the Donner party helped strike down the myth of frontier idealism by getting stuck in the sierra Nevadas in the winter of 1846-1847. the people in the party had to turn to canibalism to survive and only about half of the party survived. this all happened because George Donner, the leader of the wagon train made a split second decision on taking another trail that they were headed to take.
The story of the Donner Party was a very large factor of striking down the myth of the frontier idealism. It scared many people from moving west and kept people staying in the east. People then thought of the west as a bad and harsh place to live. When people heard of the Donner Party, they thought twice about going out to live in California. The people heard of many different stories that scared them and stopped them from going over. Most people rethought about how they should go over through the mountains and stuck to the old way. This also made the frontier idealism a rough and tough place. It took a lot to live there and had a lot of risk. But this didn’t stop people from moving out there and crossing the mountains to get to California for a new start!
The story of the Donner Party seemingly did the impossible. It almost entirely stopped the emigration of the citizens of the Eastern United States into the west. People, horrified at the mere thought of the cannibalism and the fact that just over half of the massive party survived, saw through the fog of over-hyped expectations that had surrounded California, Oregon, and other western states. In effect, the myth of frontier idealism, or the though that the frontier was the perfect place to be, had been all but completely destroyed. For a time, movement west slowed to a positive crawl.
Before the Donner Party Americans thought the western frontier was the ideal place to live. People wanted to move from their homes and start a new life out west. The story of the Donner Party spread throughout the United States. It showed the difficulty in traveling out west, from cannibalism to Indian attacks and the stories in the newspaper scared Americans from moving out to the west. Only did the Gold rush in 1849 did Americans feel brave enough to travel out west again.
The Donner Party helped strike down the myth of frontier idealism for several reasons. They thought that going west would be easier if they took the hastings cutoff. They decided to take that route although they didn't know if the route would work. The roads were all forest so they had to cut down the trees and this took a long time. Also, the wagons were getting stuck and braking because the roads weren't easy to travel on. This showed that the frontier idealism wasn't possible because of the harsh winter conditions and the rough roads.
Frontier Idealism was the idea that out west, in California, was perfect. The immigrants coming from thousands of miles away thought they were heading towards better resources, weather, and land. They thought this travel to the Frontier would make life so much better and give them more opportunities. The story of the Donner Party, however, helped strike down this myth because getting there was not as easy as it sounded. Most families had someone in it die from the freezing cold and lack of food and water brought along on the trip. The Donner Party struggled because of Hastings lies and misleading. After hearing the stories of having to eat human flesh, dying family members, and going insane on the way to this "perfect" place, The Donner Party helped strike down the myth of Frontier Idealism.
The donner party helped strike down the myth of Frontier Idealism in a couple of ways. One they struck fear into people who wanted travel to there because of the death toll that was told. Also because of the long route to take was extremely dangerous, the cold winters would takes it toll, many people lost their oxen. Lastly, it would take a long journey to get there, and there was no turning back.
Frontier Idealism is the idea that by moving west would offer more opportunities. It would offer more land, better weather, and more opportunities for their family's. The Donner party's experience shut down the idea of frontier idealism. When they went west they were faced with many problems. They suffered through harsh weather conditions. They quickly ran out of food due the the weather conditions. The Donner party ended up eating each other as a last resort to survive. They're journey was long and the days seemed endless. All the pain they went through didn't seem worth it at all, and they didn't even get to where they wanted.
Frontier idealism was unlimited free land which meant unlimited opportunities. The Donner party wanted to head west to try and find a better life for themselves and there families. They took wagons and crossed the Sierra Nevada in hopes of finding idealism. The trip turned out to be a tragedy rather then a success. They ran into many difficulties with the snow and starvation, many died. The Donner party helped to show that Frontier Idealism was very hard to achieve.
The myth of Frontier Idealism is the perfect place to be in the far west on the frontiers. People thought that there would be a lot more land, better weather for farming, and everything would be much cheaper there. The Donner Party helped to strike down this myth. This is because the travel to the west was terrible and almost not worth it at all. The Donner Party changed the view of many peoples idea of Frontier Idealism. It scared other people who were considering to go to the west. Many people died in the Donner Party and they ran out of water and food supply. The Hastings route was the wrong route to take for the Donner Party. It was much longer and more difficult to go through. If they took the other route it would have been a little better but their supplies would still run out. Also, people would still die, but not as many most likely.
