Mini Reviews | The Donner Party

I don't think I will ever get this story out of my head for as long as I live. I can't even imagine, no matter what books I read on the subject, what it was like. Truly horrifying.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Sarah Graves is twenty one at the time that she and her family embark on what will prove to be a harrowing journey of unimaginable horror. She and her family, including her new husband, head west in search of a better life. Yet in a short seven months they find themselves trapped with other emigrants led by George Donner in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Sarah joins a dozen other members of the party who attempt to make it out by snowshoe to get help for those they are leaving behind. Who knows what they will find when and if they even return.

Yet even before that heavy storm came in and barred their passage out, the journey was difficult. Covering many miles a day in a bumpy wagon over unforgiving terrain, there were accidents and people died. Animals were injured and sometimes whole wagons full of belongings had to be abandoned if they could not be repaired.

When the snow finally came, the oxen were so malnourished that they could not continue. This effectively trapped the members of the party who could not all make it out on foot. They killed some of the animals to have some food, but with the animals being underfed die to the conditions, it is easy to see why that plan didn't work out so well.

Sarah and those who attempted to seek help on foot had plenty of tragedy and horror of their own after leaving their makeshift camp. Even they could not escape the starvation, hypothermia, and death despite their best efforts.

I learned so much more about the Donner Party - for instance it was a massive group of extended families travelling together, and not only the Donners - obviously, since the author has chosen to focuses specifically on Sarah Graves and her family as part of the larger group. The group also consisted of several single men who had been hired to help the group on their way. Often the story is told that these were foolhardy people who had no idea what they were doing or what they were up against. Yet the Graves family had experience in travelling in this manner before. They were pioneers who knew what a difficult journey this would be, and unfortunately their party crossed paths with those who were ruled by greed, sending the massive party on a 'short cut' that was no such thing.

I never knew this before, but this route had never been travelled, ever. EVER. In my vague recollection of learning about the party, I always thought they simply left far too late in the year and were caught in a terrible snowstorm. While it is true they did leave Missouri about three weeks after the cut-off, that was not the only cause of their demise.

I appreciate the author's efforts to present a full and complete picture of the entire group, documenting to the best of his ability the route they took - though of course his transportation was a lot more comfortable, and there was a much less likely chance of him getting caught in a blinding storm and starving or freezing to death. He does not spare us any details in fact, about anything. The author is thorough in his research and reports on every aspect of the journey. The attention to detail is important and you can't help but feel you are right there with them, in the worst of it, wondering how anyone could possible come out of this alive.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

I read both of these books fairly close together and feel that both did an excellent job in recounting the devastation of this journey that only half the emigrants would survive.

The author uses numerous sources to tell the story of the party, not focusing on one particular woman or family, as the previous book did. This way works just as well, and I feel like reading both books would be helpful for anyone wanting to know more. He uses scientific data such a survival rates and snowfall totals, as well as journals and letters written by those who belonged to the Donner Party. Descendants of the doomed travelers made these documents available and one can not read through the writings without feeling such deep sadness for those who were once so full of hope at the prospect of starting a new life out West, to provide for their families.

One of the things the author does well is presenting the party as human beings forced to make extraordinarily difficult decisions when the time came to do so. There are not heroes and villains here, or at least the area is much more grey than black and white. I also appreciate that he does not dwell on the gruesome aspects of the story, when finally those who stayed behind at Donner Lake were driven to such madness by hunger, that they would take to eating the dead. It also must be remembered that most did not actually do so.

One thing the author does well is look at the contradictions in survivors' accounts later on. In his examination of this journey, he is seeking to find what went so wrong, what made this trek so vastly different from the hundreds of thousands of others that travelled West during that span when heading West was the thing to do? The author sets out to answer these questions and more in his analysis and does a thorough job with all the sources available to him. Aside from the sources mentioned previously, he also uses newspaper accounts, interviews, and diaries to complete his research.

Both texts are fantastic explorations of the doomed party and I recommend both for those who are interested.

