Hosting us this evening. A big round of applause. [applause] some great partner ships with them over the year and. How many of you is your first time here . Okay. Thats a great sign. Those who just raised your hand please come back and visit the place. All great exhibitions. Those who did not raise your hand you know what a special place this is in our community on. June 6th, the annual she tack would event is coming back, if you dont know what it is, its living history, people and usually academics bringing history to life. This is years theme is the chisolm trail. Its free and open at the think. At tulsa history. Org. If you have not been there before, check it out. If you have been you know how great it is. A couple of other fun thing is wanted to mention. Thank you to friends at the barbecue for all the beautiful ribs. [applause] and we have a lot of fun things this year. Dont want to go through the whole list. You can find out more at book smart tulsa. Com. Everything from David Sedaris and we hope youll stay tuned. The biggest thing is were opening a new book store in downtown tulsa. And its got magic city books and going to be around the corner of archer and detroit in the brady art district. We hope to see you there were doing great events leading up to them. Every book you purchased tonight was purchased through magic city books so youre not just buying a great book, youre supporting a local business and supporting a nonprofit venture. So thank you for that. I talk about shataqyu i. If heat had the chance to know Michael Wallis and had times to break bred with him break bread with him which is a treat because you can dive deep into the amazing brain and hear wild exteriored about this youthful misadventures in new mexico and writing about these great characters and bringing them to life, and we have hear about this donor party book. He would say im working on a donner party book and you would say when is this book coming . We know that such a fascinating topic the hands of such a talented i writer, its going to be something quite special. Theres a microphone next to me. The reason why this is here is because whether you knew it or not, youre on National Television right now. We have cspan booktv right behind us there. And they are filming this. Which is quite an amazing thing. This event will be broadcast live throughout the country not live broadcast through the country no pressure we couldnt be more thrilled to have them here with us tonight, but we dont usually have this theatrical setup but when its time to ask question i ask you to come up the side and come to this microphone and then exit that way so youre not cutting in front of the camera there. So, we are thrilled and having a human crowd here a huge crowd here, too, sometimes going to a book signing its note the best place, but we couldnt do what we do without you guys coming out here. Michael writes books and we do events and you guys are the readers and the people that support what we do. So thank you to you guys for coming out and doing this weapon appreciate you guys. Thank you. [applause] i would like to introduce our good friend and someone who has such an important part of this community, this state, and this nation, for what he provides to us. Lets give a big tulsa welcome to our special guest, mr. Michael wallis. [applause] you always have to be marketing. Good evening. My friends. And fellow lovers of literature, history, the American West, and stories told, bold and true. Although i was a crack shot more than a half century past, while serving as a u. S. Marine infantryman i no longer have any need nor desire to possess a gun. However, with that said, it is important that this evening i take up an imaginary weapon and shoot squarely in the head of the proverbial elephant in this room. Cannibalism. Consider the ultimate abomination, just the mere thought of cannibalism brings up horrific images, along with insist and bestiality its one of the great cultural taboos and that is why when people hear the words, the donner party, cannibalism predictably the first thing that comes to mind. Most people if they heard of the donner party they invariably reply perspective Something Like, the donner party. Werent those the pioneers who got trapped in a blizzard in the mountains and ended up eating each other . It is true that if not for the acts of survival cannibalism the donner party would have been a mere footnote. One of the many wagon caravans of settlers that crossed over the high sierras of california. But thats not the case. Its indisputable that some members of the snow bound donner party in order to survive, did in fact resort to cannibalism of the dead, that dreadful winter of 18461847. As a result, basic human curiosity in the lure of the morbid have always drawn people to the story. Possibly comes from a yearning empathize with someone elses suffering. Some may find nourish nourishment in the dark. Rickburn said the cannibalism becomes like the barker outside the tent. Its what helps you bring people into the story but you end up telling them a story, once inside, thats actually quite different from that the barker has led people to believe, which is a story of really kind of infinite pain and sorrow and not a exterior story of immorality and ghoulishness but a story of suffering and survive in the face of adversary, its a story that ended for those who perished in the snowy mountained but fors it was the beginning of a new life. The fact is that survivors, desperate and delirious from star vision and hypothermia, were forced to consume the flesh of the dead out of sheer necessity, and thats only a small part of the story. There is so much more. No matter if they lived or died, everyone who was a part of that journey were forever guaranteed a place in annals of American History. Among the more than 300,000 people in the mid1800s who in the words of the old frontier saying, were willing to cross heaven to get to the Promised Land of california and oregon, no single wagon train garnered as much attention as the juan that ultimately became known as the donner party. Their travels and travails