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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why wasn't William Foster tried for the deaths of Luis and Salvador?

2. Who did Foster want to kill?

3. How did Margaret and Elizabeth Graves get along?

4. How did the rescue party find the survivors?

5. When did Mary Murphy get married?

Short Essay Questions

1. How did Virginia tell her cousin about the personal atrocities that happened on the trail?

2. Why didn't the Donner families camp with the others?

3. What did the group do when they realize that they couldn't reach a summit?

4. Why couldn't all the survivors get rescued at once?

5. How did Virginia deal with the idea of cannibalism?

6. How did the members of the Donner Party interact when they reached California?

7. What happened to Louis Keseberg?

8. What did William Eddy and William Foster find when they went to rescue their families? Who did they rescue?

9. What complications did the group which later became known as Forlorn Hope face?

10. What happened to the members of the Reed family?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Several people in the party died between the Great Salt Lake Desert and the Sierra Nevada. Name some of these people and explain how they died and how the group dealt with their deaths.

Essay Topic 2

Describe what the rescuers found when they came across the survivors. What condition were the people in? Use specifics.

Essay Topic 3

Describe what Christmas was like when the Donner Party members were trapped. Describe Christmas for those at the lake as well as the Forlorn Hope members.

(see the answer keys)

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