The Donner Party by Daniel Lewis
Links and Sources

Home

Welcome!
The Year of 1846
The Story: Part I
Part II: The Journey
Part III: Snowbound
Part IV: Eating of the Dead
Epilogue: Journey's End
General Roster
Names for Research
Route of the Donner Party
Forensics of the Donner Party
Forensics II
The Donner Party and Native Americans
Religion of the Donner Party
Links and Sources
Contact Me

Academic Info is a great additional directory for student research

To the right are my sources. Below are links to some useful Donner-Party web-sites, and links to several online first and second-hand accounts of the Donner Party, thanks to Mike Haller and Daniel M. Rosen. Books carry much more information than the web-sites, however; web-sites should only be used as a starting point in research. Any quotes on this web-site other than my own come from these written sources, and are noted by author.

History of the Donner Party by C.F. McGlashan

Patrick Breen's Diary

"Across the Plains in the Donner Party," by Virginia Reed-Murphy.

Mike Haller is copying Edwin Bryant's What I Saw in California to an online manuscript. Incomplete, but good for insight into California at the time.

Edwin's Bryant's What I Saw in California

SOURCES:

The Journal of Patrick Breen, the only account of the Donner Party written during the ordeal. Online through the University of California's Online Archive.

Calabro, Marian, The Perilous Journey of the Donner Party, Clarion Books, New York, 1999. Easy to-follow version with many pictures and charts, principally meant for young adults.

Devoto, Bernard, The Year of Decision: 1846; Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1943. Focuses on all general Westward Emigration in 1846, as well as information about the Westward Movement up until that time.

Hardesty, Donald L., The Archeology of the Donner Party, University of Nevada Press, Reno, 1997. An account of a more recent excavation of the Murphy Cabin and Alder Creek area.

Johnson, Kristin, Unfortunate Emigrants, Utah State University Press, 1996. Highly useful resource of the Donner Party featuring much various media and accounts by survivors and rescuers.

McGlashan, C.F., History of the Donner Party, C.F. McGlashan 1879 and 1880. The first full-length account of the Donner Party, now online.

Virginia Reed,(-Murphy) "Across the Plains in the Donner Party," Century Magazine, 1891.

Donner Party Web-Sites:

Kristin Johnson's Donner Party Web-Site

Daniel M. Rosen's Donner Party Web-Site

Anthony Johnstone's Donner Party Web-Site

Mike Haller's Donner Party Web-Site

Donner Memorial State Park

Jared Diamond's Essay about the Donner Party

Connections to the Donner Party- Daniel Rhoades' Journey West in 1846

A Web-Page devoted to John Denton

A Documentary Film for PBS' The American Experience: The Donner Party