One hundred and sixty-four years ago this week, members of the Donner Party had left Fort Bridger and were headed for California via the Hastings Cutoff which ran through the rugged Wasatch Mountains in eastern Utah.

Jim Bridger's trading post (in SW corner of WY) had been the last chance to re-stock before the big push across the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada. The Donner group had fresh supplies of flour, sugar, and dried beef. New oxen pulled their refurbished wagons; the emigrants were in good spirits.

Hastings
Lansford Hastings, the promoter of the "short cut" west to California, had left Fort Bridger on July 20, before the Donner group arrived at the fort. Hastings headed west leading 200 emigrants and 60 wagons. He had actually passed along the shortcut (Bear River) route on horseback while heading east to Fort Bridger from California, a month or so earlier.

But now, in early August 1846, Hastings found himself in a tough spot. Yes, he had crossed through the Wasatch Mountains by following the Bear River, but he had not found a route all the way through that was safe enough for families with wagons. And here he was headed back west with 200 emigrants.

Hastings had with him a scout, mountain man James Hudspeth; he was sent ahead of the 60 wagons on horseback to see if he could find an alternative passage to the west, in a hurry.

Warning Falls Short
A few weeks early there had been an attempt to warn the Donner group of the dangers of the Hastings Cutoff. Edwin Bryant, a newspaper editor and friend of Tamsen Donner, had gone ahead of the Donner-led group before it reached Fort Bridger. At the fort, Bryant and his eight traveling companions had traded in their wagons and teams of oxen for mules. Unencumbered by wagons, they were the first emigrants to attempt the shortcut and pass through safely. Once Bryant saw how rugged the mountains and canyons of Utah were, he had sent a letter back along the tiny trail to Fort Bridger telling the Donners that they should return to the traditional California Trail. The letter was never delivered.

Weber Canyon
Meanwhile, back on the trail, Hastings decided not to follow his own shortcut. He sought to open a new route via the present-day Emigration Canyon. Scout James Hudspeth, however, was apparently unaware of Hastings' revised plan. Hudspeth led the 60 wagons down the steep Weber River Canyon in a bid to get to California.

In his book The California Trail, George R. Stewart wrote: "The river [Weber], just before it emerged into the plain near Great Salt Lake, cut through a frightful canyon, with high and in some places, perpendicular, walls of rock. The wonder is that the leading emigrants, seeing that canyon, did not simply turn around and go back, hanging Hastings to the nearest tree."

Emigrants Hack Away
The 200 pioneers (not including the Donner Party) spent several days building trails before they attempted the dangerous descent onto the Salt Lake plain. The first section of the 60 wagons lost a wagon and its oxen when they fell off a 75-foot precipice. The rest of the emigrants took their wagons right down the swift, boulder-strewn river. They unhitched the ox teams and let the river's strong current push the wagons downstream. Where the water was deep the wagons bobbed like corks, and where it was shallow, the men had to turn the wheel spokes by hand.

Salt Lake
Remarkably, by August 6, Hastings and all of the emigrants with him reached the plain east of the Great Salt Lake. That same day, the Donner Party, which had left Fort Bridger on July 31, found a notice posted along the route--probably nailed to a tree--by Lansford Hastings. It told the Party to camp there and send a messenger forward to find Hastings so he could point out a more appropriate route than the Weber and Bear River canyons. Following instructions, the Donner Party pitched camp, and James Reed rode ahead on horseback to find Lansford Hastings.

Hastings Photo: Author’s Collection

Editor's Note: This installment is one in a special series tracing the experiences of the Donner Party as it worked its way into American history. The series was written by Mark McLaughlin, weather historian, who lives on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe.