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Before It Became History | The Untested Shortcut: Lansford Hastings and the Donner Party
Season 2 Episode 16
In 1845, Lansford Hastings published a guidebook promoting a California shortcut he'd never traveled. In 1846, he urged wagon families onto it anyway…
18 hours ago
Before It Became History | Tamsen Donner: A Voice Before the Disaster
Season 2 Episode 17
Tamsen Donner wrote home from the trail in 1846, months before catastrophe struck her party in the Sierra snow. Her letters, and Patrick Breen's diar…
18 hours ago
Before It Became History | The Compromise of 1850: Five Laws, One Unraveling Peace
Season 2 Episode 14
In 1850, Congress tried to defuse a crisis over California, slavery, and the Mexican Cession with five separate laws. One of them — a harsh new Fugit…
1 week ago
Before It Became History | Henry Clay: The Great Compromiser's Three Bargains
Season 2 Episode 15
Henry Clay brokered three major deals — the Missouri Compromise, the 1833 tariff truce, and the Compromise of 1850 — that held the Union together eac…
1 week ago
Before It Became History | The Oregon Treaty of 1846: Stepping Back from War
Season 2 Episode 11
The U.S. and Britain nearly went to war over Oregon. Instead, in 1846 they drew a line at the 49th parallel, settling a decades-old border dispute — …
2 weeks ago
Before It Became History | Jesse Applegate: A Trailblazer Who Found a Safer Road West
Season 2 Episode 12
Jesse Applegate isn't a household name like Lewis and Clark. But after losing his son on the Oregon Trail in 1843, this surveyor blazed a safer road …
2 weeks ago
Before It Became History | Narcissa Whitman: The Letters That Made Oregon Imaginable
She's often called "the first woman to cross the Rockies" — but that's not quite right. Narcissa Whitman's real legacy is her letters, which made Ore…
2 weeks ago
Before It Became History | Mary Ellen Pleasant: Fortune, Freedom, and a Fight for Equal Rights
Season 2 Episode 8
Mary Ellen Pleasant built a fortune in Gold Rush San Francisco through business savvy, backed abolitionist causes, and fought racial exclusion in cou…
3 weeks ago
Before It Became History | William Becknell: Father of the Santa Fe Trail
Season 2 Episode 9
In 1821, a debt-ridden Missouri trader named William Becknell blazed a 900-mile trail to Santa Fe and returned with a fortune in silver. Discover how…
3 weeks ago
Before It Became History | Kit Carson: Frontier Hero and the Navajo Long Walk
Season 2 Episode 10
Kit Carson built one of the most celebrated reputations on the American frontier as a guide and soldier. He later commanded the 1863–64 military camp…
3 weeks ago