In 1846, The Hastings Cutoff Through Utah Was Deadly For The Donner Party
By Catherine Armstrong|Published January 04, 2021
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Catherine Armstrong
Author
Writer, editor and researcher with a passion for exploring new places. Catherine loves local bookstores, independent films, and spending time with her family, including Gus the golden retriever, who is a very good boy.
During the mid-1800s, western migration brought thousands of families from the East and Midwest to the West. The Oregon Trail was a popular route for settlers hoping to stake their claims in the Oregon Territory or California, but it was an arduous journey.
Lansford Hastings, a trail guide and explorer, learned of an alternate route that would take wagon trains through Utah, and he called it the Hastings Cutoff. The Donner Party took that route through Utah in 1846, and the diversion is often blamed for the delay that ended up costing many of the travelers their lives later that winter.
The Donner party left Independence, Missouri on May 12, 1846. The party consisted of 87 people, and more than half were children. The wagon train was the last to leave that spring.
The journey typically took four to six months to complete. Since they had left so late in the season, the party decided to take a brand new shortcut called the Hastings Cutoff.
The Hastings Cutoff started at Fort Bridger in Wyoming, and led the pioneers through the Wasatch Mountains, down Emigration Canyon, and across the West Desert.
The journey through the Wasatch Mountains was incredibly difficult. Men had to cut down trees, move large boulders, and clear brush in order to make a trail for the wagons. The party traveled an average of just 1.5 miles per day. When they finally made it to the mouth of Emigration Canyon, the pioneers rejoiced, but there was still another long, difficult slog ahead.
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After making their way through the Salt Lake Valley, the Donner party had to travel across the Bonneville Salt Flats and the West Desert.
The pioneers found a note left by Hastings, telling them that two days without food or water for their livestock were ahead. By that point, many of the horses and oxen were already exhausted, but there was no turning back.
Horses and oxen died of thirst and exhaustion along the journey, and the party was forced to abandoned several wagons.
Members of the Donner party saw mirages that looked like lakes, and suffered heat exhaustion. It took six days to cross the salt flats, and another week to consolidate the wagons and track down livestock that had run away due to thirst.
The party travelled another through another 40 miles of desert before rejoining the main trail on September 26th. The Hastings Cutoff "shortcut" had cost the pioneers an extra month of travel.
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On October 20th, the party started to make its way up to Truckee Lake, at the spot now known as Donner Pass. Snow began to fall, and the group was stuck at the top of the mountain. 60 people set up camp at the lake, and another 21 had a camp about 5 miles down the mountain.
The Donner party suffered from hunger and sickness. Many died of malnutrition. Others resorted to cannibalism to survive, consuming the flesh of those who had already passed. By the time rescue was coordinated, several months had passed. Of the original 87 members of the Donner party, only 48 survived.
Did you know that the decision to take the Hastings Cutoff contributed to the tragedy of the Donner Party?
