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The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny
"WESTWARD HO! FOR OREGON AND CALIFORNIA!"
In the eerily warm spring of 1846, George Donner placed this advertisement in a local newspaper as he and a restless caravan prepared for what they hoped would be the most rewarding journey of a lifetime. But in eagerly pursuing what would a century later become known as the "American dream," this optimistic-yet-motley crew of emigrants was met with a chilling nightmare; in the following months, their jingoistic excitement would be replaced by desperate cries for help that would fall silent in the deadly snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada.
We know these early pioneers as the Donner Party, a name that has elicited horror since the late 1840s. Now, celebrated historian Michael Wallis—beloved for his myth-busting portraits of legendary American figures—continues his life’s work of parsing fact from fiction to tell the true story of one of the most embroidered sagas in Western history.
Wallis begins the story in 1846, a momentous "year of decision" for the nation, when incredible territorial strides were being made in Texas, New Mexico, and California. Against this dramatic backdrop, an unlikely band of travelers appeared, stratified in age, wealth, education and ethnicity. At the forefront were the Donners: brothers George and Jacob, true sons of the soil determined to tame the wild land of California; and the Reeds, headed by adventurous, business-savvy patriarch James. In total, the Donner-Reed group would reach eighty-seven men, women, and children, and though personal motives varied—bachelors thirsting for adventure, parents wanting greater futures for their children—everyone was linked by the same unwavering belief that California was theirs for the taking.
Skeptical of previous accounts of how the group ended up in peril, Wallis has spent years retracing its ill-fated journey, uncovering hundreds of new documents that illuminate how a combination of greed, backbiting, and recklessness led the group to become hopelessly snowbound at the infamous Donner Pass in present-day California. Climaxing with the grim stories of how the party’s paltry rations soon gave way to unimaginable hunger, Wallis not only details the cannibalism that has in perpetuity haunted their legacy but also the heroic rescue parties that managed to reach the stranded, only to discover that just forty-eight had survived the ordeal.
An unflinching and historically invaluable account of the darkest side of Manifest Destiny, The Best Land Under Heaven offers a brilliant, revisionist examination of one of America's most calamitous and sensationalized catastrophes.
In the eerily warm spring of 1846, George Donner placed this advertisement in a local newspaper as he and a restless caravan prepared for what they hoped would be the most rewarding journey of a lifetime. But in eagerly pursuing what would a century later become known as the "American dream," this optimistic-yet-motley crew of emigrants was met with a chilling nightmare; in the following months, their jingoistic excitement would be replaced by desperate cries for help that would fall silent in the deadly snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada.
We know these early pioneers as the Donner Party, a name that has elicited horror since the late 1840s. Now, celebrated historian Michael Wallis—beloved for his myth-busting portraits of legendary American figures—continues his life’s work of parsing fact from fiction to tell the true story of one of the most embroidered sagas in Western history.
Wallis begins the story in 1846, a momentous "year of decision" for the nation, when incredible territorial strides were being made in Texas, New Mexico, and California. Against this dramatic backdrop, an unlikely band of travelers appeared, stratified in age, wealth, education and ethnicity. At the forefront were the Donners: brothers George and Jacob, true sons of the soil determined to tame the wild land of California; and the Reeds, headed by adventurous, business-savvy patriarch James. In total, the Donner-Reed group would reach eighty-seven men, women, and children, and though personal motives varied—bachelors thirsting for adventure, parents wanting greater futures for their children—everyone was linked by the same unwavering belief that California was theirs for the taking.
Skeptical of previous accounts of how the group ended up in peril, Wallis has spent years retracing its ill-fated journey, uncovering hundreds of new documents that illuminate how a combination of greed, backbiting, and recklessness led the group to become hopelessly snowbound at the infamous Donner Pass in present-day California. Climaxing with the grim stories of how the party’s paltry rations soon gave way to unimaginable hunger, Wallis not only details the cannibalism that has in perpetuity haunted their legacy but also the heroic rescue parties that managed to reach the stranded, only to discover that just forty-eight had survived the ordeal.
An unflinching and historically invaluable account of the darkest side of Manifest Destiny, The Best Land Under Heaven offers a brilliant, revisionist examination of one of America's most calamitous and sensationalized catastrophes.
496 pages, Hardcover
First published June 6, 2017
About the author
Michael Wallis
41 books53 followersMichael Wallis is the bestselling author of Route 66, Billy the Kid, Pretty Boy, and David Crockett. He hosts the PBS series American Roads. He voiced The Sheriff in the animated Pixar feature Cars. He lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 308 reviews
August 19, 2019
“It’s supposed to be a challenge, that’s why they call it a shortcut. If it was easy, it’d just be the way.”
- Paulo Costanzo, as Rubin, in Road Trip
“Unless you pass over the mountains early in the fall, you are very liable to be detained, by impassable mountains of snow, until the next spring, or, perhaps, forever.”
- Lansford W. Hastings, The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California (1845)
“Remember, never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can.”
- Virginia Reed, Donner Party Survivor, in a letter to a cousin
Let’s play word association.
I say “Donner Party.”
You say _____________.
Well, you’re going to say one of two things: (1) What are you talking about? I don’t want to play word association with you; or (2) Cannibalism!
If you’ve heard about the Donner Party, it’s probably because, in 1846-47, they ended up eating each other in the Sierra Nevada mountains after their wagon train got stuck in the snow. Cannibalism just has that effect on people. It gets your attention. It is one of the world’s great taboos. From the whaleship Essex to the Uruguayan rugby team memorialized in Alive, even the whiff of cannibalism tends to give an event a lingering infamy.
However, as Michael Wallis demonstrates in The Best Land Under Heaven, there is a lot more to the saga of the Donner Party than the gastronomical extremes forced upon them. Theirs is a tale of arrogance, hubris, and greed; of small bad choices becoming large bad choices; of courage and cowardice; of hardship, pain, and endurance; and of perseverance. Oh, and there’s also a couple homicides, just in case this wagon trip from Springfield, Illinois, to Sutter’s Fort, California, wasn’t interesting enough. The Best Land Under Heaven provides an authoritative account of the doomed Donner Party, and is there just about every step of the way.
Things start out a little slowly. The opening chapters (the book is divided into four large parts, and further subdivided into shorter chapters) serve to introduce the context and characters. There are a lot of people to keep track of (the wagon train eventually had 87 members), and the biographical information Wallis provides tends towards factual minutiae rather than insightful detail.
Things (though not necessarily the Donner-Reed Party) speed up on the trail. Wallis provides a lot of fascinating information about the process of taking an emigrant train west in days of yore. He traces the routes, describes the campsites, and lays out the variety of tasks each member had to accomplish. The trains, it turns out, were rolling examples of democratic dysfunction. Precious time on the trail was lost when the party stopped to form standing committees and hold reelections for wagon boss. (George Reed, who lent his name to the tragedy, was the third leader of the train).
The drama clicks into high gear at the Hastings Cutoff. This was a shortcut that split away from the traditional route of the California Trail. The shortcut was mentioned by Lansford Hastings, a western promoter and author who wrote The Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California. The description of the cutoff is not very detailed; however, Hastings was actually on the trail at the time the Donner Party approached, and promised that he would lead them personally. In the end, he did not fulfill this obligation. (It is amazing to consider the hardships of 19th century travel. People made life or death decisions based on sketchy information gleaned from a book. I will try to remember that the next time I get frustrated that Google Maps is taking more than .1 seconds to load).
