Lansford Hastings
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Lansford Warren Hastings (circa 1819 – 1870) is best remembered as the developer of Hastings Cutoff, a shortcut across what is now the state of Utah which was a major factor in the Donner Party disaster of 1846.
Born in Ohio and trained as a lawyer, Hastings traveled overland to Oregon in 1842. He was disappointed with what he found there, and left in the spring of 1843 for California, then part of Mexico. By the time of his return to the United States in 1844, he had entered into a scheme to wrest California from Mexican control and establish an independent "Republic of California", with himself holding high office in the new country.
To this end, he wrote The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California to induce Americans to move to California in the hope that they could effect a relatively bloodless revolution by sheer numbers. In addition to painting California in glowing terms, Hastings also gave practical advice to overland travelers. Contrary to popular belief, however, he did not promote the cutoff that bears his name in his book; he merely described it, in a single sentence, as a possible route. The most direct path would be leave the Oregon route, about two hundred miles east of Fort Hall; thence bearing west-south west, to the Salt Lake; and thence continuing down to the bay of San Francisco. (Hastings, p. 137-138). However, he published this statement before traveling the route himself, and may have been initially unaware of the difficulties in crossing the Wasatch Range and through the salt flats in the west Utah desert.
Published in Cincinnati in the spring of 1845, Hastings's guide did influence emigration to California, though not to the extent he had hoped. In August of that year, he and a small party of men set out for California, arriving at Sutter's Fort on Christmas Day. After wintering in California, Hastings left the fort on April 11, 1846, heading eastward with another small group. He and two companions stopped at the Sweetwater River, where they waited for that year's emigration to arrive. Another eastbound traveler agreed to carry Hastings' open letter addressed to emigrants on the trail, inviting them to meet Hastings at Fort Bridger, whence he would lead them on a new route that, he said, would significantly reduce the time and distance to California. Sixty to seventy-five wagons traveled with Hastings on this cutoff and arrived safely in California. The Donner Party, following after him, did not.
Hastings's dream of empire fell through; California's annexation was accomplished not by a revolution of independent American settlers but by the United States military. In 1848, Mexico ceded California to the United States as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Hastings practiced law in California for several years and served as the postmaster of Yuma, Arizona, Arizona, in the 1860s. During the Civil War, Hastings took the part of the South. He died in 1870 while conducting a shipload of settlers to a colony for ex-Confederates in Brazil.
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[edit] References
- Hastings, Lanford W. The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California. Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Books, 1994. (Facsimile of the 1845 ed.)
- Bagley, Will. "Lansford Warren Hastings: Scoundrel or Visionary?" Overland Journal 12:1 (Spring 1994): 12-26.
- Cumming, John. "Lansford Hastings' Michigan Connection." Overland Journal 16:3 (Fall 1998): 17-28.
- Andrews, Thomas Franklin. The Controversial Career of Lansford W. Hastings: Pioneer California Promoter and Emigrant Guide. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Southern California, 1970.
- Dawsey, Cyrus B. and James M. Dawsey, eds. The Confederados: Old South Emigrants in Brazil. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama, 1995.