The Donner Party contributed to striking down the myth of Frontier Idealism by bringing the realization of the challenges faced by those in the pursuit of the Westward move. The frontier was made to look much more appealing then it truly was. The offer of cheap land and new opportunities was too much for ambitious American people to pass up. When the story of the Donner Party’s became known, people really began to understand just easily everything could go wrong on the journey West. The death of loved ones due to sickness, snakebites, the hunger and ache of low supplies, broken wagons, weakened cattle, leaving behind your home and all you’ve ever known with the fearful chance of never completing the journey. I think the fact that the Donner Party was forced to pull themselves so low that they would eat their dead companions to survive was a huge wake-up call for other Americans. The Frontier wasn’t an amazing flawless place, like anywhere in the world it was filled with its own risk and challenges. What made the Frontier into what it was wasn't the land itself, but the brave people that chose to leave their homes behind and face the strange, dangerous, new world of the West.
Frontier Idealism is the idea that by moving west would offer more opportunities. It would offer more land, better weather, and more opportunities for their family's. The Donner party's experience shut down the idea of frontier idealism. When they went west they were faced with many problems. They suffered through harsh weather conditions. They quickly ran out of food due the the weather conditions. The Donner party ended up eating each other as a last resort to survive. They're journey was long and the days seemed endless. All the pain they went through didn't seem worth it at all, and they didn't even get to where they wanted.
The Donner party helped hunt down the myth of frontier idealism by getting stuck in the Nevadas in the winter of 1846-1847. The people in the party had to turn to canibalism to survive and only about half of the party survived. This all happened because George Donner, the leader of the wagon train made a split second decision on taking another trail that they were headed to take. They took a trail that was said to be shorter than the original trail that everyone else took. They were wrong, the trail was 100 miles longer and they were stranded for winter because they couldnt travel west during the snow storms.
As heather said the Donner party was mislead by hastings lies. I agree with her and think that his lies were a big part of their struggle. They thought they could trust him in the beginning but realized that he was no help at all.
One question I have in responds to this is do you think what the Donner Party did was inhuman? Even when faced with starving to death, should any person, no matter how desperate, resort to eating their dead companions? Would starving themselves have been a better decision morally?
As Dorothy Anne Hellar said, the Donner Party suffered through harsh weather conditions. They reached the Sierra Nevada right as a huge blizzard came. This put them in 5 and 6 feet of snow and held them there all winter and that is why they ran out of food.
The story of the Donner party helped strike down the myth of frontier idealism because people thought that moving west would be a perfect place to live. But the travel that they encountered was anything but perfect. It really wasn’t worth it to travel all that way because it was pretty much the worst thing that could happen to them. When people found out about the harsh travel they got really scared. The route that they took was called the Hastings cut off and it was said to be a lot smoother and faster but it was the complete opposite. During the Donner party they ran out of food and were forced to eat each other. The other trail proved to be safer and people that traveled west should take that trail instead of Hastings.
Dear Cody, I really liked the way you explained the Donner party it was very heartfilled. It was so good I started crying. Im very proud of you and keep up the good work.
The Donner party helped strike down the myth of frontier idealism by getting trapped in the sierra nevada. The donners were stuck there all winter and many died of starvation or insanity. A lot less people travelled west after hearing about the tragedy of the Donners, and frontier idealism started to die. The Donners were used as a prime example of why not to travel west. This fear was lost however, when California found gold. -Chester
The Donner party helped strike down the myth of western idealism because there story helped people realize to stay on the path that everybody goes don't listen to some person whocould be wrong about a shortcut.
Frontier Idealism was the idea that the new western territory was absolutely perfect, and whoever wanted to start a new life, they were given the advice to travel west. When The Donner Party set off for the west, considering to take what was claimed a short-cut, but what was really their path to their death. They were told the path through the Sierra Nevada would save 200 miles and take half the time as the original path would. They were told by the other travelers that it was a dangerous, rough path, but the leader of The Donner Party traveled through anyway. It turned out it took twice as long to travel, and was scarce of food. Starvation set in, and some actually went crazy. People were dying quickly, but since there was no more food, they turned to cannibalism. When rescue parties came, The Donner Party and what happened to them became known all over the U.S. This got rid of Frontier Idealism.
Oscar Great job with your article on the Donner Party and Frontier idealism. I learned a lot from reading this. One example is you said that they were forced to eat eachother.
the Donner party helped strike down the myth of frontier idealism by getting stuck in the sierra Nevadas in the winter of 1846-1847. the people in the party had to turn to canibalism to survive and only about half of the party survived. this all happened because George Donner, the leader of the wagon train made a split second decision on taking another trail that they were headed to take.