Life has probably taught you something about shortcuts. I won’t get into that philosophical question. Suffice to say, cutting corners generally comes with a certain amount of risk. For the Donner-Reed Party, this meant crossing a virtual desert, without fresh food or water. Instead of saving time, it wasted time, and that put them behind schedule to get over the mountain passes before heavy snowfall rendered them impassable.
The life-and-death struggle of the Donner-Reed Party is the book’s core. Wallis does an exceptional job describing the terrible ordeal, of men, women, and children reduced to eating shoe leather and bark and, ultimately, corpses. He also thoroughly recounts the various relief expeditions sent to save them. His writing gives you a visceral sense of the cold, hunger, and exhaustion faced by the living and the dead. It seemed I was right there with them, even as I read this out on a deck in the middle of summer, with wine and snacks within reach.
Wallis uses a wide variety of sources, and does a good job of comparing accounts. He notifies you if a certain source lacks veracity or corroboration. His endnotes contain a lot of interesting annotations, including directions on where to go to the bathroom while a member of an emigrant wagon train. Two different appendices help you keep track of each member and their fate.
There is a trend among popular history books to divine a broader meaning from whatever subject the book is covering. I expected that to be the case here. The subtitle, after all, is The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny. Wallis, however, never really gets around to interpreting the Donner Party through any prism besides that of an exceptional story of survival and loss in an unforgiving environment. Frankly, I appreciated that. A great story doesn’t need justification. A great story is its own justification.
And this is a great story, if a grisly one. It is remembered not because it has world-historical importance, but because it is an intimate portrait of human fortitude tested at the extreme edges of survivability.
There’s also a lesson, if you care to learn it: Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can.
- Paulo Costanzo, as Rubin, in Road Trip
“Unless you pass over the mountains early in the fall, you are very liable to be detained, by impassable mountains of snow, until the next spring, or, perhaps, forever.”
- Lansford W. Hastings, The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California (1845)
“Remember, never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can.”
- Virginia Reed, Donner Party Survivor, in a letter to a cousin
Let’s play word association.
I say “Donner Party.”
You say _____________.
Well, you’re going to say one of two things: (1) What are you talking about? I don’t want to play word association with you; or (2) Cannibalism!
If you’ve heard about the Donner Party, it’s probably because, in 1846-47, they ended up eating each other in the Sierra Nevada mountains after their wagon train got stuck in the snow. Cannibalism just has that effect on people. It gets your attention. It is one of the world’s great taboos. From the whaleship Essex to the Uruguayan rugby team memorialized in Alive, even the whiff of cannibalism tends to give an event a lingering infamy.
However, as Michael Wallis demonstrates in The Best Land Under Heaven, there is a lot more to the saga of the Donner Party than the gastronomical extremes forced upon them. Theirs is a tale of arrogance, hubris, and greed; of small bad choices becoming large bad choices; of courage and cowardice; of hardship, pain, and endurance; and of perseverance. Oh, and there’s also a couple homicides, just in case this wagon trip from Springfield, Illinois, to Sutter’s Fort, California, wasn’t interesting enough. The Best Land Under Heaven provides an authoritative account of the doomed Donner Party, and is there just about every step of the way.
Things start out a little slowly. The opening chapters (the book is divided into four large parts, and further subdivided into shorter chapters) serve to introduce the context and characters. There are a lot of people to keep track of (the wagon train eventually had 87 members), and the biographical information Wallis provides tends towards factual minutiae rather than insightful detail.
Things (though not necessarily the Donner-Reed Party) speed up on the trail. Wallis provides a lot of fascinating information about the process of taking an emigrant train west in days of yore. He traces the routes, describes the campsites, and lays out the variety of tasks each member had to accomplish. The trains, it turns out, were rolling examples of democratic dysfunction. Precious time on the trail was lost when the party stopped to form standing committees and hold reelections for wagon boss. (George Reed, who lent his name to the tragedy, was the third leader of the train).
The drama clicks into high gear at the Hastings Cutoff. This was a shortcut that split away from the traditional route of the California Trail. The shortcut was mentioned by Lansford Hastings, a western promoter and author who wrote The Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California. The description of the cutoff is not very detailed; however, Hastings was actually on the trail at the time the Donner Party approached, and promised that he would lead them personally. In the end, he did not fulfill this obligation. (It is amazing to consider the hardships of 19th century travel. People made life or death decisions based on sketchy information gleaned from a book. I will try to remember that the next time I get frustrated that Google Maps is taking more than .1 seconds to load).
Life has probably taught you something about shortcuts. I won’t get into that philosophical question. Suffice to say, cutting corners generally comes with a certain amount of risk. For the Donner-Reed Party, this meant crossing a virtual desert, without fresh food or water. Instead of saving time, it wasted time, and that put them behind schedule to get over the mountain passes before heavy snowfall rendered them impassable.
The life-and-death struggle of the Donner-Reed Party is the book’s core. Wallis does an exceptional job describing the terrible ordeal, of men, women, and children reduced to eating shoe leather and bark and, ultimately, corpses. He also thoroughly recounts the various relief expeditions sent to save them. His writing gives you a visceral sense of the cold, hunger, and exhaustion faced by the living and the dead. It seemed I was right there with them, even as I read this out on a deck in the middle of summer, with wine and snacks within reach.
Wallis uses a wide variety of sources, and does a good job of comparing accounts. He notifies you if a certain source lacks veracity or corroboration. His endnotes contain a lot of interesting annotations, including directions on where to go to the bathroom while a member of an emigrant wagon train. Two different appendices help you keep track of each member and their fate.
There is a trend among popular history books to divine a broader meaning from whatever subject the book is covering. I expected that to be the case here. The subtitle, after all, is The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny. Wallis, however, never really gets around to interpreting the Donner Party through any prism besides that of an exceptional story of survival and loss in an unforgiving environment. Frankly, I appreciated that. A great story doesn’t need justification. A great story is its own justification.
And this is a great story, if a grisly one. It is remembered not because it has world-historical importance, but because it is an intimate portrait of human fortitude tested at the extreme edges of survivability.
There’s also a lesson, if you care to learn it: Never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can.
March 12, 2017
Westward Ho! Manifest destiny, the American dream, new land, and many in the mid 1800's followed it's siren call. For the Donner Brothers who had already successfully farmed in a few different states, it was the chance for adventure, new land in a new place, a new start. Many were traveling over the Sierra Nevadas heading to Oregon or California and the Donner families wanted to be part of this large exodus.
Remember studying this in school, know I read another book about this expedition that went so horrifically wrong, though I don't remember the title. This book starts with the beginning of the journey, the background of the family, and the gathering of supplies, the others that eventually joined this ill fated party and the high hopes and optimism of which they started out. What made this book so poignant was the human element. The author, though he does touch on other events happening at the time, very much concentrates on the people. Those stuck in the mountains, the ones who tried walk out to get help and supplies, and the eventual rescuers. Made it personal as we get to know the people involved. The mistakes they made, the bad advice they followed and the good advice they ignored. Heartbreaking.
Cannibalism of course it what is most mentioned when people talk about this event, but reading this gives a more detailed view and I just can't imagine, nor hopefully never have to, be in a situation like these people. Mothers, children starving, people dying, the horrific cold, and reading this I could feel the desperation, feel the cold, the intensive snow fall. The back of the book has pictures of some and brings the reader up to date on what happened to the survivors afterward. How they fared and what their lives were like. An intense reading experience.
