eeping (PBS 1). It required eight oxen to pull it. However, Lewis contends that the idea that settlers traveled in big cozy wagons was embellished (Lewis 1). He maintains that usually on the family patriarch rode in the covered wagon because he was the only person strong enough to drive the oxen and the wagons usually only had enough room to hold some furniture and supplies (Lewis 1). Given the description of the Reeds' wagon, however, and the poor physical condition of Sarah and Margaret, it is unlikely Reed could have expected a successful journey if they were required to walk most of the way.
Lansford Hastings was an ambitious 27-year-old lawyer from Mount Vernon, Ohio (PBS 1). Although he would not accompany the Donner Party on their journey, he would play a significant role in their tragedy. Hastings had traveled to California in 1842 and there imagined the economic possibilities if California was taken from Mexico and established as an independent republic with him as its leader (PBS 1). He hoped to make this happen by encouraging American emigration to California, and for that purpose, he published a pamphlet titled "The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California" (PBS 1). This pamphlet "painted California as a second Eden" and advertised a previously unknown sho
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