Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West
Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West book cover

Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West

Hardcover – Illustrated, February 4, 2008

by
Price
$24.99
Format
Hardcover
Pages
304
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0195305029
Dimensions
9.3 x 1.11 x 6.63 inches
Weight
1.39 pounds

Description

"His is the first significant book, written, like Stewart's, in a novelistic mode and likely to gain popular readership, to incorporate this new data...Rarick's account is not really about science; it's about humanity...Rarick has done his homework."-- New York Times Book Review "This sober, unflinching look at one of the great tragedies of America's pioneering past tells us a great deal that is new about the Donner Party's trials. Rarick scythes away the myths of one of the nation's better-known sagas, and offers up this horrific but ennobling tale in all its freshly researched detail. Readers take heed: this is a tough book, but a gripping one."--Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa "Rarick takes an evenhanded and thorough approach to the story of the Donners' covered-wagon migration across the country and their winter entrapment in the Sierras. His telling is evocative and easy to read."-- Seattle Times " Desperate Passage is the most up-to-date narrative history of the Donner Party available today and as such is a welcome addition to the literature. General readers, especially those who know of the Donner party only as the cannibal wagon train, will undoubtedly find it a fascinating read."-- Overland Journal "Many books tell the Donner story, but none digs as deep for the truth as Ethan Rarick's Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West ...With personal details...bringing a human touch to the story, Desperate Passage succeeds in rescuing the Donner Party from 162 years of infamy."-- Tacoma News Tribune "A history of the first rank--precise, restrained and compelling... Desperate Passage makes a gripping tale, and Rarick makes a scrupulous guide."-- Cleveland Plain Dealer "With a reporter's doggedness and a scholar's thoroughness, Rarick has clarified the historical details...Rarick makes this compelling frontier drama all the more so."-- National Geographic Adventure Magazine "A clean, chilling cautionary story of misjudgment and perseverance...Rarick deals with this most extreme of issues [cannibalism] with the evenhandedness and lack of melodrama that characterize the book throughout."-- Houston Chronicle "A well-written, copiously documented account."-- Deseret Morning News "Reads like a novel, and for those who are drawn to American history...coupled with one of the most grisly survival tales in history, then this is the absolute book for you."-- Monsters and Critics website " Desperate Passage is a wise book, not only a horror or an adventure story but a universal and timeless tale about acts of desperation performed by average people under extreme conditions--a situation that can befall coal miners in Utah, soccer teams in the Andes, occupants of the World Trade Center, or readers of the book."--Philip L. Fradkin, author of Wallace Stegner and the American West "Rarick illuminates this classic America stage through a deftly told drama of courage and cowardice...with a fascinating cast ranging from the iconic American Everyman to the astonishing scoundrels."--Van Gordon Sauter, former President, CBSNews "Like the foreboding passages in an operatic overture, the ordeal of the Donner Party warned Americans that tragedy could not be banished from this newly acquired province. In this meticulously detailed narrative, Ethan Rarick presents the full horror and bravery of a dystopian episode that would forever qualify the California experience."--Kevin Starr, University of Southern California, author of Americans and the California Dream "The story of the ill-fated Donner Party's trek across the country is the reverse image of Lewis and Clark's: seemingly everything that could go wrong, did go wrong--from bad leadership to disastrous choices, from fatal accidents to murderous fights, and finally a ghastly ordeal in the Sierra snows. It's a remarkable story for all generations, and with the advantage of updated research and a keen eye for detail, Ethan Rarick builds a quick-moving narrative."--Dayton Duncan, author of Out West: An American Journey Along the Lewis and Clark Trail Ethan Rarick has written about politics, crime, business and sports throughout the West. His work has appeared in many publications, including the Los Angles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle , and he is the author of California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown . He lives in Berkeley, California.

Features & Highlights

  • In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened, what it tells us about human nature and about America's westward expansion, remained shrouded in myth. Drawing on fresh archaeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. But Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. "The Donner Party," Rarick writes, "is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity." A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history,
  • A Desperate Hope
  • casts new light on one of America's most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(571)
★★★★
25%
(238)
★★★
15%
(143)
★★
7%
(67)
★
-7%
(-68)

Most Helpful Reviews

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Fatal Mistakes

History was never my favorite subject. In fact, I managed to get a Master's Degree without taking one history class in college. As I have grown older and visited historic sites while traveling in the western United States, I have become much more interested in history, particularly of the 1800's in America and of this part of the country. Luckily there is no lack of good books on the subject to pick up where my junior high school history class left off. One of the best of these is Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West by Ethan Rarick, released early in 2008.

In the fall of 1846 the Donner party of wagons was the last to try to cross the Sierra Nevada on the way to California. 81 men, women, and children were trapped in the mountains for months by a snowfall that halted their progress west. Desperate Passage is the story of those who survived the ordeal and how they did it, and of those who did not and how they died.

