November 20 2024 Robert Keahey
Program: Did the Hastings Cutoff Really Doom the Donner Party?
Who hasn’t heard of the Donner Party tragedy? Their ordeal in the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846 is a horrific tale of human suffering. Much has been written about their time at Donner Lake and Alder Creek, but what about their journey before they reached the mountains?
Robert Keahey will examine one segment of their journey that was a major contributor to, and possibly the ultimate reason for their demise – the Hastings Cutoff. While only a small portion of their 2,000-mile trek, this often-misunderstood and regularly maligned cutoff has been at the center of debate for over 150 years.
He will explore the actors in this saga and will examine events that led to some bad decisions, as well as taking the audience “on the trail” across the most notorious section of the Oregon-California Trail. A docent at the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum, Robert guides visitors on an exciting journey from Missouri to California in the 1840s. He is also a member of the Oregon-California Trail Association, which works tirelessly to preserve the trails that were etched across the plains almost 200 years ago.
Robert holds a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from the University of Louisiana, Monroe