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Here are links to webpages that relate to the Donner Party, arranged under the headings People, Genealogy, Places, Trails and Tours, Articles, and Books and Authors. (Use your browser's <Back> key to return to this page.)

NOTE: Links to full text documents have been moved to the Sources page.

People
Biosketch of John Breen.; A tribute to John Denton.; Who was Captain George Donner?; The Beginning of the Story (George Donner's first marriage)
William McCutchen; Luke Halloran; Baptiste Who?; The Bad Luck and Good Luck of James F. Reed; Lansford W. Hastings
George McKinstry (overlander of 1846; reported on the Donner rescue to the California Star)
John Marion Murphy (husband of Virginia Reed)

: Genealogy
Donner Party members: Atwood Family History (Relations of Jay Fosdick.); McCutchen Family (Includes engraving of "Big Bill."); Pike Family Association; Raven/Breen; John App (Leanna Donner.)
John & Mary (Harrison) Handley (Sarah Handley "Grandma" Keyes.)
Other emigrants of 1846: Hastings Family Genealogy Page (Lansford W. Hastings); Harlan Family Site. (George W. Harlan family); Rhoads Family Genealogy (Thomas Foster Rhoads family); Kellogg Family website (Florentine Erwin Kellogg family, Benjamin Franklin Ephraim Kellogg); Van Bibber Family website (Alphonso D. Boone and Lilburn W. Boggs); Cyrus Family genealogy page (Enoch Cyrus family); Col. William H. Russell (wagon train captain)
Local history and genealogy sites: The California GenWeb page is a great place to start, with many links.; Sangamon County, Illinois Genealogy (Reed and Donner families); Marshall County, Illinois History (Graves family); Marshall County, Illinois Genealogy (Graves family); Union County, South Carolina (Murphy family); Weakley County, Tennessee (Murphy family); Santa Clara County, California (Reed, McCutchen, Eddy, and other emigrants of 1846); San Benito County, California Genealogy (Breen family); San Benito County Historical Society (Breen family); Napa County, California (Graves family and other emigrants of 1846); Oregon in 1846 lists the names of known overland emigrants to Oregon.; Places
Independence, Missouri.
St. Joseph, Missouri.; Alcove Spring, Kansas, where Sarah Keyes was buried.
Chimney Rock.
Scotts Bluff.; Fort Laramie.
Independence Rock.
South Pass.
Fort Hall.; Fort Bridger.
Echo Canyon.; Great Salt Lake Desert.; Bonneville Salt Flats.; Nevada State Historical Marker 46: Pilot Peak.; Nevada State Historical Marker 3: West end of Hastings Cutoff.
Humboldt Sink.
Forty Mile Desert.; Nevada State Historical Marker 62: Truckee River West.; Nevada State Historical Marker 253: Emigrant-Donner Camp.; Donner Memorial State Park (California State Park website); Photos of the Donner Monument and plaques at Donner Memorial State Park.; Truckee, California, near the site of the Donner disaster.
Johnson's Ranch.; Sutter's Fort.; Battle of Santa Clara treaty site. James F. Reed fought in this skirmish.; Adobe house built by rescuer Daniel Rhoads is a California State Historic Landmark.; The Castro Adobe, where the Breens lived in San Juan Bautista..; Grave of William Eddy in San Jose, California.; Elitha Donner's Grave is a California State Historic Landmark.; The Sharpsteen Museum in Calistoga, California, displays a few Donner Party items. Write them to purchase "The Early Upper Napa Valley," by a granddaughter of Lovina Graves Cyrus of the Donner Party or a pamphlet about Donner rescuer "Reason P. Tucker: the Quiet Pioneer" (Napa County Historical Society Gleanings, Vol. 4, No. 2).

Trails and Tours

Virtual tour of the California Trail, Missouri to Sutter's Fort. (Part of the Oregon-California Trails Association Homepage; includes Hastings Cutoff.)

For the route from Alcove Spring to Fort Bridger, see also the Oregon Trail tour.

The Emigrant Trail in Western Nebraska (photo tour)

Roy Tea's Hastings Cutoff homepage and virtual tour of the Hastings Trail.

Maps and description of the emigrant trail through Nevada.

Photo tour of the Truckee emigrant route over Donner Pass.

The National Park Service's California National Historic Trail page has information about the California Trail and a bibliography of trail-related materials.

Like Hastings Cutoff, the Applegate Trail to Oregon was opened in 1846.

: Articles; Summary of Stephen A. McCurdy's 1994 study of Donner Party mortality.; Ric Burns' The Donner Party documentary; includes interview with Burns and transcript of the program.; The Donner Party vs. the Paiutes, a thought-provoking (if not entirely accurate) article.; Hastings Cutoff (Utah History Encyclopedia); The journey of the Harlan family.; James Deem's website has an interesting summary of Donner Party archaeology and treasure hunting myths.

Books and authors

Information about Dr. Grayson.

Information about Dr. McCurdy.
Vardis Fisher, author of the novel, The Mothers.

Bruce Hawkins and David Madsen's The Excavation of the Donner-Reed Wagons.

Naida West's novel, River of Red Gold.

E-mail to Kristin Johnson

Revised: 31 Jan 2006