Mini Reviews | Wild Wild West

 

I have kind of a strange and specific love affair with the Old West. It started when I saw Tombstone, naturally. Never mind the historical inaccuracies! My 12-year-old brain didn't care (I was only ten when it came out, Mom made me wait until it was on VHS to see it) or even recognize, actually, those inaccuracies. I was forever from that point on destined to be in love with Val Kilmer as Doc Holiday and Bill Paxton as Morgan Earp.

As I began this set of mini reviews, I wandered over to IMDB to look at the entry for both Tombstone and Wyatt Earp, movies released within a year of one another, and can not remember why I have never loved Wyatt Earp as much as Tombstone. In fact, I don't ever recall seeing it. The cast alone was fantastic and it is probably one I am going to have to watch fairly soon.

Anyway, on to the reviews!

 Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

So the thing about Tombstone and the gunfight at the OK Corral is that it doesn't even matter what the true story is anymore - that the gunfight was really not that big of a deal and it didn't even happen there anyway. The myth has grown to such epic proportions that no matter what is written about it until the end of time, it will remain THE defining event that everyone associates with the Old West, even if it came at nearly the tail-end of the era it now embodies.

Guinn does a fantastic job putting together the real history and it was a page-turner like no other for me. In this sense, Guinn is 100% accurate with the subtitle in how this event "changed the American West". He does not mean that this non-event event changed the Old West itself, but changed and molded how we would perceive those days decades and now a century on. There is no question that 4 out of 5 people would say the OK Corral or Tombstone if asked to name a place in that time.

The research into this is massive, detailing everything we can possibly know about the Earps - complete with Warren and James, two Earps I did not even know existed, who had even been in Tombstone at various times when Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan lived there. Of course there is also Doc Holiday and Big Nose Kate, plus the Clantons and McLaurys, plus Johnny Ringo and Curly Bill of course. The backstory is phenomenally told, how the cowboys came to clash with the sometimes-lawmen. The author used a plethora of sources available for the first time here, including diaries and letters of those involved - even the sketch Wyatt drew of the shoot-out and its end. I learned so much more about Johnny Behan and his connection to Wyatt.

You won't find nearly as much information about Wyatt's vendetta ride to avenge Morgan's murder here as there was the lead-up to the gunfight. For that I highly recommend Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holiday, and the Vendetta Ride from Hell by Tom Clavin, which is also superb. Instead, once the smoke has cleared so to speak, much of the aftermath involves the inquests into the deaths that occurred that day - Billy Clanton's, as well as the McLaury brothers.

Even though I love Tombstone dearly (true story - I just ordered the DVD because of course now I want to watch it), the real story is just as interesting, if not more so. It is no secret that the Earps were not always as law-abiding as they're made out to be in popular works. The book does a good job clearing away that bit of myth. One might even say they understand why the Clantons and McLaurys were so pissed off; you can't really blame them. So, there are not straight heroes and villains here, everyone is a little bit of both. And there is so much more information here than a movie would ever have room for to explain adequately. So, I see why the story was simplified for the big Hollywood blockbuster (except it kind of wasn't, I don't think. I don't actually remember.)

Highly recommend, especially for those who enjoy a good chunk of Old West history.

 Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐

It is very easy to feel sorry for a lot of the women who became known as a Mrs. Earp at any point in their lives. They were often common-law wives who were easy to leave - as Wyatt himself could attest to. It would seem that the father of some of the most famous lawmen in history started off with this idea himself, marrying a total of three times in his life. The author is also quick to point out that while several of the Earp sons would go on to marry multiple times, there may be even more wives that we don't know about. I would not be surprised one bit.

I really enjoyed the focus of this book. The author does a fantastic job with what I imagine would be very limited source material to bring these women to life behind their passive roles in movies like Tombstone. The book is a quick read and I like that she includes transcripts of letters written by various Mrs. Earps. Live in the West would have been hard enough, but I could not imagine trying to survive out there while also following a husband with wanderlust in his veins. This is a very special group of women who are finally having their stories told and a must-read for those interested in the history of the West.

 Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Just the kind of ladies I would love to read about! Much like the previous title, I was happy to find this gem and learn more about the women who populated the frontier towns aside from those who are already well-known.

