The Manifest Destiny: The Journey Of The Donner Party

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Jonathan Espinoza
Professor Gomez
California Studies 110
15 November 2014 The Journey of the Donner Party
Westward expansion was popular in the 1800’s due to the idea of the “Manifest
Destiny”. The Manifest Destiny was a political movement that encouraged the people living in the east to expand westward and establish settlement all throughout the lands of the west. Along with the many others who wanted to move west, the Donner Party too wanted to benefit from the western lands. Their plan was to move to California, acquire cheap land where they could reap the benefits of rich soil and good climate that Springfield Illinois did not provide them. The journey to California was the beginning of a new life for The Donner Party and for many others.
Enough supplies were gathered to get them through the first winter in California which they thought would take them six months (V.Murphy pg12). Young men who wanted to go to California but could not afford it, known as Teamsters, were hired to do the hard work of walking beside the oxens for the entire trek. Their job was to care for oxen and in return they were given food and space in the wagon to sleep (Lavender 13). Everybody had a role on this journey. Women were to cook, look after children and do laundry. The men hunted, steered and maintained the wagons and cared for the animals. Ready to go, the three families set out for the west on April 16, 1846 not knowing the challenges that they would face.
The Donner Party arrived at their first destination on May 11, 1846, at Independence
Missouri, where they, along with everybody else moving west, would find the Oregon and
California Trails. This was the beginning point for travelers going west, even back in 1843 when the first wave of emigrants went west (B. Brooke). There they met up with another family

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traveling to California, the Breen family, and together they hurried to catch up to the
At Fort Laramie they were pleasantly greeted by indians from the Sioux tribe and were able to finally take a rest from the journey and even celebrate Independence Day, then “America was turning seventy years old”. Here James Reed came across an old friend, James Clyman, who had crossed the shortcut Hasting’s mentioned in the guide, but said that it was dangerous and that travelers should avoid crossing that terrain. He recommended that people follow the know terrain of Fort Hall road that went northwest to
California (Lavender 18­24). Reed stayed focused on taking the shortcut because he felt the group could do so just as they had done making it to Fort Laramie from Independence, MO with its obstacles.The wagon party voted to take the shorter route and elected George Donner the leader, the group from here on out was known as the Donner Party. Fort Bridger was the final stop, before Hastings Cutoff, for the party to stock up on supplies, repair wagons and purchase more livestock. They had reached the point of no return. On July 31st the party set out on the dangerous unknown trek southwest following the guide book’s shortcut that not even the author himself had