Creating Fiction from History: 11/3/2021

The tornado came, it saw, and it conquered! When the Donner twins were born, the Great Whirlwind which heralded their coming also signaled the course that their lives would forever take.

With the meager means at his disposal, Robert Donner prepared his twins for the hard, often rough and tumble life of the early 1900s West. It could well be argued that Butte, Montana, especially in this early era, was even more rough and tumble than most.

After his primary means of employment, the Parrot smelter, was shut down in 1899, Mr. Donner found work at the Colusa, owned by the Copper King, William A. C...