Go West Book Project
Desperate Passage by Ethan Rarick
Focus Question
What kinds of obstacles did the pioneers face on their journey?
Obstacles
Rivers
The Donner Party crossed many dangerous rivers on their way to California.
Mountains
The Donner Party had to face many obstacles but one of the greater ones was the mountains they had to traverse like the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas.
The Shortcut
George Donner had a part of the party take a shortcut near Utah that would supposedly take off two weeks of travel. The travel guide book they were using said it was a fine road with plenty amounts of water and grass on the way. The information of the shortcut was wrong, in fact it added 100 miles to the trip and got the Donners stuck with a heavy snow on the way.
Snow
The Donner Party crossed the Truckee pass with a dangerous shortage of supplies and broke an axel so were stuck for a few days, that night they received 5 feet of snow.
Supplies
The Donner Party eventually ran out of basically all supplies besides some peas and other food items they found. They eventually ended up eating dogs and other animal meat, some members ate bones, hide, twig, and string