Bad Advice for Profit: Hastings Cutoff
Sometimes travelers on the Oregon Trail planned for enough food and water, and still found themselves starving to death. 23-year old Lansford Hastings, a ambitious young man trained as a lawyer, published The Emigrant’s Guide to Oregon and California, describing a new route to California. He himself had never taken the route, despite his confident words, and wouldn’t until a year later and during good weather. He hoped that a famous, successful route would attract emigrants, giving him a grand reputation, money, and possibly a political career in the new territory. His cutoff would save three hundred miles of travel for the weary emigrants – but at the price of their safety and health. A few smaller groups had mostly made it through, but it was a horror show, especially as they entered Weber Canyon.