ReplyDeleteThe story of the Donner Party was a very large factor of striking down the myth of the frontier idealism. It scared many people from moving west and kept people staying in the east. People then thought of the west as a bad and harsh place to live. When people heard of the Donner Party, they thought twice about going out to live in California. The people heard of many different stories that scared them and stopped them from going over. Most people rethought about how they should go over through the mountains and stuck to the old way. This also made the frontier idealism a rough and tough place. It took a lot to live there and had a lot of risk. But this didn’t stop people from moving out there and crossing the mountains to get to California for a new start!
ReplyDeleteThe story of the Donner Party seemingly did the impossible. It almost entirely stopped the emigration of the citizens of the Eastern United States into the west. People, horrified at the mere thought of the cannibalism and the fact that just over half of the massive party survived, saw through the fog of over-hyped expectations that had surrounded California, Oregon, and other western states. In effect, the myth of frontier idealism, or the though that the frontier was the perfect place to be, had been all but completely destroyed. For a time, movement west slowed to a positive crawl.
ReplyDeleteBefore the Donner Party Americans thought the western frontier was the ideal place to live. People wanted to move from their homes and start a new life out west. The story of the Donner Party spread throughout the United States. It showed the difficulty in traveling out west, from cannibalism to Indian attacks and the stories in the newspaper scared Americans from moving out to the west. Only did the Gold rush in 1849 did Americans feel brave enough to travel out west again.
ReplyDeleteThe Donner Party helped strike down the myth of frontier idealism for several reasons. They thought that going west would be easier if they took the hastings cutoff. They decided to take that route although they didn't know if the route would work. The roads were all forest so they had to cut down the trees and this took a long time. Also, the wagons were getting stuck and braking because the roads weren't easy to travel on. This showed that the frontier idealism wasn't possible because of the harsh winter conditions and the rough roads.
ReplyDeleteFrontier Idealism was the idea that out west, in California, was perfect. The immigrants coming from thousands of miles away thought they were heading towards better resources, weather, and land. They thought this travel to the Frontier would make life so much better and give them more opportunities. The story of the Donner Party, however, helped strike down this myth because getting there was not as easy as it sounded. Most families had someone in it die from the freezing cold and lack of food and water brought along on the trip. The Donner Party struggled because of Hastings lies and misleading. After hearing the stories of having to eat human flesh, dying family members, and going insane on the way to this "perfect" place, The Donner Party helped strike down the myth of Frontier Idealism.
ReplyDeleteThe donner party helped strike down the myth of Frontier Idealism in a couple of ways. One they struck fear into people who wanted travel to there because of the death toll that was told. Also because of the long route to take was extremely dangerous, the cold winters would takes it toll, many people lost their oxen. Lastly, it would take a long journey to get there, and there was no turning back.
ReplyDeleteFrontier Idealism is the idea that by moving west would offer more opportunities. It would offer more land, better weather, and more opportunities for their family's. The Donner party's experience shut down the idea of frontier idealism. When they went west they were faced with many problems. They suffered through harsh weather conditions. They quickly ran out of food due the the weather conditions. The Donner party ended up eating each other as a last resort to survive. They're journey was long and the days seemed endless. All the pain they went through didn't seem worth it at all, and they didn't even get to where they wanted.
ReplyDeleteFrontier idealism was unlimited free land which meant unlimited opportunities. The Donner party wanted to head west to try and find a better life for themselves and there families. They took wagons and crossed the Sierra Nevada in hopes of finding idealism. The trip turned out to be a tragedy rather then a success. They ran into many difficulties with the snow and starvation, many died. The Donner party helped to show that Frontier Idealism was very hard to achieve.
ReplyDeleteThe myth of Frontier Idealism is the perfect place to be in the far west on the frontiers. People thought that there would be a lot more land, better weather for farming, and everything would be much cheaper there. The Donner Party helped to strike down this myth. This is because the travel to the west was terrible and almost not worth it at all. The Donner Party changed the view of many peoples idea of Frontier Idealism. It scared other people who were considering to go to the west. Many people died in the Donner Party and they ran out of water and food supply. The Hastings route was the wrong route to take for the Donner Party. It was much longer and more difficult to go through. If they took the other route it would have been a little better but their supplies would still run out. Also, people would still die, but not as many most likely.
ReplyDeleteThe Donner Party contributed to striking down the myth of Frontier Idealism by bringing the realization of the challenges faced by those in the pursuit of the Westward move. The frontier was made to look much more appealing then it truly was. The offer of cheap land and new opportunities was too much for ambitious American people to pass up. When the story of the Donner Party’s became known, people really began to understand just easily everything could go wrong on the journey West. The death of loved ones due to sickness, snakebites, the hunger and ache of low supplies, broken wagons, weakened cattle, leaving behind your home and all you’ve ever known with the fearful chance of never completing the journey. I think the fact that the Donner Party was forced to pull themselves so low that they would eat their dead companions to survive was a huge wake-up call for other Americans. The Frontier wasn’t an amazing flawless place, like anywhere in the world it was filled with its own risk and challenges. What made the Frontier into what it was wasn't the land itself, but the brave people that chose to leave their homes behind and face the strange, dangerous, new world of the West.
