Portraits, maps, drawings and sketches from the period are interspersed with sepia-toned contemporary photographs, some taken by Newton and some by other photographers, and appear on every page of the book. "The Donner Party Chronicles" is visually rich and stimulating. The area around Donner Lake and the route the relief parties followed are depicted in all seasons of the year. Even in black-and-white, the photos of Donner Lake and the surrounding mountains demonstrate the ruggedness of the terrain and deeply impress upon the reader the hopelessness the members of the Donner Party must have felt upon being snowed-in at the lake.
The book reads like a journal that would have been kept by one of the emigrants traveling with the Donner Party. The text is reprinted from installments journalist Frank Mullen, Jr. published in the weekly newspaper "The Reno Gazette-Journal" over the course of an entire year. The daily routine followed, problems encountered, and decisions made by the Donner Party are chronicled in a concise manner. The entries are short, most three or four paragraphs in length.
One very interesting feature of "The Donner Party Chronicles" is the map of the Emigrant Trail that appears on every left-hand page of the book, with the progress of the doomed emigrants clearly marked with a red dot. As you read along through the book, you see on every other page exactly where the emigrants were as the day's events took place. I found this map extremely helpful and fascinating. Watching the movement of the Donner Party as they traveled on foot at the pace of slow, plodding oxen made me better able to understand how great an undertaking their overland journey was. I shared this book with my husband, my Dad and my father-in-law, and they enjoyed it almost as much as I did!
This book is well worth the price, for the interesting text as well as the terrific photos; you can easily find what you're looking for in the pages, as each page is dated and the day's entry fairly short.
The book is a daily chronolgy of the year that it took the party to travel from Illinois to California, and each two-page spread of this large book is carefully laid out and presents a mix of graphics and text. It is rewarding if read straight through, yet very accessible if your reading style is more "grazing" than linear.
Mullen clearly has done his homework. The sheer volume of detail and complexity in the story can be overwhelming, and Mullen includes the details that are needed to clarify and develop the people in the story. He includes wonderful quotes from diaries and supporting material, and drawings of interesting side issues such as an analysis of the probable shape of the "Pioneer Palace Car." Additionally, Marilyn Newton's photographs of the trail as seen today make it real for a modern reader.
When I have given this book as a gift to anyone with an interest in American History, it has been very well received. A truly great book.
