" Exhausted, the struggling immigrants turned back from the summit, vowing to try again in the morning. That night, up at the pass, and down by the lake, it began to snow. And it snowed. And it snowed."
It began in the 1840s, spurred on by financial panic in the east, by outbreaks of cholera and malaria, and by the ceaseless American hankering to move west. When the pioneer movement began, fewer than 20,000 white Americans lived west of the Mississippi River. Ten years later, the emigration 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. In places, their wagon wheels carved ruts shoulder-deep in the rocky road. The settlers themselves knew they were making history: "It will be received," one emigrant wrote, "as a legend on the borderland of myth." But of all the stories to come out of the west, none has cut more deeply into the imagination of the American people than the tale of the Donner Party, high in the Sierra Nevada, in the winter of 1846.
Probably the best intro to any documentary ever IMHO. The narration reads like poetry -chilling with foreboding, but poetry. "Oh Mary, I have not wrote you half of the trouble we've had, but I have wrote you enough to let you know what trouble is...Don't let this letter dishearten anybody. Remember, never take no cut offs, and hurry along as fast as you can."
@@davebeningfield100%. This has always been one of my favorites, and it never gets old. No matter how many times I've watched it, I always, always get chills when the music kicks in at the beginning of the "Winter" section.
What a great video shot I remember when that dam was drained back in the 90's It was all grey in appearance and had nightmares where i was finding old broken off tackle amongst the stumps and ended up woke?
This was the right choice for the donner party
" Exhausted, the struggling immigrants turned back from the summit, vowing to try again in the morning. That night, up at the pass, and down by the lake, it began to snow. And it snowed. And it snowed."
AWESOME CHOICE
What a clear day, looks awesome!
It began in the 1840s, spurred on by financial panic in the east, by outbreaks of cholera and malaria, and by the ceaseless American hankering to move west. When the pioneer movement began, fewer than 20,000 white Americans lived west of the Mississippi River. Ten years later, the emigration 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.
In places, their wagon wheels carved ruts shoulder-deep in the rocky road. The settlers themselves knew they were making history: "It will be received," one emigrant wrote, "as a legend on the borderland of myth." But of all the stories to come out of the west, none has cut more deeply into the imagination of the American people than the tale of the Donner Party, high in the Sierra Nevada, in the winter of 1846.
Probably the best intro to any documentary ever IMHO. The narration reads like poetry -chilling with foreboding, but poetry. "Oh Mary, I have not wrote you half of the trouble we've had, but I have wrote you enough to let you know what trouble is...Don't let this letter dishearten anybody. Remember, never take no cut offs, and hurry along as fast as you can."
@@davebeningfield100%. This has always been one of my favorites, and it never gets old. No matter how many times I've watched it, I always, always get chills when the music kicks in at the beginning of the "Winter" section.
What a great video shot I remember when that dam was drained back in the 90's It was all grey in appearance and had nightmares where i was finding old broken off tackle amongst the stumps and ended up woke?
Well, Ma. If you never see me again, do the best that you can.
Hurry along as best you can, and don't take no short cuts