Lansford Hastings

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 factor in the Donner Party disaster of 1846.

Early life

Born in Mount Vernon, Ohio and trained as a guitar maker, Hastings traveled overland to Oregon in 1842. While there, he briefly represented Dr. John McLaughlin, preparing his land claim near Willamette Falls and surveying Oregon City, Oregon (which would become the first incorporated city west of the Rocky Mountains). He left in the spring of 1843 for California, then a sparsely populated province of Mexico. By the time of he returned to the United States in 1844, he had decided to help to wrest California from Mexico and establish an independent Republic of California, with himself holding high office.

The Republic of California

Hastings wrote "The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California" to induce Americans to move to California, hoping they could effect a bloodless revolution by sheer numbers. He described California in glowing terms and gave practical advice to overland travelers. Contrary to popular belief, 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, Hastings published this statement before he had traveled the route himself, and may have been unaware of the difficulties in crossing the Wasatch Range and the salt flats of western Utah.

Published in Cincinnati in the spring of 1845, Hastings's guide did influence emigration to California, though not to the extent he had hoped for. In August of that year, Hastings and a small party set out for California, arriving at Sutter's Fort on Christmas Day. After spending the winter there, Hastings left the fort on April 11, 1846, heading east with another small group. He and two companions stopped at the Sweetwater River, where they waited for the year's emigration to arrive. An eastbound traveler agreed to carry Hastings' open letter to emigrants on the trail, inviting them to meet him at Fort Bridger. From there, Hastings said he would lead them on a new route that would significantly reduce the time and distance. Sixty to seventy-five wagons traveled with Hastings on this cutoff and arrived safely in California. The Donner Party, which came after him, did not.

Hastings's dream of empire soon collapsed when California was conquered by the United States military during the Mexican War. In 1848, Mexico ceded California to the United States under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

Later years

After serving as a captain in the California Battalion during the Mexican War, Hastings again took up the practice of law. He married Charlotte Toler in 1848 and was a delegate to the California state constitutional convention in 1849. In the late 1850s he moved his family to Yuma, Arizona, where he served as postmaster. During the Civil War, Hastings sided with the South. In 1864, he travelled to Richmond, Virginia, where he met with Confederate President Jefferson Davis to gain his support for a plan to separate California from the Union and unite it with the Confederacy. However, the so-called Hastings Plot came to nothing, as the war ended early the following year.

After the end of the war, many disgruntled former Confederates left the United States to establish colonies in Brazil. Hastings visited the region, made arrangements with the Brazilian government, and wrote "The Emigrant's Guide to Brazil" to attract potential colonists. He died in 1870, aged about 51, while conducting a shipload of settlers to his colony at Santarém.

External links

* [http://www.utahcrossroads.org/RTFrames.htm Roy Tea's Hastings Cutoff Page]
* [http://www.octa-trails.org/JumpingOffToday/VirtualTour/HastingsCutoff.asp Oregon-California Trails Association]
* [http://www.geocities.com/hastings1635/hastings.html#LWH Lansford Hastings on the Hastings Family genealogy page]

References

*Hastings, Lansford 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.