ARC from publisher.
Publishes May 26th by Liveright.
Remember studying this in school, know I read another book about this expedition that went so horrifically wrong, though I don't remember the title. This book starts with the beginning of the journey, the background of the family, and the gathering of supplies, the others that eventually joined this ill fated party and the high hopes and optimism of which they started out. What made this book so poignant was the human element. The author, though he does touch on other events happening at the time, very much concentrates on the people. Those stuck in the mountains, the ones who tried walk out to get help and supplies, and the eventual rescuers. Made it personal as we get to know the people involved. The mistakes they made, the bad advice they followed and the good advice they ignored. Heartbreaking.
Cannibalism of course it what is most mentioned when people talk about this event, but reading this gives a more detailed view and I just can't imagine, nor hopefully never have to, be in a situation like these people. Mothers, children starving, people dying, the horrific cold, and reading this I could feel the desperation, feel the cold, the intensive snow fall. The back of the book has pictures of some and brings the reader up to date on what happened to the survivors afterward. How they fared and what their lives were like. An intense reading experience.
ARC from publisher.
Publishes May 26th by Liveright.
June 14, 2020
Dramatic and poignant, a compelling read. Using letters, memoirs and firsthand accounts Wallis pieces together the story of the Donner Party revealing intimate details. He delivers a gripping tale as they slowly cross the continent from Illinois to California in 1846. Wallis makes us feel like we are along for the trip. He delves into the family histories of George and Tamzene Donner and their five children as well as James Reed, his wife Margret and their four children. Along with George’s brother Jacob, his wife Elizabeth and five children, they form the core of the ill-fated wagon train. Wallis takes time to show us their personalities and relationships. We get to know and care for these unfortunate men, women and children. Thus we are kept in rapt attention as their journey becomes increasingly perilous ending in crisis.
Wallis reveals the Donner Party’s fate in the introduction for readers who don’t already know it. Yet even though we know the grim end, there is suspense along the way as we watch people change as optimism gradually shifts to hopelessness. We feel for these people as we witness them make one bad decision after another followed by one piece of bad luck after another. Other families and hired hands joined the wagon train each bringing their own values and personalities. Along with the Donners and Reeds most were resilient resourceful people used to dealing with difficult challenges. But they would be tested to their breaking points.
We start at a farm near Springfield Illinois. Wallis fills us in on the lives of the Donners and the nearby Reeds who knew Abraham Lincoln. We get a glimpse of life in 1840s rural Illinois. We also get a picture of what the relatively unspoiled West looked and felt like stretching from the endless prairie grasses on the plains to the desert and the mountains. Wallis devotes many pages to the early parts of the trip on the California Trail when spirits were high and difficulties were overcome with ingenuity and cooperation. But we also see tensions build between individuals and families as the days drag on for months, tensions that would flair when circumstances became much more trying. Even within the same wagon train, families often kept well distant from others until it was time to make camp for the night. Many families would leave and join another wagon train and conversely new families would join the Donner Party. Some travelers would even change their minds along the way about their destination and go to Oregon instead of California or vice versa.
The Donner party had more bad judgement and bad luck than I can recount here. They left too late, leaving Independence Missouri for California mid-May 1846, one of the last wagon trains to leave that year. Even the unreliable guidebook they took as bible told them to leave Independence no later than May 1st. But their worst mistake was taking a shortcut recommended in the guidebook, even though experienced travelers and mountain men they encountered along the way strongly warned them against leaving the proven trail. The Donner Party was sharply divided over taking the shortcut but James Reed’s strong will overpowered opponents who gave in.
The short cut was a disaster. They ended up having to clear forest to build a road over mountains and then cross an 80 mile stretch of desert thirsty and exhausted. Then they lost many of their cattle, horses and oxen when the animals bolted at the first scent of water. They were forced to abandon many of their wagons. Rejoining the California trail it didn’t get much better. Indians stole many of their remaining animals. More wagons had to be abandoned and only necessities taken along. Reed got into a violent argument and ended up shooting a man and killing him. He was banished from the wagon train and had to make it to California on his own. Because Reed had insisted they take the short cut, he was already hated by many. But the weeks lost were the biggest cost of the short cut. After crossing the last stretch of desert with more animals dying and living on a starvation diet they finally reached the Sierras in late October, over a month late. When they got to the base of the mountains, enamored by the sight of water and grass, they took a few more days to recuperate before starting the long climb. Their destination, Sutter’s Fort, was just on the other side of the mountains.
The party made it up to what is now called Donner Lake at the end of October and were hit with a massive snow storm. They were stuck with few animals to eat and little game to be found. More snowstorms quickly followed. Now they couldn’t even find dead animals under the many feet of snow. Without food people began dying. Each family was on its own. Comradery was in short supply as fathers and especially mothers did whatever it took to keep their children alive, finally eating the remains of those who had died. A band of desperate souls left camp on foot snowshoeing it over the mountains to get help. Seven of the fifteen of this Party of Forlorn Hope made it as others succumbed to cold and exhaustion. They too did what it took to survive, eating the remains of those who fell along the way. Their arrival alerted residents around Sutter’s Fort of the camp’s predicament. Rescue parties were organized but were only partly successful. Animals could not cross the mountains in the snow and men could only carry so much to help. Even with help, many at the camp were in no condition to make the steep climb through the deep snow. Of the 81 members of the Donner Party 46 survived.
Wallis reveals the Donner Party’s fate in the introduction for readers who don’t already know it. Yet even though we know the grim end, there is suspense along the way as we watch people change as optimism gradually shifts to hopelessness. We feel for these people as we witness them make one bad decision after another followed by one piece of bad luck after another. Other families and hired hands joined the wagon train each bringing their own values and personalities. Along with the Donners and Reeds most were resilient resourceful people used to dealing with difficult challenges. But they would be tested to their breaking points.
We start at a farm near Springfield Illinois. Wallis fills us in on the lives of the Donners and the nearby Reeds who knew Abraham Lincoln. We get a glimpse of life in 1840s rural Illinois. We also get a picture of what the relatively unspoiled West looked and felt like stretching from the endless prairie grasses on the plains to the desert and the mountains. Wallis devotes many pages to the early parts of the trip on the California Trail when spirits were high and difficulties were overcome with ingenuity and cooperation. But we also see tensions build between individuals and families as the days drag on for months, tensions that would flair when circumstances became much more trying. Even within the same wagon train, families often kept well distant from others until it was time to make camp for the night. Many families would leave and join another wagon train and conversely new families would join the Donner Party. Some travelers would even change their minds along the way about their destination and go to Oregon instead of California or vice versa.
The Donner party had more bad judgement and bad luck than I can recount here. They left too late, leaving Independence Missouri for California mid-May 1846, one of the last wagon trains to leave that year. Even the unreliable guidebook they took as bible told them to leave Independence no later than May 1st. But their worst mistake was taking a shortcut recommended in the guidebook, even though experienced travelers and mountain men they encountered along the way strongly warned them against leaving the proven trail. The Donner Party was sharply divided over taking the shortcut but James Reed’s strong will overpowered opponents who gave in.
