Annotated Bibliography of Four Research Sources

McNeese, Tim.  The Donner Party: A Doomed Journey.  New York: Chelsea
     House (2009): 20-27.

This section of "A Doomed Journey" highlights the basics perks to an exodus to the west and the shift of movement from Oregon toward California.  McNeese explains the initial Oregon boom and the fear of the road to California being too difficult.  He then reveals that the route to California had been improved and traveled upon, and future emigrant interest in the new route began to rise.  McNeese then introduces us to Lansford W. Hastings, the author of "The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California," a confident man who had an idea for an alternate route to California that he had not already traveled.  This author did a very good job setting up both the excitement of western movement and planting the seed for ultimate demise.

Stewart, George R.  Ordeal By Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party. New
     York: Houghton Mifflin (1988): 31-39

This chapter of Stewart's book, entitled "The Wahsatch," describes the hardships of the Hastings Cutoff.  Stewart does a great job describing the difficult and slow paced chore that the Cutoff turned out to be.  The author describes narrow canyons, thick brush, enormous boulders blocking the path, and lost oxen, wagons, and party members.  The chapter shows the party go from jovial emigrants to a tired pack of lost soul with nothing but contentment for their mentor.  Most importantly are the themes of crucial time lost.  With the loss of ground gained a pace of only a mile and a half a day, the Hastings Cutoff may have been the leading factor in the eventual doom of the Donner Party.

Limburg, Peter R.  Deceived: The Story of the Donner Party.  Pacifica,
     California: International Publishing Services (1998): 111-119.

Limburg paints a picture of a party separated in the chapter appropriately named "Snowbound."  Only mere hours too late for a safe passage between two mountains the Donners meet the biggest challenge of the journey up to that point.  The party finds themselves in a storm that could have been avoided without all the previous lost time in their expedition.   The group is split into two camps, one who made it over the pass to a lake with a cabin, and the other who was trapped just below the pass with only the supplies they had brought along and clothes on their backs.  Limburg does seem to stress the point that cabin or no, the families would be stuck in their respective camps all winter, due to the extremity of the storm experienced.

Rarick, Ethan.  Desperate Passage:  The Donner Party's Perilous Journey
     West.  New York:  Oxford University Press (2008):  190-196.

Rarick seems to explore more into the horror element of the story than the more historically focused works cited.  I find this important, though, seeing as this is the highlight of the legend for most readers.  In this chapter "Gruesome Sights" a scene is described where a rescue crew from California stumbles upon an unexpected sight.  The author describes, in horrific detail, that the group of rescuers was forced to bear witness to families driven to cannibalism.  Most notably Rarick describes the events of children devouring the flesh of their own parent, and how that was the reason more children survived the situation than any adult group.  Only one family is said not to have engaged in the act, and this only adds to the intrigue of the underlying evil versus necessity argument.