The Hastings Cutoff was an alternate route for emigrants to travel to California, as proposed by Lansford Hastings.
In 1845, Hastings published a guide entitled The Emigrant's Guide to Oregon and California. A sentence in the book briefly describes the cutoff:
The most direct route, for the California emigrants, would be to leave the Oregon route, at Fort Bridger; thence bearing West Southwest, to the Salt Lake; and thence continuing down to the bay of St. Francisco, by the route just described.
The cutoff left the Oregon Trail at Fort Bridger in Wyoming, passed through the Wasatch Range, across the Great Salt Lake Desert, an 80 mile waterless drive, looped around the Ruby Mountains, and rejoined the California Trail about seven miles west of modern Elko (also Emigrant Pass).
The west end of the cutoff is marked as Nevada Historical Marker 4.
Read more about Hastings Cutoff: Trail Use
Famous quotes containing the word hastings:
“If you can’t get a job as a pianist in a brothel you become a royal reporter.”
—Max Hastings (b. 1945)