ReplyDeleteFrontier Idealism is the idea that by moving west would offer more opportunities. It would offer more land, better weather, and more opportunities for their family's. The Donner party's experience shut down the idea of frontier idealism. When they went west they were faced with many problems. They suffered through harsh weather conditions. They quickly ran out of food due the the weather conditions. The Donner party ended up eating each other as a last resort to survive. They're journey was long and the days seemed endless. All the pain they went through didn't seem worth it at all, and they didn't even get to where they wanted.
ReplyDeleteDori
The Donner party helped hunt down the myth of frontier idealism by getting stuck in the Nevadas in the winter of 1846-1847. The people in the party had to turn to canibalism to survive and only about half of the party survived. This all happened because George Donner, the leader of the wagon train made a split second decision on taking another trail that they were headed to take. They took a trail that was said to be shorter than the original trail that everyone else took. They were wrong, the trail was 100 miles longer and they were stranded for winter because they couldnt travel west during the snow storms.
ReplyDelete@mcmike567 Great Job! you really got the point across! keep up the good work, i'm really learning a lot!
ReplyDeleteAs heather said the Donner party was mislead by hastings lies. I agree with her and think that his lies were a big part of their struggle. They thought they could trust him in the beginning but realized that he was no help at all.
ReplyDelete-dori
@3b6d9258-767d-...
ReplyDeleteOne question I have in responds to this is do you think what the Donner Party did was inhuman? Even when faced with starving to death, should any person, no matter how desperate, resort to eating their dead companions? Would starving themselves have been a better decision morally?
As Dorothy Anne Hellar said, the Donner Party suffered through harsh weather conditions. They reached the Sierra Nevada right as a huge blizzard came. This put them in 5 and 6 feet of snow and held them there all winter and that is why they ran out of food.
ReplyDeleteThe story of the Donner party helped strike down the myth of frontier idealism because people thought that moving west would be a perfect place to live. But the travel that they encountered was anything but perfect. It really wasn’t worth it to travel all that way because it was pretty much the worst thing that could happen to them. When people found out about the harsh travel they got really scared. The route that they took was called the Hastings cut off and it was said to be a lot smoother and faster but it was the complete opposite. During the Donner party they ran out of food and were forced to eat each other. The other trail proved to be safer and people that traveled west should take that trail instead of Hastings.
ReplyDeleteMarshall, i liked the way you worded your paragraph. It was informative. Good job!
ReplyDeleteDear Cody, I really liked the way you explained the Donner party it was very heartfilled. It was so good I started crying. Im very proud of you and keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteI like Wills blog, it was well written and paragraphed very well. I enjoyed reading it, and comparing it to mine.
ReplyDeleteThe Donner party helped strike down the myth of frontier idealism by getting trapped in the sierra nevada. The donners were stuck there all winter and many died of starvation or insanity. A lot less people travelled west after hearing about the tragedy of the Donners, and frontier idealism started to die. The Donners were used as a prime example of why not to travel west. This fear was lost however, when California found gold.
ReplyDelete-Chester
The Donner party helped strike down the myth of western idealism because there story helped people realize to stay on the path that everybody goes don't listen to some person whocould be wrong about a shortcut.
ReplyDeleteFrontier Idealism was the idea that the new western territory was absolutely perfect, and whoever wanted to start a new life, they were given the advice to travel west. When The Donner Party set off for the west, considering to take what was claimed a short-cut, but what was really their path to their death. They were told the path through the Sierra Nevada would save 200 miles and take half the time as the original path would. They were told by the other travelers that it was a dangerous, rough path, but the leader of The Donner Party traveled through anyway. It turned out it took twice as long to travel, and was scarce of food. Starvation set in, and some actually went crazy. People were dying quickly, but since there was no more food, they turned to cannibalism. When rescue parties came, The Donner Party and what happened to them became known all over the U.S. This got rid of Frontier Idealism.
ReplyDeletewill, your comment was good and written well.
ReplyDelete@Rachel Button, what kinda of wake up call was it, and what did it say to the other Americans?
ReplyDeleteOscar
ReplyDeleteGreat job with your article on the Donner Party and Frontier idealism. I learned a lot from reading this. One example is you said that they were forced to eat eachother.
NK <3 LH
ReplyDeleteChester, I like how you brought up that this fear was totally forgotten when gold was found in California.
ReplyDelete