August 7, 1846
On this day, members of the ill-fated Donner Party made the fatal decision to heed the advice of a self-serving guide named Lansford Hastings and leave the popular California Trail in favor of a shortcut.
Hastings, (left) a lawyer from Ohio, went to California in 1842 dreaming of freeing the territory from Mexico in order to establish an independent country and become its first president. He’d authored a book entitled “The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California” in the hope that a quicker route would prompt increased settlement.
The Donner party originally made up of some 74 people, 12 family groups, 19 individuals and 20 wagons left Illinois in April, arriving at Fort Bridger, Wyoming in late July. They departed Fort Bridger July 31 with a few new 
members, heading for the “Hastings Cutoff.” There was little time to spare before winter. They arrived at Weber Canyon, Utah, on August 6 to find a note from Hastings instructing them not to proceed and to wait for new directions from him.
The following day, the party’s organizer, former store clerk James Reed, Charles Stanton, (above) a single man accompanying the Donners and William Pike, grandson of explorer and Revolutionary War hero Zebulon Pike, went looking for Hastings.
Sometime in the intervening four days, the trio found their missing guide near the Great Salt Lake. Confessing that his original route was too treacherous, Hastings accompanied Reed part way back to the Weber Canyon campsite and pointed out an alternate way. Reed blazed a trail back to the camp while Stanton and Pike remained with Hastings, rejoining the main group at some later date.
On Reed’s return the party precipitously decided to continue on the cutoff rather than return to Ft. Bridger, striking out August 11 to hack their way across the Wasatch Mountains.
That decision cost valuable time. Failing to cross the Sierra Mountains before late Fall, when it began to snow on October 28 they were trapped. While some of the party attempted to walk out, others remained in a winter camp at Truckee Lake.
Donner Pass in the 1880s
Organizer Reed had been banished from the group in early October after fatally stabbing 25-year-old John Snyder, a teamster for the Graves family, for unknown reasons. Making it to safety, he launched a rescue attempt, the first of four. Reed returned with 23 members of the party who were able to travel. His wife and three children survived, along with 27-year-old teamster Walter Herron who left with Reed in early October. His mother-in-law, Sarah, had died in May, en route to Fort Bridger.
Reed joined a second rescue attempt led by experienced mountaineers with money raised by San Francisco residents. That rescue produced 17 survivors.
A third rescue effort found only three of the George Donner children alive and the fourth returned with just one survivor, German immigrant 32-year-old Lewis Keseberg. In all, 48 or perhaps just 45, members of the original 74 Donner Party made it to California. The nine Irish immigrant Breens from Keokuk, Iowa, and the James Reeds were the only families to arrive in California intact. A 35-year-old Irishman, Patrick Dolan, traveling with the Breens did not survive, however.
James & Margaret Reed (left) and Margaret & Patrick Breen
William Pike had died of an accidental gun shot wound before ever reaching the Sierras. His widow and two-year old daughter, Naomi, survived but year-old Catherine did not. Store clerk George Stanton died in a relief effort in December. Reed, reunited with his family, became a successful real estate developer in San Jose, California. He died there in 1874 at age 74.
Lurid reports of cannibalism followed the various rescues, making it one of the most sensationalized chapters in frontier history. A number of survivors disputed the stories, several others tacitly acknowledged it and archeological evidence remains inconclusive.
The cause of it all, Lansford Hastings, went on to serve as a captain in the Mexican American War, his hopes of becoming president of California only momentarily dashed. He later moved to Arizona and in 1864, met with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. sharing his plan to add California to the Confederacy.
Obviously not a lesson learner, Hastings authored yet another book, “The Emigrants Guide to Brazil” after a number of disaffected Southerners began immigrating there. He died of yellow fever in the Virgin Islands in 1870 at age 51 while leading a group of settlers to his colony in Santerem along the Amazon River. 
Fort Bridger State Historic Site is approximately three miles off I-80 (exit 34) near Lyman, Wyoming. It pays homage to those who traveled the many trails West including the California, Oregon and Mormon trails. The historic Pony Express, Overland and Cherokee trails passed through, as well. More than two dozen original structures on 37 acres along with several modern buildings sit where mountain man Jim Bridger and his partner first set up shop in 1843.
The museum is located in a former infantry barracks from Fort Bridger’s military period. The museum and historic buildings are open daily 9 to 5 from May to September and Friday through Sunday, 9 to 5 from October to April. Grounds are open year round from sunrise to sunset. Fee for most Wyoming Historic Sites is $2 and children under 18 are free. For more information go to wyoparks.state.wy.us or call 307-782-3842.
© Text Only – 2018 – Headin’ West LLC – All photos – public domain or fair use.