Patrick Breen (Actor, voice-over): Friday, February the 5th. The locomotives were fascinating! In 2008, hikers found identification belonging to Steve Fossett, a world famous adventurer who vanished a year earlier. James Reed was the obvious choice, but his aristocratic manner and his wealth had rubbed too many families the wrong way. Sean Cleary I don’t think she has done so yet. Composed and performed by Harold Budd Narrator: The worried emigrants hurried on, following the track of Hastings’s wagons, west then sharply south for a few miles to a cluster of clear, fresh springs. Between are the peaceful fields of Tuolumne Meadows, the geologic curiosities at Devils Postpile, the picturesque Ansel Adams Wilderness and so much more. Milt got back last night from the Donner’s camp. These are some of the world's largest trees, rising majestically out of the snowy slopes along the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It was a siren call and bad news. The Breens and their seven children took over an abandoned shack not far from Truckee Lake. Then on August 6th, at the bottom of Echo Canyon, the party came to a halt. There was no time to waste. Illinois State Historical Library Researchers quantify carbon changes in Sierra Nevada meadow soils. She died in 1931 at the age of 93. Greg Shea, Online Editors He dreamed of taking California from Mexico and of establishing an independent republic with himself at its head. Latest From Nevada Today. Ma spread down a buffalo robe and sat up by the fire. Here are some of our picks to get you in the spirit. Aired on March 22, 2019, on KLAS TV in Las Vegas. Virginia Reed (Actress, voice-over): We made a fire and got something to eat. It's a very narrow-vision point of view of such a massive scale disaster that it feels a bit like a wasted opportunity. LATEST NEWS. Whole families and people of all stations in life joined the caravan, which is part of the fascination of this haunting story. Alone among the survivors, Lewis Keseberg spoke openly of eating human flesh and was reviled as a man-eater and ghoul. Even today it’s a man-killer. The Donners and the Reeds made a lavish entourage, 32 men, women and children in all, counting the Reeds’ two hired servants and the seven teamsters who had answered George Donner’s ad to drive the big wagons. Lansford Hastings moved to San Francisco and went back into law, but was too restless to make a go of it. They were in what the mountain men called “Oregon country” now, 1,000 miles from Independence with more than 1,000 miles still to go. We had good luck till we come to Big Sandy. 1 month. One week later, the Donner Party rolled into Fort Bridger, two log cabins and a corral run as a trading post by a celebrated mountain man named Jim Bridger. Narrator: Stanton and one of the Indians made it as far as the summit, then turned back. The Kogi (/ ˈ k oʊ É¡ i / KOH-gee), or Cogui, or Kágaba, meaning "jaguar" in the Kogi language, are an indigenous ethnic group that live in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains in northern Colombia.Their culture has continued since the Pre-Columbian era. But there’s more at stake, so we brew and do business like the planet’s future depends on it, because it does. I never knew about the Shays before. Then the suggestion was made that lots be cast and whoever drew the longest slip should be the sacrifice. General » General Discussion. Wagons bogged to the hubs, drivers cursed and whipped the straining oxen. She can get a Spaniard anytime. The topography of the Sierra is shaped by uplift and glacial action. Narrator: One afternoon Peggy Breen motioned Margaret Reed outside to tell her that her daughter, Virginia, was dying. Relics from the camps, bits of china, buttons and nails, wood shavings from the cabins became popular souvenirs. In the doorway stood a bleeding skeleton of a man. James Reed (Actor, voice-over): Among the cabins lay the fleshless bones and half-eaten bodies of the victims of the famine. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Daniel Rhoads (Actor, voice-over): At sunset, we crossed Truckee Lake on the ice and came to the spot where we had been told we should find the emigrants. But they made the great mistake of listening to Lansford Hastings. Amen. Richard Rhoads At last we were all in the wagons. Snow storms are dreadful to us. I told them I would go, too, for to go back and hear the cries of hunger from my brothers and sisters was more than I could stand. The documentary-style nature of this show allows for that. Museum of the American West, Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles; 92.126.1 Soul stars Jamie Foxx and Tina Fey share how they contributed to each other's