Rarick starts by introducing us to the members of the party, telling us of their lives up until May 12, 1846, when they left Independence, Missouri, and of their hopes and dreams for a new life in California. He chronicles their journey westward with its hard work and deprivations, and their apparently fateful decision to take the untried Hastings Cutoff. He details their winter in the snowy mountains without sufficient provisions; successful and unsuccessful attempts by some of the members to go for help; the death, desperation, and sacrifices of both the members of the party and some of their would-be rescuers; and the ultimate rescue early in 1847 of the last of the survivors.

Based on "fresh archaeological evidence" and recent research, Desperate Passage includes maps, pictures, and a list of "dramatis personae" to help the reader keep things straight. A rapid read, it is an engrossing, well-written, and thorough book, and a must-read for anyone interested in history - even us Johnny-come-latelys.
105 people found this helpful
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Wonderful research makes an intriguing story even better

Ethan Rarick's intriguing account of the Donner party's tortured attempt to reach California in the winter of 1846-47 is honest and well-written. In DESPERATE PASSAGE he has eschewed the tendency towards sensationalism found in so many other books about the emigrants and has relied on extensive research to tell the story of the small band of pioneers stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains and its struggle for survival.

This book has many stories of heroism and cowardice, industry and sloth, resourcefulness and ignorance. The enigma of the way the group handled the dreadful conditions under which it eventually found itself is clearly laid out without being judgmental or overly lurid. When the Donner party is discussed today, cannibalism is the overriding theme attached to the story. Rarick certainly doesn't sugarcoat the details, but presents them in such a way that the reader can understand abandonment, homicide, or the eating of human flesh without feeling the revulsion that normally accompanies such ideas.

We often hear of humans suffering through hunger, filth, and horrific climatic conditions. The vast majority of us haven't actually experienced those types of conditions in person. It's more likely that we've read about them while munching on an apple and hearing the wind and rain assault the exterior of our comfortable houses. Or perhaps we've seen the starving children in third world countries pleading for help on television screens. Rarick will change all that for you. In this riveting account of real life suffering, your apple will not taste as sweet nor your coziness be as comforting. You'll actually feel the pain caused by hunger and cold. The cooking up of a loved one's liver might be a little more acceptable.

The sheer number of characters involved in the Donner story and the number of incidents makes the narration hard to follow. I had a little difficulty following who did what when, but that is my only criticism of this work.

As I've said many times, research makes the book. Rarick has done his and he has included some modern findings that shed new light on conditions found and decisions made in the Sierra blizzards that plagued the Donner party. His compilation of this enormous amount of background material into such a tight and compelling report is truly the mark of a great writer. I strongly urge you to read this book.
36 people found this helpful
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Wrong choices with sad consequences.

I've read many accounts of the Donner Party over the years. This is the first well-documented account I have found. The tragedy is told in a straight forward way and the writing makes for a fast read. The only thing I wish the author had included is a more detailed map (or maps) of the Donner party's path.
32 people found this helpful
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A Wagon Train In The Winter

Mr. Rarick tells the familiar story of the Donner Party's tragic trek to California in 1846-1847. Marooned in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the winter with little food and poor shelter, this tale of survival is buttressed by new archaeology and by extensive review of primary sources. This documentation fuels his picture of the Reed family and centers the deprivations and the rescue around them. The book moves at a good clip and gives an overall picture of this twice-told tale.
26 people found this helpful
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Excellent Read

This book is very well written and a total page-turner. Mr. Rarick recognizes that the story of the Donner Party speaks for itself. He does not weigh the reader down with embellishments or assumptions or added drama. When most people hear about the Donner Party, all they really get out of the story is a sensationalist account of cannibalism. However, the real story is so much deeper than that.

Several young mothers left their children behind and hiked for over two weeks in hopes of a rescue. A five year old literally had to crawl over the Sierra with a rescue party (after months of hardly any food). One rescuer had three little girls in his charge. They were too weak to walk and so he carried each one several yards, set her down, and went back for the other, slowly but surely crossing the Sierra.

After you read the entire book, what really shocks you is not how many people died, but how anyone survived at all.
11 people found this helpful
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Would like to have seen...

I would like to have seen better quality maps of the topography of their route, as well as where the cabins & Donner party are thought to have camped, too.

Additional pictures of these areas would have been helpful also.

An analysis of the leadership decisions in the closing chapter would have provided a nice summary for the book. As some key leadership "mistakes" (otherwise known as poor decisions) were made, this book, while it touched on these poor decisions, didn't really analyze them in the depth I expected.

For example, it seems to me James Reed was highly responsible for much of the grief experienced by the party. He is portrayed as slightly hot headed, overly enthusiastic and irrational in promoting an untested route when it was well known that time was of the essence in getting across the Sierras safely. The fact that he also joined the Army and fought in a war AFTER getting out of the Sierras himself but BEFORE going back to rescue his family amazes me with the apparent lack of care for his own family. While seemingly a man with great energy and initiative, going off to fight a war while his family was starving to death high in the mountains was nothing short of appalling.

