The Donner Party Part 7

Part Seven of Ric Burns' American Experience documentary - "The Donner Party"

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Donner Party
• Ric Burns
• Ken Burns
• Pioneers
• California
• Cannibalism

[randydixon]

That Irish dude sure brought a lot of ink, didn't he?

[tempestuous85]

that last little description of the camp was pretty intense

[diddims]

I can't imagine what William Eddy must have felt; a young man who had survived the snowshoe party, was one of the leaders of the third rescue team, and he arrives at the lake to find that his baby daughter and his wife, Eleanor, died in late February and his three-year-old son, James, was cannibalized by Lewis Keseberg just days before he arrived.

[diddims]

@Timuramaru Margret Reed did not leave her children. She and all her children left with the first rescue team but when the rescuers found that they didn't have enough food, they said that two would have to return, and Patty volunteered to do so and look after her little brother, despite their mother's distress; blame the first relief party, not Margret Reed, since they're the ones who turned the children away. I admire Patty's boldness, though!

[diddims]

@r5t6y7u8 The immigrants themselves tried to do all of those things. They cut through very thick ice to see a crowd of fish, but they had no bait. William Eddy was the only effective hunter, and hunting is not easy even in stable circumstances; these people were desperate.

[r5t6y7u8]

Easy for me to say in my comfy house in 2011 but ... why didn't the rescuers stay a week and show the people how to fish from the lake, and hunt wild game? Doesn't that area have deer, elk, foxes, beavers, wolfs, and mountain lions, even in winter?

[saveusmilkboy]

fascinating story but i cannot be the only one who is annoyed by the way these voice actors do their best listless, dying-people impressions.

[Schimmerlois]

@W0lfboy111 It's Angelo Badalamenti's Dark Spanish Symphony for David Lynch's Wild at Heart.

[Duskofdead]

Don't have too much sympathy for Reed. Reed was the jerk who threw his weight around with the group to convince them to take Hastings Cutoff even though it was his longtime friend who had privately warned him not to take it.

[millers3888]

7:39-8:20 was mind-blowing.

[MarvelousSeven]

@randydixon I know right? Next time, pack more food and less ink!

[hollymarg]

@randydixon ...we generally have a lot to say;-)

That was Donal McCann narrating the 'Irish dude'...just in case anyone was wondering!!!