WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.080 --> 00:00:04.840 align:middle line:90% The Donner Party is a story of-- 00:00:04.840 --> 00:00:07.555 align:middle line:84% it's a book-- this is from a book of poems, 00:00:07.555 --> 00:00:09.520 align:middle line:90% and it's 250 pages. 00:00:09.520 --> 00:00:11.530 align:middle line:84% I want to read just a few episodes. 00:00:11.530 --> 00:00:14.680 align:middle line:84% It's a story of a group of 80 some people 00:00:14.680 --> 00:00:18.400 align:middle line:84% from Midwestern states, mainly Illinois, 00:00:18.400 --> 00:00:21.430 align:middle line:84% the Western part of Tennessee, the northern part of Missouri, 00:00:21.430 --> 00:00:27.910 align:middle line:84% and Iowa, in 1846 setting out for California. 00:00:27.910 --> 00:00:32.560 align:middle line:84% This was the first huge migration westward. 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:36.610 align:middle line:84% They were going not as the 49ers would go later, for wealth 00:00:36.610 --> 00:00:38.410 align:middle line:90% and gold, but for good land. 00:00:38.410 --> 00:00:40.720 align:middle line:84% And they were prompted to leave because 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:42.850 align:middle line:84% of two terribly hard winters that 00:00:42.850 --> 00:00:47.170 align:middle line:84% had killed off much of the farming in those areas, 00:00:47.170 --> 00:00:50.110 align:middle line:84% and had shut down many of the farm related businesses 00:00:50.110 --> 00:00:51.830 align:middle line:90% in small towns. 00:00:51.830 --> 00:00:55.600 align:middle line:84% So the leaders of the party are the few prosperous farmers 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:57.460 align:middle line:84% who could sell their land and their farms. 00:00:57.460 --> 00:01:02.560 align:middle line:84% And the vast majority of the party are bankrupt, many 00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:05.680 align:middle line:84% of them uneducated, many illiterate, 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:09.285 align:middle line:84% who have to follow where the wealthy farmers lead them, 00:01:09.285 --> 00:01:10.660 align:middle line:84% because they're the ones who have 00:01:10.660 --> 00:01:13.090 align:middle line:84% the guidebooks and the maps and have done the planning. 00:01:13.090 --> 00:01:16.420 align:middle line:90% 00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:18.840 align:middle line:84% At the point where I want to pick up the story, 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:20.980 align:middle line:84% they're well out into the country-- 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:24.040 align:middle line:84% in fact they've gone across the Great Plains State. 00:01:24.040 --> 00:01:27.130 align:middle line:84% They've cut their own path through the Wasatch Mountains, 00:01:27.130 --> 00:01:31.540 align:middle line:84% and have crossed the salt desert. 00:01:31.540 --> 00:01:34.810 align:middle line:84% At this stage, they've lost 2/3 of their wagons, 00:01:34.810 --> 00:01:39.435 align:middle line:84% 2/3 of their provisions, much of their livestock. 00:01:39.435 --> 00:01:40.810 align:middle line:84% The guidebook they were following 00:01:40.810 --> 00:01:42.280 align:middle line:90% turned out to be inaccurate. 00:01:42.280 --> 00:01:44.530 align:middle line:84% It was written by a man who had never seen the country 00:01:44.530 --> 00:01:47.500 align:middle line:84% and made up the directions by hearsay. 00:01:47.500 --> 00:01:51.310 align:middle line:84% They've lost faith in each other as well, in their leadership 00:01:51.310 --> 00:01:54.730 align:middle line:90% and in their companionship. 00:01:54.730 --> 00:01:58.660 align:middle line:84% At one stage a member of the party-- 00:01:58.660 --> 00:02:01.060 align:middle line:84% a German immigrant named Wolfinger-- 00:02:01.060 --> 00:02:03.730 align:middle line:84% fails to come into the campfire in the evening. 00:02:03.730 --> 00:02:06.940 align:middle line:84% And by now, none of them is feeling very 00:02:06.940 --> 00:02:08.440 align:middle line:90% trusting toward the others. 00:02:08.440 --> 00:02:10.240 align:middle line:84% But in particular, there's distrust 00:02:10.240 --> 00:02:15.220 align:middle line:84% on the part of the native farm population 00:02:15.220 --> 00:02:19.120 align:middle line:84% in the party against this group of German immigrants 00:02:19.120 --> 00:02:22.090 align:middle line:84% who they have taken into their midst. 00:02:22.090 --> 00:02:24.460 align:middle line:84% They met them on the plains in Nebraska. 00:02:24.460 --> 00:02:27.700 align:middle line:84% A man named Keseberg, and his wife and child, 00:02:27.700 --> 00:02:31.060 align:middle line:84% fellow named Spitzer, fellow name Wolfinger and his wife, 00:02:31.060 --> 00:02:31.915 align:middle line:90% and some others. 00:02:31.915 --> 00:02:33.790 align:middle line:84% They were Germans just visiting this country. 