In Winter of Entrapment, Joseph A. King tells for the first time the true story of the most famous of all wagon trains, the Donner Party. Of eighty-nine persons in the party, forty-one perished on the trail or in the mountain camps. Some survived by eating the dead. But this is an inspiring story containing, in the author’s view, many heroes and heroines and very few villains.
It is a powerful story of people who experienced almost unimaginable suffering, yet endured. It reveals the strength of character and even nobility of people faced with a physical and moral test at the extremes of human experience.
Joseph A. King -- author, historian, speaker, college instructor -- the leading authority on the Donner Party until his death in 1996 at the age of 71. He was an advisor and participant in Donner Party films for The American Experience and The Real West series on television. He was also a leading authority on Irish emigration to rural America and Canada. He authored seven books and over fifty articles in journals in Canada, Ireland, England, and the United States.