voice performances. Last of the year. Fort Bridger State Historic Site Lou Verrico, A&J Recording Studios, Sound Dimensions, Animation Photography  With Erin Brockovich-Ellis, Matt Gates, Michelle John, Woody Culleton. We went out to the pass, the snow so deep we were unable to find the road, then turned back to the shanty on the lake. That night’s bitter cries, anguish and despair never can be forgotten. Narrator: In early September, Lansford Hastings rode into Sutter’s Fort at the head of a battered train of 80 wagons. Harold Schindler, Writer: Lansford Hastings was probably ambitious, probably very sure of himself. “We camped with them,” Clyman remembered, “and continued the conversation until a late hour.” Reed, anxious to make up for lost time, asked Clyman what he thought of Hastings’s new route. The process was watched with spellbound interest by the anxious group around her. Ma! HALL OF FAME. Snowed all night. Narrator: Most of the men, women and children of the Donner Party were rapidly absorbed into the population of California. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The terrible ordeals of the Donner Party passed into history and legend. The six other survivors of the “forlorn hope” lay a short way up the trail. Weeks behind schedule and desperately short of food, the Donner party did not reach the mountains of California until late October — where they were stopped by the first blizzard of what would prove to be the worst winter in the history of the Sierra Nevada. Punishing storms trapped the party with nearly no food or shelter for 5 months in the Sierra Nevada mountains. 10 more emigrants had died and the survivors had begun to eat the dead. Six miles away, on Alder Creek, the two Donner families huddled in tents where the storm had caught them. Ten years later, the immigration had swelled to a flood and before it was over, more than half a million men, women and children had stepped off into the wilderness at places like Independence, Missouri, and headed out over the long road to Oregon and California. Mothers in tearless agony clasped their children to their bosoms with the old, old cry, “Father, Thy will, not mine, be done.” It was plain that try as we might, we could not get back to Fort Bridger. The Sierra Nevada Film Festival is a non-competitive festival. “Gunfighter” They are fundamental to who we are: Without the foothills gold-festooned gravel, few would have crossed the continent to get here. Trapped in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, this group of nearly 80 settlers fell prey to sub-zero temperatures, torrential rainfalls, extreme heat, and ten-foot snow drifts. HALL OF FAME. Narrator: During breaks in the storm, they scanned the summit, hoping to see a relief party inching its way down. Narrator: On November 20th, 1846, an Irish emigrant named Patrick Breen began to keep a diary. She would not let her husband die alone. Some wanted to stop and rest their cattle. This documentary film highlights six iconic California species and the charismatic scientists who have played a critical role in bringing them back from the brink of extinction. The 21-minute film has since won for Best Documentary Short at the 2020 American Indian Film Festival, Best Made-In-Montana Film at the Montana International Film Festival (MINT), and Best Student Documentary Short at Indie Short Fest in Los Angeles. Wallace Stegner, Writer: It’s all mixed up with the romance and the so-called “heroism” of the westward migration and the big American dream. Special thanks to the Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, The Bancroft Library Lansford W. Hastings (Actor, voice-over): March 3rd, 1846. But after that, you’re pretty much committed all the way. The problem was, he had never really done it, had never done it with a wagon, and yet it was his ambition to lead what people thought to be 7,000 wagons heading west that year. Our goal is to bring awareness to the Sierra Nevada communities about enviornmental stewardship, faciliate discussion, and inspire action. Composed by Angelo Badalamenti Patrick Dolan went insane and had to be held down by his companions. Emigration to California fell off sharply and Hastings’s cutoff was all but abandoned. Don’t let this letter dishearten anybody. “Algebra of Darkness” Every day we would search for some sign of Papa, who would leave a letter by the wayside. It was from Lansford Hastings. Looks like another storm. Antonio, a Mexican teamster, died. It was in 1846 that the Mormons set out on their trek to the Great Salt Lake. Everyone who still could walked beside the wagons now to spare the exhausted oxen. 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