Donner Party timeline provides an almost day-to-day basic description of events directly associated with the Donner Party, covering the journey from Illinois to California—2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers), over the Great Plains, two mountain ranges, and the deserts of the Great Basin.The timeline is based onThe chronology at New Light on the Donner Party website, which is based on the Miller-Reed diary; Patrick Breen's diary (see below); the First, Second, and Fourth Relief diaries, What I Saw in California; and other primary documentsThe diary kept during the period November 20, 1846 – March 1, 1847, by Patrick Breen, one of the travelers, which is available in hypertext as well as color scans of the pages, at Online Archive of California, and quotations from which are edited here for readability and significanceHistory of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra, by C. F. McGlashan, first published in 1879; a facsimile reprint of the 1880 edition, edited by George H. and Bliss M. Hinkle, is available from Stanford University Press.The Expedition of the Donner Party and Its Tragic Fate by Eliza P. Donner Houghton (Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1911); facsimile reprint 1997 by the University of Nebraska Press.Following the timeline is a chronological list of deaths.