are considered the best documented and famous of all the pioneer narratives. Yet, their story has always been snarled in myth, exaggeration, and often outright lies. This book tells the complete story, and not just the obvious. This is the story of that band of people with no moses or job joshua to lead them in their quest to remake themselves in a new place on the distant edge of the continent. A story of missed opportunitiess and unspeakable honors as well as realized dream and human triumphs. Full of what ifs, maybes, could have businesses, and if onlies. It tells of how they died but more importantly tells the story of who they were and how they lived and how they came to end up in the predicament that haunted the survivors the rest of their lives. This story symbolizes both americas westwards expansion and the Frontier Foundation myth. It is a story of the foibles and follies of manifest destiny, the widely held belief that the United States had been mandated by god almighty to embark on a mission to expand to spread the government and way of life across the rest of the continent. The movements name came from a catch phrase, a new york publishers coined the rallying cry in an editorial, when he proclaimed that it was by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to the whole of the continent which providence has given us for the depth of the great experiment of liberty. And that, my in friends, is why the donner story is relevant today as we now witness similar attitudes, and valuable lessons of history being ignored and the sins of the past repeated. Then, as now, we see the danger of a lethal combination of ignorance and arrogance. A frightening reminder of what could be. This is also a story that has been told and retold as both gospel truth and camfire yarns. Like most good stories it has changed with each telling. But now its my turn. And it all begins with the land. It starts on the endless prairies of illinois, on the prairie carpet and the rich soil beneath that was the flesh of the earth. In april, 1846, a company of expatriates, the early foot soldiers of map fest destiny that came to be commonly nope in American History as the donnerreid party. Departy springfield, illinois, headed for the mexican province of alta, california. Like so many more to come they were also inspired to head west by the promise of a richer life offered by americas grand expansionist movement. The america they were leaving behind in 1846 was a nation of some 20 million people, including indians and others, held in bondage as slaves. Plantationsplantationsplantatiol dominate bid the fast pace of growth was transforming the landscape, the surge of cities, the stirring of industry and the rush of transportation and commerce marked the times. There was no Holding America back in 1846. The nation beings fictionalled on extending its borders. It was a watershed area, said the late, great ben understand devoto and would later call it the year of decisions. And indeed it was, and not all those decisions proved wise. America was changing from struggling new nation into the new bully on the block. The sovereign nation of texas was annexed the year before and became a slave state. America wanted more. Present day california, arizona, new mexico, nevada and utah. So the nation, leafed by the bellicose and landhungry president james k. Polk, known to be single minded and fanatical in the purpose of acquire thing west went to war with mexico. The u. S. Lost to 2,000 men in action and more from disease but got all the land. Some political leaders, such as the Young Abraham lincoln, new Whig Congress momentum front illinois and a friend of the donner party bleeped the content of the Country National character was changed and for the worse. But some of lincolns acquaintances back in springfield did not share those feelings. As more than a million starving refugees from irelands potato blight and killing famine came to america, thousands of americans experienced a different sort of hunger. Theirs was an appetite for land and opportunity. A wave of people, including the band of citizens who gathered in springfield, were eager to become part of what they thought to be a grand adventure. But donner partys collective dream, however, marked into a collective night nightmare when because of poor timing, terrible advice, and even worse weather, only part of those who started the journey reached their final destination. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada mountains near the border of arent day nevada and california, the party soon ran out of food and ultimately resorted to feeding off the flesh of their dead companions and family members in order to survive. Again, its this aspect of the Donner Party Story that make is grotesquely fascinated and why ill city looms large in american folk lo rethe donner partys fate while chasing their fantasy and americas continental dream high lyinged the aim business is in, physically, ruthlessness spanned by manifest destiny. And this way, then, the donor party becomes a metaphor for manifest destiny and a microcosm of the United States, which at the time was busily consuming other nations, mexico, and indian tribes, standing in the way of westward migration. That meant that we had the potential to consume ourselves. This is a gothic talesent on the american frontier draws real parallel when individuals consuming flesh and the desire of a country to consume the continent, and in truth this party of trailweary pioneers became victims of their own ambition. When there are many reasons why the story of the donner party is a tale of tragedy and misfortune. One explanation thats hassenning ford is that the members of the group lost all notion of their sense of plate. Lie the multitudes that soon followed the donner party believed the west would soon become the most american part of america. That is to say the part those feet the part where those features that distinguished america from europe comes out in the strongest relief. Decade after the drama of the donners played out, british historian, lord james bryce observed, the west may be called