The California Trail, 1841: Dead Ends and Gold Fields
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- Опубліковано 14 жов 2024
- Despite one of the shortest routes westward, the California Trail contained nothing but obstacles for its travelers. The desert and mountain tested the resolve of emigrants stricken by the wanderlust of the 1840s. The journey demanded decisive action if the wagons were to cross the deserts and summit the Sierra Nevada before the winter snows. Donner stands as a byword for dawdlers. The land, religion, opportunity, and finally gold drew Americans across deserts and over mountains to the rainbows end, California.
I am very inspired when watching these awesome, informative videos. It's amazing how soft our culture has gotten a mere 150 years later. Today, kids sit on their butts all day glued to a phone/device while becoming obese and/or diabetic. Pedal bikes are way too inconvenient. Luckily they all ride ebikes. Good times!
Great little history story.amazing how these people went on a mission un prepared.
Very interesting, I live in the little town of sonora, an old mining town. The sonora pass is very beautiful, go up there all the time
My great, great grandfather worked with Marshall when they found gold. His name was James Gregson and served as a blacksmith for Sutter at Sutter’s fort.
John Bidwell wrote a journal during his trip across the country in 1841, very insightful about day to day life on that early trail
He left from Greenville Ohio…really no Idea what was ahead!
The city park in Chico, CA is named after him. It's very large, I think he donated the land.
@@dfirth224 true. One of the largest city parks in the country. Beautiful place
You can tour The Bidwell Mansion in Chico, Calif. I spent most of an evening there. Quite interesting.
John Bidwell was born in eastern NY in 1819 and was living in Missouri in 1840 when he was claim jumped and thus began his trek to California in 1841. Up on arriving he befriended John Sutter and lived at Sutter's Fort until 1848 when Gold was discovered in Coloma. He was encouraged by Sutter to make his own claim and ventured to the Feather River Area where he discovered gold on July 4 1848 founding the towns of Oroville and Chico. He became a very wealthy man and ran for President in 1892 finishing fourth. I wrote a paper on him in 5th grade and recycled it for college 35 years later! ( got a A both times!)
I am born and raised in TRUCK-EE you are saying it wrong. But great job other than that. Thanks
My family made that trip several times with the last being an 1851 and the diary I have tells a fascinating story of the power of young women to hold together the group of travelers
Save that diary! Transcribe it and cherish your ancestors, my friend! I love hearing stories like this.
nice summary thank you, we should all know about these people and their treks.
Some years ago my wife and I arrived late in winter time to the area of where the Donner Party were camped. We got to our hotel, but the restaurants were closed and, like the Donner Party, we also had a hard time finding something to eat. We did not have it so hard as the Donner Party. Read a good book about their experience written by an author who had talked to some of the survivors in the early 1900s. A horrible experience.
In winter?
well done 😀👍
Donner Pass to me was/is one of the most beautiful teraine on Earth.
Go to Reno NV and ask how they pronounce the river that runs through their Town. A interesting piece of geology , break out your map of Nevada and follow the river that comes from Lake Tahoe and ends in Pyramid Lake. Which ,by the way, has some of the largest cutthroat trout .
I was thinking the same thing. 😢
Had*
me no understand? Now it's pronounced TRUCK-EE.
no big deal. right?
Walker was a hero, and a true mountain man.
very good work
How amazing is it that those new Californians in less than ten years discovered they were walking on gold.
I went to Donner pass in June 2024. Nearly starved because I refused to pay super high prices for fast food!
Will they never learn?
Walker river on the east side’a th’ Sierras useta be world class fishin’..
What ever happened to George Reed?
Don't think there are many today that could make that journey in a wagon regardless of which route they took...if they only used the amenities they could carry in a wagon. We used to have that grit. Morals were a lot stronger then as well. Something like that in this day and age would be a fight the whole way. What happened to us? Oh yeah....progress.
Keep in mind that many settlers at that time left the comforts of their developed cities and countries to pursue the promise of a better life. They sacrificed the “progress” made in those places, and I have no doubt that if we were pushed in this time outside of the confines of our cities and comforts, either through the nature of our planet or our own nature as humans, that we could make a trip like this. That’s the fascinating thing about humans. Regardless of place or time, grit or resolve has won the continuation of our species. This is only made possible by the fact that grit and resolve are not attributes of a time and place in humankind, they are attributes of humankind that allow us to persist, regardless of time or place. We will do what we must, regardless of the circumstances.
I often wonder why the Donner's left the Mid West. They where well to do. The only reason might be the harsh winters there. And fate brought them to the bitter snow's of the Sierra's.
Many of them were escaping debt. Some of them were chasing gold. Their were those who couldn't afford land and wanted to make claims and though it might not be so in much of the Midwest most of Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota were unsettled except by French trappers until the late 1800s early 1900s. But the land was all bought up by big logging Peter wherehauser who was the richest man in the world for some time off of the lumber
*FYI, no apostrophe is needed on those plurals.
Why do you have a picture of Grizzly Adams labeled as Caleb Greenwood on your thumbnail?
Couldn't a picture of Caleb Greenwood.
Bidwell was a hero... and a Statesman.
Sad part about the Donner party, they were surrounded by food that would have kept them all alive and they did not know it. Pine needles may taste like chit but they will keep you alive.
Truekay
Don’t think I’d of liked to be facing Indians on a revenge war path ! Great story! Ya would be a brave band of travellers 🧳 ❤
Reed family all survived their enemies.
Truck-key not true-key
Ya' might want to find out how to pronounce "Truckee"....
I will subscribe when you bother to research you language pronunciation. Truckee
I won't subscribe until you understand sentence structure, nouns, etc.
That was/is the indian pronunciation
And then the forty miners came in
You mean 49 ers?
It's pronounced Truck-e please.
every etymology source I checked says it's pronounced Truhk-ee, he did it perfectly .
@@emadbagheri . true key ?
@@UntrimmedSavage9858 no, more like truHck (heavy H) and then Eeee, stretched out ... kind of like saying chuck-eeee-cheese, with the E drawn out
@@emadbagheri The Natives spoke it like you, still do. When in Rome...haha!
Us Nevadans tend to change pronunciations to suit our needs. As is the case with our state name.
fortty niners killed all the huge herds of game, everything. Including other humans...
I don't think so