Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West

I live in the area where the Donner Party was trapped, and have read almost all that has been written on the subject. This is by far the most complete and accurate book I have read so far about this tragedy!!!

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.

This tale is so dramatic, so compelling, and so ably told, it puts me in mind of Nathaniel Philbrick's award winning In The Heart Of The Sea. Like Philbrick's book, I found it very difficult to put Desperate Passage down. Many people are familiar with the basics of the Donner party's story. They are caught in a blizzard in the Sierra Nevada mountains during an 1846 trek to California. So desperate does their plight become that they resort to cannabilism to survive. Ethan Rarick fills in the details of the story -- he "fleshes" it out, as it were. This he does in prose as crisp and clear as a bright winter's morn. Desperate Passage is narrative history at its best. Take up this book, and you will not be disappointed.

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.

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.