The short cut was a disaster. They ended up having to clear forest to build a road over mountains and then cross an 80 mile stretch of desert thirsty and exhausted. Then they lost many of their cattle, horses and oxen when the animals bolted at the first scent of water. They were forced to abandon many of their wagons. Rejoining the California trail it didn’t get much better. Indians stole many of their remaining animals. More wagons had to be abandoned and only necessities taken along. Reed got into a violent argument and ended up shooting a man and killing him. He was banished from the wagon train and had to make it to California on his own. Because Reed had insisted they take the short cut, he was already hated by many. But the weeks lost were the biggest cost of the short cut. After crossing the last stretch of desert with more animals dying and living on a starvation diet they finally reached the Sierras in late October, over a month late. When they got to the base of the mountains, enamored by the sight of water and grass, they took a few more days to recuperate before starting the long climb. Their destination, Sutter’s Fort, was just on the other side of the mountains.
The party made it up to what is now called Donner Lake at the end of October and were hit with a massive snow storm. They were stuck with few animals to eat and little game to be found. More snowstorms quickly followed. Now they couldn’t even find dead animals under the many feet of snow. Without food people began dying. Each family was on its own. Comradery was in short supply as fathers and especially mothers did whatever it took to keep their children alive, finally eating the remains of those who had died. A band of desperate souls left camp on foot snowshoeing it over the mountains to get help. Seven of the fifteen of this Party of Forlorn Hope made it as others succumbed to cold and exhaustion. They too did what it took to survive, eating the remains of those who fell along the way. Their arrival alerted residents around Sutter’s Fort of the camp’s predicament. Rescue parties were organized but were only partly successful. Animals could not cross the mountains in the snow and men could only carry so much to help. Even with help, many at the camp were in no condition to make the steep climb through the deep snow. Of the 81 members of the Donner Party 46 survived.
February 10, 2018
This book is not for everyone. It is gruesome. But it is fascinating. What I knew of the Donner party was from school, and it was minimal. This is a super-researched book that follows the doomed wagon train as its leaders make bad decision after bad decision that lead them to the Sierras too late to cross. It is a portrait of humanity at its best and at its worst. I always thought there was some cannibalism at the end--turns out half the party of 90 perished and ALL of them were eaten. Not only that. Some were even killed to be eaten.
The Best Land Under Heaven is ultimately a portrait of the human survival instinct. When people are desperate, it doesn't bring out the best--the survivors turned on each other. Every family for itself. It is truly incredible that any of them survived at all, and the book made me wonder what lengths I would go to if my children were starving. The descriptions of life after for those who survived was a heartbreaking postscript. One of the best books I read in 2017. I became totally obsessed and everyone was sick of me talking about it. Highly recommended, but it will turn your stomach. Truly haunting.
The Best Land Under Heaven is ultimately a portrait of the human survival instinct. When people are desperate, it doesn't bring out the best--the survivors turned on each other. Every family for itself. It is truly incredible that any of them survived at all, and the book made me wonder what lengths I would go to if my children were starving. The descriptions of life after for those who survived was a heartbreaking postscript. One of the best books I read in 2017. I became totally obsessed and everyone was sick of me talking about it. Highly recommended, but it will turn your stomach. Truly haunting.
October 22, 2017
I suppose I should say that it was a pleasure to finally read something about our history of westward expansion that wasn't all about depredations being committed by or upon native Americans. While Indians do make very minor appearances in this tragic tale their involvement is not worth noting and for that I was grateful. While everybody is familiar with the Donner Party story I can't say that is what attracted me to this book. Reading a GR friend's review of this book gave me the idea that this was a book that might have something I have been looking for in our Western history. I have wondered for quite some time what it was like to cross at least half the breadth of this country in a covered wagon. When I was a kid there was a TV program starring Ward Bond called "Wagon Train". I always doubted the journey was anything like what TV would have had me believe and I wanted to learn the truth. This story did indeed reveal what was involved in such an undertaking. I was very much interested in the logistics of such a journey and was surprised at the expense involved and the fact that using one wagon was hardly the norm. I never did understand how a family could haul all its worldly possessions as well as the necessary food, tools, spare parts, and other necessities and do it in one wagon. So families employed several wagons and had to hire teamsters to drive their extra wagons. These pioneers also brought herds of cattle, horses, and oxen. Yes, it was oxen and not horses that pulled these wagons. This book gave me the impression that these pioneers were hardly the impoverished people hoping to go West and make a new life that American mythology would have us believe. The only such souls that fit this image in this story were the hired hands and single men traveling with party. Most of the people engaged in this enterprise had owned businesses or established farms and sold these properties to finance their Western endeavor. Maybe that changed after the discovery of gold in 1848 but I will need to read further to verify that. But this story was a very informative source for what it took to go West in the 1840's. It definitely let the reader know what was needed to make this journey and it also let the reader know what to do and not do.
Of course this story is about what pioneers should not have done and the first thing not to do is rely on advice from a source whose credibility hasn't been validated. With time running out and the necessity of getting across the Sierras before the snows started the Donner Party elected to take the Hastings Cutoff in order to save time. This cutoff was a fantasy written in popular guide to traveling West by a man named Hastings that had never really traveled the West or even traveled his touted cutoff. It was interesting to read about how the interpersonal dynamics of this wagon train evolved during the journey prior to arriving at the infamous cutoff. It started out as the Russell Party but after disagreements among the travelers it became the Bryant Party and then the train divided and finally it became the Donner Party. The wagon train took on the name of the person elected to lead the group. Donner was the last person to take the lead but it was James Reed that prevailed upon his fellow travelers to take the Hastings Cutoff which led to their place in American history. While this part of the story is rather well known and really wasn't any part of my interest in this book the tragedy is quite compelling when the details are revealed.
While about half the Donner Party survived it was interesting to learn who the survivors were and who were among the dead. I was also rather surprised by the unscrupulous behavior of some of the persons in the rescue parties. At first there seemed to be a very popular rush to aid these stranded women and children with many men volunteering and large sums being donated to purchase horses, mules, and food for the rescue effort. However, when it came to actually climbing the mountain interest seemed to wain and only the promise of high wages managed to prompt "volunteers". The rescue efforts seemed to be mounted with some forethought but suffered from weak leadership and execution. Sadly the rescue efforts were plagued by the same difficulties facing the stranded victims. That anybody managed to be brought out of this nightmare is amazing considering the weather, the conditions, the people involved and the circumstances. A very interesting book that was worth reading.
Of course this story is about what pioneers should not have done and the first thing not to do is rely on advice from a source whose credibility hasn't been validated. With time running out and the necessity of getting across the Sierras before the snows started the Donner Party elected to take the Hastings Cutoff in order to save time. This cutoff was a fantasy written in popular guide to traveling West by a man named Hastings that had never really traveled the West or even traveled his touted cutoff. It was interesting to read about how the interpersonal dynamics of this wagon train evolved during the journey prior to arriving at the infamous cutoff. It started out as the Russell Party but after disagreements among the travelers it became the Bryant Party and then the train divided and finally it became the Donner Party. The wagon train took on the name of the person elected to lead the group. Donner was the last person to take the lead but it was James Reed that prevailed upon his fellow travelers to take the Hastings Cutoff which led to their place in American history. While this part of the story is rather well known and really wasn't any part of my interest in this book the tragedy is quite compelling when the details are revealed.
