A review of Forgotten Journey

Documentary celebrates historic achievement

FORGOTTEN JOURNEY is a spectacular new documentary currently being aired on PBS stations nationwide. Produced by John Krizek, OCTA's Public Relations chair, the film tells the wonderful, uplifting story of the nearly, and unfortunately, forgotten Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party. The documentary is not only filmed beautifully, it has been meticulously researched. And it draws powerful and convincing conclusions about how this party of 50 emigrants faced and triumphed over the same forces that totally defeated the Donner Party 2 years later.

The Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party pioneered the Donner route to California. And they, too, got trapped in the snows. They had to leave behind one of their members, a young teenaged boy named Moses Shallenberger, who survived months of lonely isolation at Donner Lake. Some of you may have read his reminiscence. (I'm sure it's available thru the OCTA bookstore.) Yet the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy party not only got all their members to California alive, they actually arrived with two more than they began with!! I wonder how many emigrant parties could come close to that success record.

The film is shot in that familiar documentary style of beautiful modern-day dreamy, sensual scenes but they linger a little longer on those pretty ice-tipped tree limbs and you begin to feel cold even on a hot August night. The wind-blown snow drifts are filmed a little more tightly helping you feel the power of the wind. My favorite was the fire in the snow (how DO you do that??) and you watched it, felt its isolation. OK, end that shot. But, no, they stayed there & the fire started to falter & I felt the panic of trying to keep that fire going.

The historians used are excellent and include one of my personal favorites, JoAnn Levy. Any documentary that gives me JoAnn's wonderful deep laugh gets 10 extra points from the beginning. But I also liked the willingness of these historians to go beyond the base facts and speculate about what people were thinking when they made the decisions they did. Obviously we can never know for sure what others were thinking but my opinion is that, of late, we've been a little too hesitant to speculate about those things.

I've been hearing about the progress of this film for three or four years from John Krizek and, of course, must admit that I was predisposed to love it. But I thought I knew this story. I didn't. The broad outlines, yes. But not the heart and soul of what makes it a truly unique tale. The fact that it happened so early in the emigration, in 1844, two years before the Donners, should have been enough to make this story more lasting. But I found myself thinking that this would be a truly classic story, even if it had happened late in the emigration.

You should call your PBS outlet for the PBS showings currently on tap. Just heard from John that it is being downloaded for broadcast pretty widely but you should call your local PBS outlet and ask them when they plan to show it. And, if they don't have plans, beg them to make some. I know that you will also adore it.

Lesley Wischmann
http://frontierdiplomats.com

Visit the Oregon-California Trails Association website
http://OCTA-trails.org

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