tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-364212732009-06-30T10:05:57.211-06:00Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-73832063790253357382009-05-11T07:39:00.007-06:002009-05-12T07:22:14.662-06:00

In March 1847 Mrs. Elizabeth Graves hid her family's wealth near Donner Lake. When the coins were rediscovered in May 1891, the story of the lost Graves treasure hit newspapers across the country. On Thursday I became the recipient of a new Graves treasure, a collection of photographs, letters, and other material from the family of Eleanor Graves McDonnell's daughter, Mary McDonnell Greene.Mary

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-35932075842659731712009-05-03T15:22:00.005-06:002009-05-06T15:10:35.348-06:00

Well, it's here! Daniel James Brown's The Indifferent Stars Above is now available. Mary Roach, in her favorable New York Times review, described it as "an ideal pairing of talent and material" and Brown as "a deft and ambitious storyteller, sifting through the copious and often conflicting details... to forge a trim, surging, minute by minute narrative." (Roach is no stranger to the Donner Party

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-5422521257369926212009-04-18T11:00:00.003-06:002009-04-18T11:29:31.981-06:00

James D. Houston, whose 2001 novel Snow Mountain Passage focused on the Reeds of the Donner Party, died in on Thursday, April 16, 2009. The house in Santa Cruz where he lived for many years had once been the home of Patty Reed Lewis. Read his obituary here.On a cheerier note, Gabrielle Burton's Searching for Tamsen Donner has received some great reviews. I found it a delightful read, myself, and

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-44514664391613470842009-02-19T22:54:00.006-07:002009-05-06T15:08:40.790-06:00

Gabrielle Burton's new book, Searching for Tamsen Donner, is available ahead of schedule from the University of Nebraska Press. I haven't had a chance to read much of the published version, but can tell you that it's quite a story. In the summer of 1977, bitten by the Tamsen bug, Gabrielle, her husband, and five daughters piled into their station wagon and set out from their home in Buffalo, New

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-74336496568664779352009-02-19T22:01:00.004-07:002009-05-06T15:11:43.823-06:00

One hundred sixty-two years ago today, on February 19, 1847, the first relief party reached Donner Lake, a factoid which appears in several "on this day in history" features, including Chase's Calendar of Events, History.com, and in a number of blogs. It's gratifying to see so much recognition of this event, and amusing to read some of the commentsBy an interesting coincidence, today is also the

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-41844496575505590742009-02-06T21:18:00.008-07:002009-02-06T22:06:41.671-07:00

Today I got an e-mail from John E. Moore, producer of The Forlorn, Anacapa Entertainment's forthcoming movie based on the band of snowshoers (later known as the Forlorn Hope) who set out from the camp at Donner Lake in December 1846 to get help from Sutter's Fort. Anacapa's in the process of scoring/mixing the film; no release date has been set yet. You can view a trailer here. It's kinda hard to

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-14340282584322189852009-01-28T21:06:00.009-07:002009-02-06T21:59:42.442-07:00

Last year I blogged about a forthcoming horror movie with a Donner Party theme, and now it looks like Necrosis is nearing release. From what I can tell, it has the usual plot: a group of young people goes off to have fun at some location or other that turns out to have a dark history; they are terrorized by a specter from the past that stalks them and strikes them down one by one. In this case,

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-72644154469494206212009-01-01T10:45:00.007-07:002009-02-06T22:27:18.413-07:00

With two, hopefully three major books about the Donner Party coming out, 2009 will be a banner year for followers of the saga.First there's Gabrielle Burton's Searching for Tamsen Donner, published by the University of Nebraska Press and due out on March 1. Gabrielle describes her personal quest for the elusive heroine and ends with the first publication of all of Tamzene's known letters.And you

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-30161061893220852302008-12-07T09:05:00.005-07:002009-05-06T15:09:33.181-06:00

Five years ago, Termite Arts produced an episode about the Donner Party for the Discovery Channel program "Unsolved History" which aired on October 8, 2003. As I wrote at the time, it was "not a resounding success. Most correspondents thought it had a jarringly split personality. The first part featured reenactment experiments, the second the archaeological discoveries at Alder Creek. Both parts

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-13229455285772432642008-11-19T07:01:00.002-07:002009-02-06T22:00:47.789-07:00

When I got to Alder Creek in July 2004 I was eager to learn if anything had turned up at the dig yet, so I stopped a likely looking woman in the parking lot. Yes, she said, she was with the dig, they had indeed been finding things, and mentioned pieces of broken writing slate. When I heard that, I got chills -- Tamzene Donner had been a school teacher and took school supplies to California! That

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-58800223322090221632008-11-16T09:23:00.006-07:002009-02-06T22:01:19.023-07:00

My frequent long silences don't mean that nothing is going on on the Donner front -- au contraire! I've been so busy, I don't know where to start. I've sent in the first draft of my contribution to the Donner Party archaeology book, which was quite a relief, but now I'm working on revisions. Some interesting things have come up that I need to shoehorn in somehow. Also, I worked with Will

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36421273.post-44006408262967930752008-11-09T10:36:00.005-07:002009-02-06T22:02:51.329-07:00

I hate politics, so it's a relief to get the election over with. What's really interesting is how the Donner Party kept popping up in the commentary. This is nothing new; for instance, in 1998, one commentator wrote, "... even the staunchest defenders of the GOP are wondering how much progress there is in moving from the Republican to the 'Donner' party," and in 2005 another wrote, "Howard Dean

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0tag: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 DonnerWho feared he would soon be a goner.So he munched on his PaAnd made lunch of his MaBut kept mum as a grim point of honor.Needless to say, he wants to remain anonymous.

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0tag: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.com0tag: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.com0tag: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 old

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0tag: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.com0tag: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.com0tag: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., and

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0tag: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.com0tag: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. Anybody

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com2tag: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.com0tag: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.com5tag: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.com2tag: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 banquet

Kristin Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10137203177065875290noreply@blogger.com0