While about half the Donner Party survived it was interesting to learn who the survivors were and who were among the dead. I was also rather surprised by the unscrupulous behavior of some of the persons in the rescue parties. At first there seemed to be a very popular rush to aid these stranded women and children with many men volunteering and large sums being donated to purchase horses, mules, and food for the rescue effort. However, when it came to actually climbing the mountain interest seemed to wain and only the promise of high wages managed to prompt "volunteers". The rescue efforts seemed to be mounted with some forethought but suffered from weak leadership and execution. Sadly the rescue efforts were plagued by the same difficulties facing the stranded victims. That anybody managed to be brought out of this nightmare is amazing considering the weather, the conditions, the people involved and the circumstances. A very interesting book that was worth reading.
July 10, 2017
Absolutely riveting and impeccably researched. I have read a lot about the Donner party. You might say I have a Donner Party Thing. This is by far the most illuminating and multi-faceted look at their story, as well as the book that best placed the Donner Party's trek in its historical context. Another reviewer called it humanizing, and that's exactly what it does -- strips away the hype and mythology and tells a really exciting and heartbreaking story.
(And I'm not going to lie...the short chapters helped a LOT. There's nothing more discouraging than neverending chapters in an already long book.)
(And I'm not going to lie...the short chapters helped a LOT. There's nothing more discouraging than neverending chapters in an already long book.)
September 30, 2022
This was interesting, even fascinating, very engagingly written and absorbing. I appreciated very much that the author gave an overview of the times as well as history of this expedition.
While the author clearly felt much empathy for the subjects of this story and had some knowledge of the involved Indigenous Peoples of North America (IPNA), he stubbornly refers to all IPNA as 'in*ian'. It's just not appropriate. I understand that's how the journals and letters of members of the Expedition would read, although the letters often use nation and confederacy names, I certainly don't find it okay for a book printed in 2017.
So much yikes.
I was lucky he didn't insist on referring to Black people as 'negro'. It's grating, cringeworthy and unacceptable.
Otherwise this was very readable for nonfiction.
While the author clearly felt much empathy for the subjects of this story and had some knowledge of the involved Indigenous Peoples of North America (IPNA), he stubbornly refers to all IPNA as 'in*ian'. It's just not appropriate. I understand that's how the journals and letters of members of the Expedition would read, although the letters often use nation and confederacy names, I certainly don't find it okay for a book printed in 2017.
So much yikes.
I was lucky he didn't insist on referring to Black people as 'negro'. It's grating, cringeworthy and unacceptable.
Otherwise this was very readable for nonfiction.
February 2, 2021
I hope you a some point have the experience of finishing a book that makes you enough of an emotional wreck that you need a glass of wine and some time alone with your thoughts—this book did this to me.
My glass has been poured, and I’m trying to find the words to describe a story for which the ending wasn’t a surprise, but it was still savagely emotional nonetheless.
Westward migration, and “manifest destiny” are topics most of learn in school here in the US, and the doomed Donner party is held up as an example. The author presents the choices of the westward party as they are presented to the party, without the hindsight we are privileged with, but with additional info for us as readers. I could feel with each choice the tension build to the ultimate outcome we all already know, creating an added stress above just reading about the conditions as they unfold for the families this story centers around.
“[...] eighty-seven men, women, and children traveling in twenty-two wagons.” The majority of the book is taken from private journals kept by the individuals involved, and has a large citation section, but is woven together as a single narrative. I think this adds to the impact of the story, allowing you to experience the internal dialog of others of the same experience. We start with a general introduction of the time period, and several of the families which would make up the original launch from MO. Then we travel with the emigrants across the plains as this living body of wagons changes and evolves with the obstacles they encounter.
While not an easy read, due to the weight of some of the topics discussed, particularly later in the book, I highly recommend this for anyone interested in the mid-1800s and the wagon trail of western expansion.
My glass has been poured, and I’m trying to find the words to describe a story for which the ending wasn’t a surprise, but it was still savagely emotional nonetheless.
Westward migration, and “manifest destiny” are topics most of learn in school here in the US, and the doomed Donner party is held up as an example. The author presents the choices of the westward party as they are presented to the party, without the hindsight we are privileged with, but with additional info for us as readers. I could feel with each choice the tension build to the ultimate outcome we all already know, creating an added stress above just reading about the conditions as they unfold for the families this story centers around.
“[...] eighty-seven men, women, and children traveling in twenty-two wagons.” The majority of the book is taken from private journals kept by the individuals involved, and has a large citation section, but is woven together as a single narrative. I think this adds to the impact of the story, allowing you to experience the internal dialog of others of the same experience. We start with a general introduction of the time period, and several of the families which would make up the original launch from MO. Then we travel with the emigrants across the plains as this living body of wagons changes and evolves with the obstacles they encounter.
While not an easy read, due to the weight of some of the topics discussed, particularly later in the book, I highly recommend this for anyone interested in the mid-1800s and the wagon trail of western expansion.
August 18, 2017
Well-researched and detailed account of the Donner party. But a more detailed map of the journey would have been nice.
August 3, 2019
Holy flipping bleep!! Holy moly bleepity bleep! It will take me some time to process this book. 🤯 More to come...
January 21, 2018
I have discovered a new favorite hobby: eating lots of snacks while reading about cannibalism! But really...this book was fantastic - a new, clear perspective on the Donner party. Carefully researched - even the early parts of the journey - and richly populated - even the less “important” members of the various pioneer groups. It took this good of a book to finally make me feel guilty about all my family’s Donner jokes when we drive through the pass.
July 7, 2017
Review later. Snack first. 👀
January 16, 2022
SO hard to put down. It's wild to me that we're at the point where moving across the country is just something you consider, or talk about off-handedly with friends. It's expensive and tedious, but you don't need to think about how you could, oh, starve, injure yourself, die of disease, be killed, or any of the other bazillion dangers that settlers faced along the way to the West. I was really surprised at how industrious the settlers in this book were, too. The Donner party gets painted as these rich assholes who tried to take a shortcut and got what they deserved. Turns out they were incredibly industrious and hardy. This was great.
August 23, 2017
Exhaustively researched and grueling account of the Donner Party...ok, nowhere near what they experienced themselves but just so appalling. The fact that homicidal ethnocentrism played a role was a 'new' fact for me but shouldn't have been surprising. Never plan a trip using just one source for information, women are hardier but suffer more, taboos only go so far when you are starving, greed is an essential part of the human condition, and many more lessons. Grim read but compelling.
January 3, 2019
First part is a rather dry account of the family backgrounds of the principle families in what became the Donner Party, and the social environment of the times. Doesn't really pick up steam until the wagon train runs into disaster taking the Hastings shortcut. Then we get a thorough and engaging account of the unfolding disaster at the camp in the Sierras and the various rescue missions. The author mostly sticks to facts and steers clear of conjecture.
Could have used a detailed map of the route between the lake camp and Fort Sutter on the other side of the mountains - the various trips and locales they stopped at along the pass take up much of the book, so it would have been nice to see them laid out.
Another minor critique is the author devotes a lot of attention early in the book to the Donner and Reed family histories, their character, and aspirations. However, George Donner turned out to be only a minor figure in the drama that played out, and we learn almost nothing about the backgrounds of more important people in the story such as William Eddy, Charles Stanton, and Patrick Breen. It's a weird misallocation of content.
In the end, I was left with some compelling questions.
*** SPOILERS ***
Did Lewis Keseberg murder Tamsen Donner and two young boys? It seems likely. The death of the relatively healthy Tamsen is particularly suspicious. However, it's also clear that Keseberg was an unlikeable man who made an appealing villain for the scurrilous accounts published in the aftermath of the catastrophe.
