Describes the journey of the ill-fated Donner Party, ninety pioneers who became stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the winter of 1846-47.

Recounts the history of African Americans in California during the Gold Rush while focusing on the life and work of Mifflin Gibbs.

Recounts the journey of the Donner Party which, in 1846, sought to travel from Independence, Missouri, to California but took an untried shortcut that trapped them in the Sierra Nevada mountains during a terrible winter.

"In the winter of 1846-47, a group of eighty-seven pioneers heading from the Midwest to California found themselves snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountain range with no way forward and no food or supplies. While forty- eight of the group members survived, the others perished due to extreme weather, starvation, and illness. To survive, the remaining people resorted to extreme measures ... including cannibalism. Learn about the many miscalculations,...

An account of the ordeal endured by four families who crossed Death Valley during the gold rush of 1849.