Blog #4: Historical Snapchat Stories (The Donner Party)

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     There was no point in trying to keep warm anymore. It was only going to slow the inevitable. My Ma and Pa could sense it as well; their rosy cheeks turning pale as the snow strewn on the ground. Ma leaned over, bundled in a bonnet and a blanket as she reached a gloved hand to wipe a trail of freezing mucus that trailed from my nose. 

     I was trying not to think about anything, ever since I came down with this illness. Perhaps this would’ve never happened if we didn’t take the Hastings cutoff route, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened if we left a bit earlier or if we decided to wait another year. Mary, my sister, had a bad gut feeling and was reluctant to go, if only my family had listened to her intuition. Then she would be here still, and I wouldn’t be joining her up in heaven soon.

     The worst part was knowing what was happening after I succumbed from the cold or the sickness; A reality even more awful than the thought of dying. Cannibalism, we had become savages in our fight for survival, and I was too weak to escape that fate. Ma had wailed and begged not to do anything to Mary after she turned cold, but the other party members were relentless and hungry. Now she was numb as this biting frost, and Pa was trying his best to keep the rest of our family together. 
    "Just hold on, son. You're a strong'un, we have some hot water cooking on the fire that'll warm you right up." Ma said, the encouragement was ineffective at her flat tone. It was hopeless, the cold was seeping into my bones and making everything heavy and slow. I breathed a puff of air out into the ramshackle wagon shelter, sending another prayer that I would be buried whole.

Works cited: 

Image 1: Legends of America, www.legendsofamerica.com/mo-independence/. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023. 

Image 2: Tuesday, Shanie Matthews |, and About the Author Shanie MatthewsA longtime Lake Tahoe local. “Talking Cannibalism: The Donner Party Story.” Lake Tahoe, 9 Feb. 2023, laketahoethisweek.com/blog/talking-cannibalism-donner-party-story. 

Image 3: “The Hastings Cutoff - Issuu.” Google, Google, www.google.com/amp/s/amp.issuu.com/utah10/docs/volume_3_1930/s/59371. Accessed 9 Sept. 2023. 

Image 4: “Donner Party.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 15 Aug. 2023, www.britannica.com/topic/Donner-party. 

Image 5: “Donner Party.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 15 Aug. 2023, www.britannica.com/topic/Donner-party. 

Information: “Donner Party - Survivors, Timeline & Facts.” History.Com, A&E Television Networks, 2010, www.history.com/topics/19th-century/donner-party.