Why did Tamsen stay with her dying husband instead of leaving with the third rescue party, when it meant her children would likely be orphaned?
If George Donner didn't resort to cannibalism, as the author claims, how did he survive so long?
Just how ruthless were the families when it came to sharing food? The accounts of starving people selling morsels of food to one another, and the pattern of some families emerging unscatched while others were wiped out suggests they were very ruthless indeed.
One striking fact about the final tally is the extremely low survival rate of the men, especially the single men who travelled with the settlers as hired hands (almost none of whom survived the ordeal). Wallis mentions maternal instincts and the strength of family units, along with the lower body fat of men. But I came away with the impression that the hired men were treated poorly - worked to exhaustion and then underfed. In short, treated as expendable. But I guess we should expect noble attitudes to be the exception, rather than the norm, in these sorts of extreme situations.
Could have used a detailed map of the route between the lake camp and Fort Sutter on the other side of the mountains - the various trips and locales they stopped at along the pass take up much of the book, so it would have been nice to see them laid out.
Another minor critique is the author devotes a lot of attention early in the book to the Donner and Reed family histories, their character, and aspirations. However, George Donner turned out to be only a minor figure in the drama that played out, and we learn almost nothing about the backgrounds of more important people in the story such as William Eddy, Charles Stanton, and Patrick Breen. It's a weird misallocation of content.
In the end, I was left with some compelling questions.
*** SPOILERS ***
Did Lewis Keseberg murder Tamsen Donner and two young boys? It seems likely. The death of the relatively healthy Tamsen is particularly suspicious. However, it's also clear that Keseberg was an unlikeable man who made an appealing villain for the scurrilous accounts published in the aftermath of the catastrophe.
Why did Tamsen stay with her dying husband instead of leaving with the third rescue party, when it meant her children would likely be orphaned?
If George Donner didn't resort to cannibalism, as the author claims, how did he survive so long?
Just how ruthless were the families when it came to sharing food? The accounts of starving people selling morsels of food to one another, and the pattern of some families emerging unscatched while others were wiped out suggests they were very ruthless indeed.
One striking fact about the final tally is the extremely low survival rate of the men, especially the single men who travelled with the settlers as hired hands (almost none of whom survived the ordeal). Wallis mentions maternal instincts and the strength of family units, along with the lower body fat of men. But I came away with the impression that the hired men were treated poorly - worked to exhaustion and then underfed. In short, treated as expendable. But I guess we should expect noble attitudes to be the exception, rather than the norm, in these sorts of extreme situations.
September 23, 2019
I had not previously read a serious version of the story of the Donner Party and thought they were a wagon train that got stuck in the Sierra Nevada mountains, ran out of food and several died. The story is far more nuanced, complicated and interesting than that. Wallis has done a good job presenting the information in a serious, factual manner without over-focusing on the more gory aspects of the story. My criticism and reason for giving 4 rather than 5 stars is the author's constant harping on "Manifest Destiny".
I see it more as a story of a group of people looking to better their lives in a "new world". An unfortunate series of bad decisions, poor leadership, an inability to work together as a cohesive unit and horrible, horrible weather (imagine being trapped in 25 feet of snow!) lead to the catastrophe that occurred.
I do highly recommend The Best Land Under Heaven if you are interested in the historical aspects of the Donner Party.
I see it more as a story of a group of people looking to better their lives in a "new world". An unfortunate series of bad decisions, poor leadership, an inability to work together as a cohesive unit and horrible, horrible weather (imagine being trapped in 25 feet of snow!) lead to the catastrophe that occurred.
I do highly recommend The Best Land Under Heaven if you are interested in the historical aspects of the Donner Party.
June 25, 2021
This was a very thorough and comprehensive narrative of the Donner Party and how exactly they got themselves to the place where they were forced to cannibalize their dead in order to survive. This was the fourth book I've read about the Donner Party recently, so I did go in with some background knowledge, but most of what I've read previous was fictionalized, which made for some sad realizations about the actual characters (shedding a tear for the Baptiste Trudeau I loved in The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep). I would have loved a little more characterization of the people involved - people like Keseberg, who was accused of murdering a child for food (accused by a starved woman's ravings) and left by three separate rescue parties only to discover that his infant daughter had been cannibalized, and then to be slandered for the rest of his life like he was the only person who resorted to cannibalism. I struggled a bit after the first few chapters, as much of the book deals with all the bad decisions made in the first half of their journey, then the story picked up with the rescue missions through the four months of winter.
I was surprised for the book to be over as there were about 75 pages of notes, annotations, and index at the end... now onto some lighter reading!
I was surprised for the book to be over as there were about 75 pages of notes, annotations, and index at the end... now onto some lighter reading!
April 30, 2023
By far, this is the best and most detailed text on the Donner Party that I have read. It wasn’t dry, it was very well-researched, and it kept me very engaged throughout. I also greatly appreciated that it didn’t whitewash the parts of American history so many people want to pretend didn’t happen.
“In a rare instance of white men keeping their word with Indians…”
It is always refreshing to read a historical text that doesn’t shy away from the ugly truth of colonization and westward expansion.
I read another book about the Donner party (The Indifferent Stars Above) in which the author, Daniel James Brown, tried to paint John Sutter as some benevolent dictator, so it was nice to see this author, Michael Wallis, approach Sutter’s inhumanity and depravity with honesty in noting that he preyed upon the Miwok people, enslaving them to use for labor and even being an active participant in the slave trade.
The small section devoted to detailing their treatment is harrowing but it isn’t excluded as is often the case in the typical sanitized versions of American history we are so often force-fed by those unwilling to confront the atrocities committed by our country’s forefathers in the name of progress.
“In a rare instance of white men keeping their word with Indians…”
It is always refreshing to read a historical text that doesn’t shy away from the ugly truth of colonization and westward expansion.
I read another book about the Donner party (The Indifferent Stars Above) in which the author, Daniel James Brown, tried to paint John Sutter as some benevolent dictator, so it was nice to see this author, Michael Wallis, approach Sutter’s inhumanity and depravity with honesty in noting that he preyed upon the Miwok people, enslaving them to use for labor and even being an active participant in the slave trade.
The small section devoted to detailing their treatment is harrowing but it isn’t excluded as is often the case in the typical sanitized versions of American history we are so often force-fed by those unwilling to confront the atrocities committed by our country’s forefathers in the name of progress.
December 16, 2017
Most know of the Donner Party’s infamous “cannibalism,” but few know of the absolute desperation these people experienced. What began as a hopeful journey to cultivate new, prosperous lives out west became a living nightmare. The book was dry at times, and there were places where I felt the author rambled a little, but overall I appreciated how thorough he was in his research. He also told the story of the Donner Party in a way that conveyed compassion, and highlighted the strength of the human spirit. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the American West and/or those seeking understanding of the true stories behind American tales and legends.
July 7, 2019
Good narrative of the Reed-Donner Party’s hamstrung attempts to fulfill their dreams of putting down roots on the golden California coast, only to be duped by bad intel on routes and incredibly poor choices made by the group’s leaders.
Appreciated the frequent inclusion of journal entries by various members of the party to capture the mood and mindset of the pioneers.
Appreciated the frequent inclusion of journal entries by various members of the party to capture the mood and mindset of the pioneers.
May 29, 2017
My review in a single sentence: The Best Land Under Heaven is a detailed, humanizing portrait of a doomed American migration that underlines the fragility of the human condition.