00:02:33.790 --> 00:02:36.130 align:middle line:84% And they heard about the Western immigration going on, 00:02:36.130 --> 00:02:38.380 align:middle line:84% and they thought it would be fun to go out and see it. 00:02:38.380 --> 00:02:40.450 align:middle line:84% And they got caught up in it, and caught up 00:02:40.450 --> 00:02:42.850 align:middle line:90% into the Donner Party. 00:02:42.850 --> 00:02:46.495 align:middle line:84% This is a short passage called, Our Suspicions are Aroused. 00:02:46.495 --> 00:02:50.980 align:middle line:90% 00:02:50.980 --> 00:02:54.190 align:middle line:84% One evening the wealthy Wolfinger was missing. 00:02:54.190 --> 00:02:55.930 align:middle line:84% His wife was talking with Elizabeth 00:02:55.930 --> 00:02:59.020 align:middle line:84% when it first occurred to anyone that he was gone. 00:02:59.020 --> 00:03:02.920 align:middle line:84% I left the women to feed the fire and ration a small supper, 00:03:02.920 --> 00:03:05.830 align:middle line:84% and went to ask where he might be. 00:03:05.830 --> 00:03:07.720 align:middle line:90% My teamster had the answer. 00:03:07.720 --> 00:03:11.830 align:middle line:84% Batiste told me he saw the man drop behind to keep company 00:03:11.830 --> 00:03:15.880 align:middle line:84% with Keseberg and his less prosperous friends, Reinhardt 00:03:15.880 --> 00:03:18.580 align:middle line:90% and Spitzer. 00:03:18.580 --> 00:03:19.960 align:middle line:90% It hardly sounded safe. 00:03:19.960 --> 00:03:21.880 align:middle line:84% While no one wanted to alarm his wife, 00:03:21.880 --> 00:03:24.250 align:middle line:84% I feared we would find Wolfinger's corpse 00:03:24.250 --> 00:03:28.480 align:middle line:84% unless we went after him to prevent disaster. 00:03:28.480 --> 00:03:31.120 align:middle line:84% As we set out, a stream of stars shed little light 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:32.710 align:middle line:90% on the dead land. 00:03:32.710 --> 00:03:37.900 align:middle line:84% But we barely started when we met Keseberg coming into camp. 00:03:37.900 --> 00:03:41.410 align:middle line:84% He assured everyone the other men were merely five miles back 00:03:41.410 --> 00:03:43.480 align:middle line:90% and driving slowly. 00:03:43.480 --> 00:03:44.770 align:middle line:90% We decided to return. 00:03:44.770 --> 00:03:46.630 align:middle line:84% We settled down with Wolfinger's wife 00:03:46.630 --> 00:03:49.270 align:middle line:84% to wait for her husband to arrive. 00:03:49.270 --> 00:03:51.700 align:middle line:90% The stars passed over our fire. 00:03:51.700 --> 00:03:55.150 align:middle line:84% Hour after hour, the sky to the East grew gray. 00:03:55.150 --> 00:03:59.090 align:middle line:84% By dawn, still he had not come in and she was hysterical. 00:03:59.090 --> 00:04:00.940 align:middle line:84% I called upon the young men in the party, 00:04:00.940 --> 00:04:02.740 align:middle line:90% "who will go and look?" 00:04:02.740 --> 00:04:04.660 align:middle line:84% Billy Graves took two friends and left 00:04:04.660 --> 00:04:07.000 align:middle line:90% to learn what had happened. 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:10.030 align:middle line:84% He returned within the hour only to report, "we 00:04:10.030 --> 00:04:11.860 align:middle line:90% found no trace of Wolfinger. 00:04:11.860 --> 00:04:14.860 align:middle line:84% His wagon is in order, but the team has gone grazing somewhere 00:04:14.860 --> 00:04:17.170 align:middle line:90% or they were driven off. 00:04:17.170 --> 00:04:19.300 align:middle line:90% No sign of the missing men." 00:04:19.300 --> 00:04:21.220 align:middle line:84% Later in the day, Spitzer wandered in 00:04:21.220 --> 00:04:23.380 align:middle line:84% to say Wolfinger was slain, no doubt 00:04:23.380 --> 00:04:25.465 align:middle line:84% by the diggers who lived like dogs in the hills. 00:04:25.465 --> 00:04:28.890 align:middle line:90% 00:04:28.890 --> 00:04:30.720 align:middle line:84% This was one of the men who helped 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:34.980 align:middle line:84% Keseberg plunder a funeral perch long ago on the prairie. 00:04:34.980 --> 00:04:37.380 align:middle line:84% And now he couldn't explain where Wolfinger was, 00:04:37.380 --> 00:04:38.820 align:middle line:90% or Reinhardt either. 00:04:38.820 --> 00:04:41.970 align:middle line:84% But no one was willing to delay longer for the widow's sake, 00:04:41.970 --> 00:04:44.100 align:middle line:90% on suspicion alone. 00:04:44.100 --> 00:04:46.650 align:middle line:84% So we let her think Spitzer's story was true. 00:04:46.650 --> 00:04:48.720 align:middle line:84% It was some damn diggers who'd killed her husband 00:04:48.720 --> 00:04:50.910 align:middle line:90% for his money and hid the body. 00:04:50.910 --> 00:04:54.060 align:middle line:84% And we invited the widow to join us and ride inside 00:04:54.060 --> 00:04:57.380 align:middle line:84% with our children for the rest of the journey.