but I haven't been utterly idle. Lots going on! Mostly I've been working on my Donner Party bibliography, which now numbers over 4700 citations. (There are hundreds more piled up that I haven't entered into my bibiliographic management program yet -- I use EndNote X.) The bibliography includes just about anything Donner Party: primary documents,

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-88319773885406981392007-02-10T08:37:00.000-07:002007-02-10T09:21:56.892-07:00

I'm sometimes asked to review other people's work, usually written, but this month I was asked to review something different: a debate. Eighth grade history teacher Eric Langhorst of Liberty, Missouri, divided his third-period class into two sections and showed them Ric Burns' documentary, after which the two teams debated whether or not Lansford W. Hastings was responsible for the Donner Party

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-29689907713907386692007-02-10T08:13:00.000-07:002007-02-10T08:12:27.588-07:00

I may have been inactive on the blog for the past two months, but I haven't forsaken the Donner Party -- I've been busy researching, reading, and e-mailing. Especially e-mailing! A bumper crop of students are working on Donner Party projects for National History Day this year -- I must have had ten different groups contact me for information. I received e-mail from one person working on a Donner

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-1165720683527994592006-12-09T18:34:00.000-07:002006-12-09T20:31:38.680-07:00

Eighty years ago this month, newspapers across the country reported another drama in the snow: Pioneer Methods Used in Rescuing Tourists Tonopah, Nev., Dec. 1. (AP) -- Rescued from the fate which befell the Donner party in the winter of 1846-47, passengers of thirty-one automobiles trapped in snow drifts in Montgomery Pass in the Sierra Mountains between here and Southern California, were

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-1165592157007115742006-12-08T07:51:00.000-07:002006-12-08T11:22:28.766-07:00

The analogy to the Donner Party is unavoidable -- a family stranded in the snow with little food, coping with their situation for as long as they could until finally one of them left the others to go for help. Like many others, I watched the story of the stranded Kim family unfold with great concern, rejoicing when Kati Kim and her daughters were found alive, praying for her still missing

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-1165504911381169602006-12-07T08:01:00.000-07:002006-12-07T08:21:51.390-07:00

OK, I've turned on the "Comments" option, just to see what response I get. I enjoy hearing from my readers but had to remove the guest book from New Light on the Donner Party because of all the spam it was getting, so I'm hoping this will be a good substitute. We'll see how it goes. Note: I reserve the right to moderate comments -- gross or obscene posts will get yanked.

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-1165172447178713332006-12-03T10:33:00.000-07:002006-12-03T16:35:18.336-07:00

Old newspapers are a gas. It's fascinating to see how people wrote back in the 1800s and early 1900s, how they thought and what they bought. And it may sound ghoulish, but obituaries can be particularly useful, not only for genealogical information but also because they preserve personal tidbits that might otherwise go unrecorded. Unfortunately, however, newspapers also generate and repeat

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-1163874377532522912006-11-18T11:17:00.000-07:002006-11-18T11:26:17.540-07:00

The real problem with the Sarah Keyes photo is the dress worn by the woman in the photo -- it doesn't have the long, pointed bodice typical of the 1840s but the straight, natural waist more typical of the 1850s and '60s. However, older women often don't follow the latest fashion trends and other photos from the 1840s show women wearing dresses with a natural waistline. We'll see what some

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com