Women in the West could be just as tough, if not more so, than the men they kept company with, if they chose to do so. Plenty of women were outlaws and gamblers with their own reputations, saloon owners or soiled doves. The point then, as it still is today for so many women, they did whatever they had to in order to survive. If that meant anything from prostitution to murder, then so be it.

Each woman in the book is given a certain amount of pages for her brief biography, recounting her adventures. I feel a book like this is important because in many cases, this might literally be all we know about many of these women and they deserve to have their stories told, out of the shadows of their male counterparts. Sadly, so many stories were similar in how they came to find themselves unattached in a dangerous time and place. Each chapter opened with a highlight or major event from the woman's life. The author then made great use of personal items, such as letters and diaries, or even interviews given later in life when their gun-slinging days were long behind them.

A recommended read for those with an interest in the period and/or badass women who took care of themselves.

Book Review | Dragon Teeth

 

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jurassic Park is one of my favorite books of all-time. I can't even count the number of times I read it from middle school on up. I can't count the number of times we played Jurassic Park as kids in the neighborhood (I was ALWAYS Ellie), re-enacting the movie over and over and over.

Crichton's passing saddened me greatly, because we lost a fantastic writer who always kept me on the edge of my seat. I have yet to meet a Crichton book I haven't liked. This was no exception.

Dragon Teeth was published in 2017, nearly a decade after Crichton's death. Compared to other books I have read by authors who passed during the writing, editing, or revising process, this felt 100% Crichton, 100% of the time.

It is really weird to think about the heyday of dinosaur fossil discoveries happening in the Wild West, two things that seem incredibly incompatible. Crichton has blended fact and fiction together so perfectly and it absolutely wonderful. I would even say comforting, because to be able to read one of his novels years after he passed away was just that, comforting. Luckily, it was also a fast-paced and entertaining read that had be hooked from start to finish.

The story takes place in 1876. Everything that comes to mind when one thinks of the time and the place, complete with goldrush towns and Native American tribes at war with one another. There are cameos by Western figures we know so well, gunfights and the like. This is a western novel through and through. But in the midst of all of that, two paleontologists are also at war - with one another. The rivalry between the two men takes center stage as they race to collect as many specimens as possible.

Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope were real men, real paleontologists who battled one another for scientific supremacy. The men spent years and fortunes spying and sabotaging  in order to come out on top.

The only character who seems to be completely a product of Crichton's imagination is William Johnson. He is a rich, spoiled, lazy young man attending Yale and ends up out West on a bet that he can't survive the summer on an expedition with Marsh. In terms of survival, this is initially simply a nod to whether or not he will last out West of if he comes home early. As the adventure deepens, it becomes a literal fight for survival as Johnson has to contend with all the dangers surrounding him in addition to the dangers that Marsh and Cope's men are to one another. It certainly doesn't help Johnson when Marsh becomes convinced that Cope sent Johnson to spy on his own activities, and all kinds of intrigue ensues.

I picked this one up for a couple reasons. First, of course, dinosaurs. Secondly, I knew the history between Marsh and Cope and was excited to see what Crichton could do with such fantastic material. As I read, I found myself forgetting this was, in fact, very very true in so much of the story. The two men were larger than life and HATED one another. They did whatever they could to sabotage one another, and their plots often worked. Crichton packs so much into the story here, and even then one must remember that the rivalry was so intense and there is so much left out, simply because Crichton could easily have doubled the length of the book in recounting all the ways in which the rivalry was incredibly intense and downright dangerous.

All in all, this is absolutely brilliant. Crichton at his finest. Highly recommended.

NetGalley ARC | Tombstone: The Earp Brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Vendetta Ride From Hell

I received a free digital from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Just like most who read this book might say, I love the movie Tombstone. It is one of my favorites to this day because that image of them walking to the OK Corral is so iconic - plus it was a better time, when Bill Paxton was alive (still heartbroken over this) and Val Kilmer was normal (also kind of heartbroken about this, but in a different way). It was certainly not perfect in conveying the facts, and definitely relied on some of the myths we know are not true, but it is still a fan-fucking-tastic movie. Side note: it seems Doc really did tell Johnny Ringo "I'm your Huckleberry" and I LOVE IT.

