35-xx-xx ep09The Donner Party

Frontier Fighters! Troy stories of those splendid Wayfarers who trod the endless westward paths to everlasting fame and eternal glory. Pathetic rim tragic is the history of the ill-fated Donner Party.

Nearly a hundred pioneer men, women and little children martyrs to the Pacific colonization boom which in the middle west assume gigantic proportions. It is spring 1846 in Sangamon County, Illinois. I want your attention. I'll give you your attention. Everybody, please.

And I read the name from my master role. I want the head of every family to answer. Alright, George Donner, his wife and five children. That's us, George. Jacob Donner, my elder brother, his wife and seven children.

Here, George. James Reed, his wife and four children. Here, Donner. Mrs. Syracuse, mother of Mrs. James Reed. Here. And don't you forget that I'm 90 years old. Here's the whole thing. The brave family. The brave family.

The brave family. The merpies. The jor we're here. The pikes. Here. 32 teamsters and camp assistants. Grandma, Grandma, Grandma. Grandma, Grandwagons. Extra yolks of oxen, cows for milk, young beef cattle, saddle horses and the dogs.

I've got the dog daddy. She implements for the new farms, school supplies for the children. the Indians and ten thousand dollars. I've got the money George I fit between the covers of our quilt this afternoon. I won't sleep a wing full the responsibility of all that money. On July 25th at Fort Fridger Wyoming the

Donner party received a letter from Landsford W Hastings an organizer of Emigrant trains, advising its captain to take the shorter route west, known as the Kothaw, which led from Salt Lake to the Humboldt River.