Teens learn on the trail

A rugged, 160-year-old trail to the Western frontier has been teaching modern pioneers a new lesson the past two weeks: Don't sell yourself short.

Fifteen visually impaired teens are following in the footsteps of the ill-fated 1846 Donner party as part of this summer's Discovery Trails Project, which since 1998 has offered blind teens the chance to live the history of wagon train pioneers. The project is coordinated in part by the Kansas State School for the Blind.

The teens are taking part in two weeks of camping and exploring along stretches of the thousand miles between Kansas City and the Rocky Mountains.

Eleanor Craig, coordinator of the project, said she hopes all of her students walk away with a sense of accomplishment and lessons in independence and social skills. But, it's more than that, she added: Others will be able to look to them for information about something besides being blind.

After returning home, she said, the students will share their experiences and the history they've learned about the Donner party with elementary school students and area civic groups.

The trail for these pioneers started May 27 and ended today. They've hiked, explored wagon ruts and stopped at important pioneer sites along the way. At night, they've prepared the campsite and set up tents. Conveniences such as electronic devices like radios and CD players were not allowed.

The group originally planned to pitch tents at a pioneer campsite every night, but late spring snow at their Utah campsite drove them to a baseball field at an LDS church.

Kristin Johnson, Donner party scholar and teacher, said the group has been getting weather like that the Donner party got in the Sierras.

"It's really made me rethink: How do you convey this information to people who come from an entirely different perspective?" Johnson said.

That difference was evident Thursday at This Is The Place Heritage Park: Students were allowed past the metal barriers that usually keep visitors out to feel the statues representing the Donner party. It is widely considered the most famous tragedy in the history of the Westward migration. Almost 90 wagon train emigrants were unable to cross the Sierra Nevada before winter trapped them, and almost half starved to death.

The students have also been learning about the pioneers through other art. Students carved their names in rock donated by a quarry in Kansas just as the pioneers did at Independence Rock. They sculpted clay, made replicas of wagons and experimented with dance of the period.

Perhaps the strongest bond with the Donner party has been a program called Campfire Voices. Actual diaries and daily logs of the Donner members have been read to help highlight the struggles they faced.