This book was so utterly engrossing that I hardly paused to take any notes. That's truly a sign of a good one, but it makes writing the reviews that much more difficult.

This is my first book by Tom Clavin but if all of his books are this engaging, I will definitely be reading more. Here he weaves the tale that's been told many times before, the infamous gunfight that would become synonymous with the Old West, yet it was written in such a way that it were as though I were learning about it for the first time.

Before we are brought to that day in October of 1881, we see how Tombstone itself becomes a blip on the map, from its earliest days up through the results and consequences of Wyatt's vendetta ride to avenge Morgan's murder. Tombstone nearly burned to the ground on more than one occasion and raids from nearby Apache warriors were frequent. Though the town now makes it money from tourists, it was one of the last boomtowns in the West and easily the most well-known still today. By the time the Earps arrived, there was tension between the cowboys and their illegal cattle-rustling, and the citizens who wanted no part of the gun battles that erupted often between the roving gangs.

We are also given a fairly significant history of the Earp family and this is something of interest to me as well. The brothers were so close, and always had one another's backs, no matter what. I suppose in a place where you could never be 100% sure who were friends and who were foes, those bonds of brotherhood get tightened pretty quickly. Even so, they're remarkably close and reliant on one another. I've Googled pictures of them, and while all six look a lot alike, Virgil, Wyatt, and Morgan could be triplets.

The Earp brothers were not in Tombstone to do anything but make money. Virgil was the only lawman of the group and Wyatt could not have been less interested if he tried. It is interesting to note that there are more Earps than just the three depicted in the movie, which was news to me. There were actually six altogether: Newton, James, Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, and Warren. In addition to all but one of the Earp brothers spending time in Tombstone, I also found out that Bat Masterson had been there for a time with his friends as well to help lend a hand in trying to maintain some semblance of order. It was only when Masterson received word that his brother was in danger did he head back to Dodge City, just days prior to the gunfight. Can you imagine how differently the OK Corral might have gone, had Masterson been there as well? I'm not sure any of the Cowboys would have made it out alive.

What I find especially interesting is the fact that writers and directors feel the need to embellish an already-fantastic tale. Wyatt Earp was practically untouchable. He was the only one at the corral who was not injured, and in the ride that followed to avenge Morgan's death and Virgil's near-death, he again escapes unscathed. We're talking bullet holes in his clothes, his saddle horn shot off, completely physically untouched. It's bananas. Tombstone will remain one of my all-time fave movies, but there is so much more to the real story that is just a screen-worthy.

The Earp brothers basically ignored the Clantons, Frank and Tom McLaury, and the others until they simply couldn't anymore. They were not content to let the Cowboys continue to make trouble for the citizens of Tombstone, yet it was the Earps who were told to back off. Clavin provides great detail and insight as he walks readers through what all went down that day, and all the days leading up to it. The town's sheriff, Johnny Behan, played such a major role, yet this sometimes gets lost in the mist as well. Side note: he had a "relationship" with Sadie, who we all know Wyatt was in love with also. That's where the drama came from between those two men, but do not think that she is the reason that everything came to a head - though had Behan actually done his job, the whole thing could have been avoided. Wyatt had run for sheriff against Behan, but the two men struck a deal stating that Behan would make Wyatt his deputy. Of course once Wyatt did his part, Behan went back on his word. I kind of have to wonder why Wyatt didn't expect that, but who knows.

Clavin is a skilled historian and the immense amount of work that went into researching this book is obvious. He separates fact from fiction and provides fantastic follow-up on what happened when the dust settled and the Earps had their revenge. In the epilogue he provides details on what happened to all the main figures in the aftermath, at least as much as we can know about some of the men who all but disappeared into history. I was impressed with the bibliography and have already placed several books on hold at the library to continue reading up on this completely engrossing topic and these larger than life men whose actions ensured we would remember their names for years to come, whether that is what they intended or not.

Highly recommended.