I, like most people, learned about the Donner Party from a textbook. The gruesome details of their fate are a byline in the narrative of westward expansion and Manifest Destiny. In this book, Michael Wallis pulls back the layers of myth and exaggeration and tells the story of the Donner and Reed families. Once I spent some time with them and got to know their dreams and aspirations, each poor decision or stroke of bad luck filled me with dread rather than the derision I felt all those years ago in the classroom.
When their fate in the Sierra Nevada mountains became clear, I was not filled with macabre fascination but with great sorrow. The details of their survival that terrible winter are present in detail, made all the more powerful by the knowledge of who these people were. Their story is framed within the larger context of Manifest Destiny and the arrogant righteousness that blossomed in many westward pioneers.
The narrative that leads the reader on a journey from Illinois to California flows easily thanks to Mr. Wallis' writing style; I read the entire book in two sittings. One might expect such a historical accounting to be dry, but if you've read any of Michael's other books you know he weaves a wonderful tale. The research undertaken was extensive and it shows through the detail present across the pages.
It's a piece of American history, a showcase of frontier survival, and a powerful cautionary tale. Highly recommended.
I, like most people, learned about the Donner Party from a textbook. The gruesome details of their fate are a byline in the narrative of westward expansion and Manifest Destiny. In this book, Michael Wallis pulls back the layers of myth and exaggeration and tells the story of the Donner and Reed families. Once I spent some time with them and got to know their dreams and aspirations, each poor decision or stroke of bad luck filled me with dread rather than the derision I felt all those years ago in the classroom.
When their fate in the Sierra Nevada mountains became clear, I was not filled with macabre fascination but with great sorrow. The details of their survival that terrible winter are present in detail, made all the more powerful by the knowledge of who these people were. Their story is framed within the larger context of Manifest Destiny and the arrogant righteousness that blossomed in many westward pioneers.
The narrative that leads the reader on a journey from Illinois to California flows easily thanks to Mr. Wallis' writing style; I read the entire book in two sittings. One might expect such a historical accounting to be dry, but if you've read any of Michael's other books you know he weaves a wonderful tale. The research undertaken was extensive and it shows through the detail present across the pages.
It's a piece of American history, a showcase of frontier survival, and a powerful cautionary tale. Highly recommended.
August 7, 2019
Cannibals! There, got that out of the way. I realized quite suddenly a few weeks ago that the things I knew about the infamous Donner Party were extremely cursory and almost nonexistent, which is weird from a person as fascinated by the history of the macabre and gruesome as I am. I set out to rectify this oversight immediately by ordering two books from the library. This one arrived first, so this is the first one I read. My impression of the research, writing, and structure of this book is largely favourable - I appreciated that Wallis made a good effort to keep track of the many, many characters, reminding the reader within the pages of whom was whom, and also providing charts in the appendices to help. Far from being sensationalized, this was a very humanizing read which charted the outer edges of human perseverance, stress, and trauma.
Among the many fascinating things I learned or realized while reading:
- The nature of wagon train travel across the continent in the 1840s was much more fluid than I imagined. For the entire first half of the journey, there was no cohesive 'Donner Party.' Due to the length of the trip, pretty much all wagon parties left Missouri close to the same time, but each group managed to travel slightly different distances and took rest stops at different intervals, meaning that any individual wagon or family group was overtaking and being overtaken by other groups constantly across the plains. Individuals and family groups also switched from one party to another on multiple occasions, and disagreements along the way prompted various splinter groups to form as well. The leadership of each caravan was chosen in a microcosm of democracy which grew increasingly strained as the pressures and stress of the journey increased. The 80-some-odd group of people who ended up being trapped in the Sierras were an odd company and not necessarily in agreement about much of anything.
- Young single men were hired on as teamsters by the families, and they fared badly in general, and particularly when starvation set in. Family units build cohesion and sharing of resources between family members helped people survive.
- The sheer amount of back-tracking and crisscrossing the Sierras in this story blew my mind. I had imagined a straightforward saga involving a great crowd of people trapped in the mountains, who either eventually escaped or were rescued by a team with supplies who came in and extricated them. Instead, this story was a tangle of failed escape attempts, a few successful escapes by partial parties, and succeeding waves of rescue operations coming into and out of the base camp and slowly extricating only a few survivors at a time: whomever was strong enough to travel or small enough to be carried. They were caching food all over the mountains to help their rescue attempts. Bodies (cannibalized or just snow-buried) were left all over the place, sometimes turning up again later when other parties traversed the same area, particularly when the snow began to melt.
- The length of time the group held out on starvation rations before resorting to cannibalism is impressive. Months. MONTHS. I can't imagine what, exactly, was the tipping point that pushed everyone over into going ahead and butchering their dead compatriots for food, when they had already been starving for so long. We know they had been thinking about it for a long time before they actually did it. It is also interesting to me that different groups resorted to cannibalism at different points - because the entire group was not all in one place doing the same things all at the same time, there must have actually been several different tipping points. Some of the family groups never ended up eating human meat at all. Most of them were able to be somewhat mindful about the decision, to the point of taking care not to eat meat that came from their own relatives. At least one individual, knowing he was dying, specifically gave consent for his body to be eaten after his death in order to encourage his daughters to survive. On the other hand, the grisly scenes of dismembered bodies, gore, bones lying about, etc. described by the Fourth relief effort seems in direct contrast to the painstaking desperation described in earlier works, making me unclear as to what exactly the situation was like. It seems likely that the longer things went on, the more deranged the participants became and the more acclimated to the horrors that were occurring, but Wallis does not really trace that decline (possibly because at the very end there were no survivors to leave interview accounts and no written accounts left) so it is difficult to speculate.
- It makes sense, but had not really occurred to me previously, that women and children (excepting the very littlest children) were the most likely to survive the harrowing conditions. This was likely due to a combination of factors: women's lower calorie requirements plus additional fat stores, children's generally lower calorie requirements, the comparatively less exhausting labor that women were undertaking compared to the men, the importance of family units to share resources and having a parental figure caretaking the children among them. More than a few parents of small children left those children in the care of other adults when they were mounting escape efforts. To my surprise, the adults caretaking others' children seem to have done a good job: they don't seem to have been significantly more likely to die than any of the children with their natural parent caretaking them. Although a goodly number of the children died, especially infants and toddlers, the older kids and teenagers mostly survived.
My biggest complaint about this book is that despite the subtitle setting the Donner Party in the context of the idea of manifest destiny, this book does not particularly spend a lot of time concerning itself with that concept or relating it to the tale of the Donner Party. Were they part of the westward expansion that was driven by those ideas? Certainly. But I don't think that the writing did a strong job of making a case for this story being particularly emphatic in light of that concept.
BUT! Reading this did prompt me to have some frank conversations with my family about the merits and ethics of cannibalism in survival situations, so now we all know each other's feelings about that. In case it ever comes up. Consent is important.
Among the many fascinating things I learned or realized while reading:
- The nature of wagon train travel across the continent in the 1840s was much more fluid than I imagined. For the entire first half of the journey, there was no cohesive 'Donner Party.' Due to the length of the trip, pretty much all wagon parties left Missouri close to the same time, but each group managed to travel slightly different distances and took rest stops at different intervals, meaning that any individual wagon or family group was overtaking and being overtaken by other groups constantly across the plains. Individuals and family groups also switched from one party to another on multiple occasions, and disagreements along the way prompted various splinter groups to form as well. The leadership of each caravan was chosen in a microcosm of democracy which grew increasingly strained as the pressures and stress of the journey increased. The 80-some-odd group of people who ended up being trapped in the Sierras were an odd company and not necessarily in agreement about much of anything.