As a wilderness backpacker, I know that one of the poorest decisions you can make is to rely on an untested endorsement of a particular route, or the leadership of someone who is hot headed, irrational and prone to make decisions that fail to take the good of the entire group into account. It seems James Reed had the emotional charisma of a leader, without the intellectual skills of rational thought and decision making. What an excellent warning example of being careful NOT to fall prey to the charisma of a "leader" who is not equipped to actually make tough decisions and truly lead.

Hastings also bears a great deal of responsibility for this tragedy and, in my opinion, should have been sued for his lack of accuracy & concern in promoting an unproven route he had not been over fully himself... and in his lack of integrity in not guiding the party as promised.

As for the cannibalism, my only comment is that, faced with the decision to allow myself & my family to die of starvation (in large part due to my own stupidity in following the poor decisions of others) OR to eat human flesh, my own stand would be clear. I have no question what I would do. Integrity IS more important than mere survival.
4 people found this helpful
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Time and Hastings

Rarick writes a very nice narrative about the Donner Party that includes references to the Hardesty and Dixon excavations of recent years. I liked the book and his generally neutral positions with one exception. He is a bit too harsh on Lansford Hastings who is all but vilified as a main cause of the Donner Party's demise. Rarick seems to imply that Hastings should have waited indefinitely at Fort Bridger for straggling companies no matter what the consequences for all involved by risking a late crossing of the Sierra. Hastings led about 66 wagons into the Humboldt River Valley himself without a single lost life.

Rarick includes but fails to elaborate on the telling causes of the Donners' entrapment. In addition to their waste of travel time at key points, even including the addition of time they spent on the route they cut through Big Mountain via Hastings's advice, there was a very large number of children and adolescents in the company. There was also the specter of overloaded wagons, chiefly belonging to the Donner's and Reed's.

They only missed crossing Donner Pass by a short window of time. And that discrepancy could have been made up at any of a number of "rest days" the party so foolishly wasted knowing full well the Sierra were not to be viewed lightly, and as mentioned in Hastings's guide to be entered no later than October first. Though they still may have been snowed in, it would have been on the western slope of the pass where rescue assistance would be more forthcoming. The bottom line is that the Donner Party turned out to be their own worst enemy, not Hastings, and Rarick fails to remain neutral in that respect.
4 people found this helpful
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Powerful, must read!

I had never before read a book about the Donner Party, and was lucky enough to have this be my first. I started reading it before dinner, and stayed up until 3 a.m. to finish. From the beginning, Rarick provides a complete picture of the members of the party, and the times in which they live. He immediately sets the stage to objectively describe what they should and should not have done along the trail. He is able to introduce people slowly, so as to not overwhelm, and provides interesting accounts. Along the way, you see each mistake build and build, yet you never tire of the way he presents it. The first review on the back cover calls it a "tough" but "gripping" book, and that is definitely true. After giving a good overview of the route to Donner Lake, Rarick introduces the difficult topic of cannibalism, and does so completely. While that section was terribly disturbing, he presents it as well as possible, with a briefly historical look at cannibalism generally, that helps explain how is happens in such dire circumstances. Overall, I especially enjoyed Rarick's ability to set the stage and background in every respect. He highlights the heroes, and the not-so-valiant. I will never forget the inclusion of rescuer John Stark, who coaxed down nine people (most of them children) singlehandedly. I will never forget Virginia Donner's summary of the event, "Never take no cutofs and hury along as fast as you can." Rarick did an excellent job concluding the book, with a wonderful chapter summarizing the numbers and circumstances of the party and all involved, and concluding that those who live inter-connected lives with a strong support system survive at greater rates than those without. I am an avid reader, and rate this as one of the top three books I have read this year. Do not miss it!
3 people found this helpful
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The American Spirit at its Best!

This is a true page turner. A riveting story that details the extraordinary perils faced by these ordinary pioneers - their courage, weakness, resourcefulness and near triumph in the face of brutal and unforgiving circumstances.

I had read some literature on the topic, but nothing brought it to life and emblazoned it in my memory like this eloquently told tale. Historically accurate, it is a history lesson at the same time! I recommend this one!
3 people found this helpful
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A fascinating book you can not put down...

I already knew many details of the Donner Party from a PBS special I had seen a few years ago. But, I still read this book in two days and I would have finished it faster if I could have had the opportunity. The author did a wonderful job of bringing history to life and he especially did well with creating for us the desperate situations the people found themselves in. Books like this make you ask questions and think about moral dilemmas - I found myself wondering about actions the characters took to take care of their own family versus actions that might have been taken to take care of everyone in the group. Parts of this book do get rather gruesome with perhaps the ultimate moral dilemma but I think that in the end you will have a greater understanding of the decisions that the people in this group made.
2 people found this helpful

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