2.  1840’s- People were interested in moving to the west coast to California and the NorthEast  Lansford W. Hastings suggested there was a faster way to get there.  At Sutter’s Fort, in California, he met with John C Fremont and they agreed it could be done

3.  So the next spring, Hastings left from Sutter’s Fort, CA and reversed the Fremont route.  But instead, he made a cutt-off cutting through Utah. He established a shorter Route off the California trail

4.  The first group of people to try the Hastings Cuttoff was the Bryant group  Edwin Bryant was a newspaper editor from Kentucky.  He left from Ft. Bridger, WY to the Hastings Cuttoff  He indeed made it to California.

5.  This was the first wagon train group to travel on the Hastings Cutt-off  They had trouble with their wagons through the mountains and barely made it.  Hastings went with them as a guide and felt he should warn future travelers not to go that way.

6.  The Donner and Reed families left Ft. Bridger WY to travel to California.  One large group chose to travel a longer way  The smaller group chose to use Hastings Cutt- off.

7.  The smaller group had 87 men, women and children.  They had 23 large wagons with furniture, tools, clothes, food and supplies.  They left Wyoming and headed through Utah.  They waited for Hastings to guide through Emigration Canyon (near Salt lake City)

8.  They cleared rocks, trees and bushes to make a trail through the canyon….  This cost them a LOT of time… which led to disaster!!!

9.  They passed the hot dry flats near Salt lake and became exhausted.  The oxen refused to move and the children were tired… so they rested  By the time they reached the Sierra Nevada mountains it was the end of October and winter was upon them….

11.  The winter storms were so bad, they tried to build shelter  They began to starve. They boiled their oxen for food… even their bones and hides when they were desperate.  As months went on, they even ate the meat off of frozen bodies of those that had died.

13.  Finally, a rescue party walked into camp and saved them  Out of the 87 people that started the trip… only 48 lived to reach California.