- Young single men were hired on as teamsters by the families, and they fared badly in general, and particularly when starvation set in. Family units build cohesion and sharing of resources between family members helped people survive.
- The sheer amount of back-tracking and crisscrossing the Sierras in this story blew my mind. I had imagined a straightforward saga involving a great crowd of people trapped in the mountains, who either eventually escaped or were rescued by a team with supplies who came in and extricated them. Instead, this story was a tangle of failed escape attempts, a few successful escapes by partial parties, and succeeding waves of rescue operations coming into and out of the base camp and slowly extricating only a few survivors at a time: whomever was strong enough to travel or small enough to be carried. They were caching food all over the mountains to help their rescue attempts. Bodies (cannibalized or just snow-buried) were left all over the place, sometimes turning up again later when other parties traversed the same area, particularly when the snow began to melt.
- The length of time the group held out on starvation rations before resorting to cannibalism is impressive. Months. MONTHS. I can't imagine what, exactly, was the tipping point that pushed everyone over into going ahead and butchering their dead compatriots for food, when they had already been starving for so long. We know they had been thinking about it for a long time before they actually did it. It is also interesting to me that different groups resorted to cannibalism at different points - because the entire group was not all in one place doing the same things all at the same time, there must have actually been several different tipping points. Some of the family groups never ended up eating human meat at all. Most of them were able to be somewhat mindful about the decision, to the point of taking care not to eat meat that came from their own relatives. At least one individual, knowing he was dying, specifically gave consent for his body to be eaten after his death in order to encourage his daughters to survive. On the other hand, the grisly scenes of dismembered bodies, gore, bones lying about, etc. described by the Fourth relief effort seems in direct contrast to the painstaking desperation described in earlier works, making me unclear as to what exactly the situation was like. It seems likely that the longer things went on, the more deranged the participants became and the more acclimated to the horrors that were occurring, but Wallis does not really trace that decline (possibly because at the very end there were no survivors to leave interview accounts and no written accounts left) so it is difficult to speculate.
- It makes sense, but had not really occurred to me previously, that women and children (excepting the very littlest children) were the most likely to survive the harrowing conditions. This was likely due to a combination of factors: women's lower calorie requirements plus additional fat stores, children's generally lower calorie requirements, the comparatively less exhausting labor that women were undertaking compared to the men, the importance of family units to share resources and having a parental figure caretaking the children among them. More than a few parents of small children left those children in the care of other adults when they were mounting escape efforts. To my surprise, the adults caretaking others' children seem to have done a good job: they don't seem to have been significantly more likely to die than any of the children with their natural parent caretaking them. Although a goodly number of the children died, especially infants and toddlers, the older kids and teenagers mostly survived.
My biggest complaint about this book is that despite the subtitle setting the Donner Party in the context of the idea of manifest destiny, this book does not particularly spend a lot of time concerning itself with that concept or relating it to the tale of the Donner Party. Were they part of the westward expansion that was driven by those ideas? Certainly. But I don't think that the writing did a strong job of making a case for this story being particularly emphatic in light of that concept.
BUT! Reading this did prompt me to have some frank conversations with my family about the merits and ethics of cannibalism in survival situations, so now we all know each other's feelings about that. In case it ever comes up. Consent is important.
September 28, 2018
If you can make it through the beginning of this book, it is a very good read. The first few chapters are dedicated to family histories of the two most prominent families: the Donners and Reeds. Unfortunately, this makes for confusing reading, given how many of them have same or similar names and each adult married at least twice before settling into the final marriage that would take them and their offspring across the country.
This is a gripping tale of hardship and survival, risks that should never have been taken - a cautionary story that has lasted over 150 years. Wallis writes engagingly but not sensationally. The most (in)famous reason we know of the Donner Party is treated with frankness mixed with delicacy.
When all is said and done, The Best Land Under Heaven tells a story of hubris and greed and luck - both good and bad - and a confluence of events that resulted in a horrific tragedy that didn't end up being as terrible as it could have been thanks to a number of rescuers and good Samaritans.
This is a gripping tale of hardship and survival, risks that should never have been taken - a cautionary story that has lasted over 150 years. Wallis writes engagingly but not sensationally. The most (in)famous reason we know of the Donner Party is treated with frankness mixed with delicacy.
When all is said and done, The Best Land Under Heaven tells a story of hubris and greed and luck - both good and bad - and a confluence of events that resulted in a horrific tragedy that didn't end up being as terrible as it could have been thanks to a number of rescuers and good Samaritans.
March 15, 2017
Determined to reap the benefits of Manifest Destiny, the Donner Party was destined for despair and death from the very start of their westward journey. A combination of indecision, infighting amongst families and a lack of leadership contribute to their tragic downfall at Truckee Lake. In “The Best Land Under Heaven,” author Michael Wallis recreates the Donner Party’s ill-fated attempt to cross the Sierra Nevada mountain range during the violent winter season of 1846, their imminent starvation, reduced to catastrophic cannibalism to survive. The result is a cautionary tale infamously staining the chase of the American Dream forevermore.
July 22, 2017
This was a riveting account of the journey of the Donner party. My only complaint was that more detailed maps, especially a blow-up of the western part of the trail, would have been very beneficial in following the various landmarks encountered in the travel and the relief efforts. I must say that the detailed account of the relief parties was the most exciting part of the book.
I also notified Norton of an egregious typo on the timeline on the map, indicating that the stranded travelers were there for a year longer than they were! I hope this will be corrected by the time the paperback comes out.
I also notified Norton of an egregious typo on the timeline on the map, indicating that the stranded travelers were there for a year longer than they were! I hope this will be corrected by the time the paperback comes out.
July 24, 2017
Wow. It starts kind of slowly, but when it picks up, it's intense. I had to keep reminding myself that this is a true story because at times it seems unbelievable. I've always been fascinated by the Donner party, but this book was so well-researched and detailed that I gained a new appreciation for the immigrants. By the end, I had cried at least 3 times. And I found myself telling everyone I encountered about the incredible details of the story.
March 21, 2024
Spellbinding. I happen to be obsessed with the Donner Party, and this non fiction rendering of the journey and its motivations, through the prism of American Manifest Destiny, is a gut-wrenching account. The doomed path is well told and incredibly researched. The mistakes are entirely American in their optimism and presumed superiority.
Side note: Tamzene Donner is...incredible. I loved following her. She should be better known, damn it.
Side note: Tamzene Donner is...incredible. I loved following her. She should be better known, damn it.
October 18, 2017
Wallis is definitely a good historian and has done a lot of research into a rather chilling episode of the American West. I have read other accounts of the Donner Party, and this is the first time I learned about the bad decisions made about their journey. Somehow, that made it even more anguishing to read about their experiences. Not for the squeamish.
January 24, 2018
This book promised "new" information about the Donner Party based on research and findings, etc, but I didn't find that. I haven't read every book about the Donner Party, but I've read a lot, and this was a passable telling of the tale. The only thing that seemed "new" to me was extra info about Reed's time in the war before mustering the relief parties, and that felt unimportant.
November 15, 2018
Fascinating, riveting, and humanizing.
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