Lanford Hastings was an adventurer with a large effect on Western emigration and an infamous legacy. Born in Ohio in 1819, he traveled to Oregon, helping John McLoughlin found Oregon City, Oregon in 1842, the first city West of the Rockies. Moving to Alta California he liked what he found, and evidently developed a plan to conquer California with American immigrants and make himself president(?) of this new "California Republic". For his plan to work, Hastings first needed American immigrants. To that effect, in 1845 he returned East and published "The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California", where he somewhat diminished Oregon, described California in glowing terms and also gave some general practical advice of emigrating overland. However he also added a tantalizing sentence:
"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 then set about promoting the route. Unfortunately for everyone involved, he did not travel that route himself before he published his book.
In 1846, Hastings set up fliers, and then rode out to meet with the emigrant party trains of that year to promote his "Hastings Cutoff" at Fort Bridger. Some 40-75 wagons were assembled into the Harlan-Young group, led by Hastings himself to take the new trail. Part of Hasting's advice was disregarded, as the party followed the narrow Weber River and finally crossed the Jordan River after six days. After a rest, the Harlan-Young party climbed Hastings Pass and then drove two exhausting days through the unexpectedly wider Great Salt Lake Desert, which caused the abandonment of almost a third of their wagons and several oxen. Despite all of this and losing a member to tuberculosis, the Harlan-Young group finally managed to reach California. When confronted, "Of course (Hastings) could say nothing but that he was very sorry, and that he meant well"
The next party, 11 days behind, was that of
Donner-Reed, led by patrician James Reed and the charitable George Donner. Led by Reed, who had been impressed by the pamphlets, the party broke off from the main emigrant Russell party and under Donner's leadership followed Hastings' Trail. Within days, they found the going was much more difficult than they had expected. They soon found Hastings himself, who elected to lead the Donner Party to an alternative route from the Weber River. Led by Reed, the group again listened to Hastings, though the man quickly disappeared again to rejoin the Harlan-Young Party. However no one realized that the new path wound straight through the Wasatch Mountains. The Donner Party soon found their route choked with bush and rocks. After weeks, the exhausted Donner Party emerged from the mountains, only to find the
Great Salt Lake Desert. Another 6 terrible days working through the salt flats occurred before the Donner Party finally reached the original trail on September 26. The "Hastings Cutoff" had dragged out their trip for a month and they were now the last party of emigrants in 1846. That October, the party was stopped at Truckee Lake by early snows, missing ascending a summit by perhaps a day. In the end, some 39 of the 87 members of the Donner Party perished before rescue, the survivors reduced to cannibalism for survival.
Meanwhile Hastings had returned to California, working for the Mormons to establish a new colony. He chose this spot in the shadow of Mt Diablo, which he named Montezuma. Hastings then built the small 27 feet by 27 feet, 22-inch thick wall adobe house seen in the distance. However he did not live there long. The Mormons ended their colony attempt in California in lieu of what would become Salt Lake City (ironically using the Hastings Cutoff to do so). Furthermore, outside of his control the
Bear Flag Revolt broke out, and Hastings ended up joining the California Battalion. While he received death threats as his role in the Donner Party disaster became known, Hastings remained in the state, helping write the
Constitution of the State of California.
In 1850 Lansford Hastings sold the Montezuma House to Lindsay Marshall and moved to Yuma, Arizona. During the American Civil War, he sided with the South, eventually meeting up with Jefferson Davis in 1864 to propose a preposterous plan to get California to secede and join the Confederacy. The plan was a non-starter and as the war ended a year later the adventurer went to Brazil to join the Confederados, unrepentant Southerners who had fled the crumbling Confederacy. Up to his old tricks again, Hastings published the Emigrant's Guide to Brazil (1867) in the hopes of attracting settlers to his colony in Santarém. However he soon died, possibly of Yellow Fever in
St. Thomas , Danish West Indies.
The Marshall family owned the Hastings Adobe and had a prosperous little farm until the early 1900s. In 1964 the property was purchased by PG&E for a planned nuclear plant that ultimately fell through. The Hastings Adobe/Montezuma House, the earliest building in Solano County and one of the last monuments to this colorful if unethical adventurer, now lies beyond a fence, slowly crumbling to the elements.
Collinsville, California