the most distinctly american part of america, because the point in which it differs from the east are the points in which america as a whole differs from europe. That statement perfectly fits the members of the donner party. Yet, perhaps, Wallace Stegner said it best no place is a place until things that have happened in it are remembered in history, ballad, yarn, legend, monuments. History was part of the baggage we threw overboard when he launched ours in the new world. We threw it away because it recalled old tyrannies, old limitations, obligations and bloody memories, plunging into the future through a landscape that had not history, we did the country and ourselves some harm along with the good. Personal motives of the immigrants varied. Some planned to build permanent homes or farms but others hoped to enhance their fortunes and then return east. For you of the younger single mensah the journey into the unknown as the adventure of a lifetime. To bulk of the donner party lift the country of the fathers to dwell in the land they sincerery believed their children were destined to inherit. They were living examples of those who lived in the future and make their country as they good along. Often the voices of the donner party survivors are not heard because people continue to ignore what those voices actually said. There is so much more to this story than the often told and misinterpreted tales of death and cannibalism. Their legend is a long and complex story of how a group of people, from varied backgrounds, stratified in age, wealth, education, and ethnicity, headed west following different dreams. Out of necessity, they were made to unite and battle against the unknown, weather, nature, and finally, life and death. If not for a few wrong turns, the choice of bad directions and a winter storm the likes of which had never been seen, the donner party would have been an unremarkably successful wagon train but as it happened it became a lesson of what can happen when everything goes wrong. A cautionary tale of manifest destiny and an unforgettable camllty. It backs a story of madness, murder, love, hate, and survival, they the american dream, sometimes nightmare of are the consequence, and now, my good friends, a few spoonfuls. I must tell you, ive become very good friends with some of the donner party descendents, the very active and actually large group, a very bright people, varied as their ancestors, and all of them possess a great sense of humor. Which i think is sometimes necessary. The first spoon. Comes early in at the start a chapter entitled queen city of the trails. May 10 to 12, 1846. On may 10th, the donnerreid wagons rolled into the bustling Jackson County seat of independence, missouri. And it was a sabbath and no doubt prayers of thanksgiving were raised. At last, after 25 days of travel, they had arrived at the place where they believed their grand adventure would start. Beginning with the lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804 mod played a key role in western expansion. Fur trappers and traderred helped st. Louis become known as the gate away of the west. St. Charles, later part or kansas city, became popular parting points for emigrants who settle the expanse between missouri and the pacific. Yet independence deserved special credit for missouri having earned its distinctive moniker, ive got a ive got my own do rag. Right here. Im kind of like a politician. It just rolls off me. [laughter] no more interruptions. It was matter of geography, founded in 1827 a few miles from the south bank of the Missouri River the farrest point the seem beats could navigate. I it was the epicenter. Wagon trains dud nod leave until the middle of may when to there was enough green grass to provide pasturage for animals. The original town site was the eastern terminus for the santa fe,s oregon, and california trails thats why independence has all its own. Queen city of the trails. Chief among the caravan supporters were was james maxie, james reids masonic brother, who ran a general store in independence. Maxie and his business partner, william s. Stone, were delighted to sell fresh good tuesday familiar faces. Reid later noted that maxie and stone treated us as if we were brothers. When the wagon caravans reached independence Public Square, the emigrants were astounded to find by what they beheld. They were assaulted by the smells of toiling men and overworked beasts, fresh manure, tobacco and wood smoke, and many exotic aromas they could not place. The dirt streets steam evidence with people speaking spanish, german, italian and indian languages, including osage, choctaw and chickasaw. The town of independence was at this time a great babble bon the border of the wilderness is how immigrant Jessie Quinn Thornton described independence in may 1846. Thornton and his wife were eager to leave the United States and move to what was soon to become oregon territory. He had been practicing law and editing a newspaper in missouri. Because of their staunch abolitionist views, thornton and his life left pro slavery missouri in 1841 and moved across the mississippi to quincy, illinois, where he continue his work as a lawyer. Thornton corresponded regular live with influence sat newspaper editor Horace Greely and mad a close relation with senator benton and steven douglas, political rival of abraham lincoln. On april 18, 1846, just a few days after the donner party left springfield, thornton and his infirmed wife set out for independence with her noble greyhound, prince darko, and two young hired men to handle their wagons. Most of the emt grants had already departed, thornton wrote. Where an even larger caravan awaited them later the kansas river. Certain advice made good sense. We agreed that they would all meet again soon. And then the read and don our family continued their inspection of independence. The panorama was nothing like they never seen on the Public Square in springfield the fact that the many immigrant wagon trains. They have just arrived after 46 days on the santa fe trail. After three weeks on the trail they were especially excited among those in