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Show The (tastings Route Fa leased through courtesy of the , I'tah Historical Landmarks Association, As-sociation, S06 New-house Building, Salt Lake City, Utah By Charles Kelly, Trustee In 1842 there was living in Mt. vernon, Ohio, a very clever and ambitious lawyer by the name of ljansiord W. Hastings. . .In. that year a company of prospective Oregon settlers was organized bj Dr. Elijah White, a medical mis sienary, who had spent some time in the Oregon country. Dr. White leturned east to recruit settlers for -lie lertile region, Hastings, then twenylhree years olr, decided to join. on account of his clerical ability, lie was elected to keep a record of the journey which was published in 1845 as "The Emigrant's Emi-grant's Guide to Oregon and California." Cali-fornia." Things went well until the train left Independence, Missouri, last outpost oi civilization, when members mem-bers of the party became disatis-fied disatis-fied with Dr. White and Hastings was elected to act as captain, which position . lie occupied until the party reached Oregon. Dr. White relented re-lented this loss of nrestiee and a few under him moved, as a separate unit until Fort Laramie was reached, reach-ed, when the party was again united. unit-ed. At Independence Rock, Hastings Hast-ings and his friend Lovejoy cut their names with more than usual care on the "Register of the Debi i t." Soon after leaving Independence Inde-pendence Rock, Hastings and Love-joy, Love-joy, wno had loitered behind the paity were surrounded by hostile Indians. Thomas Fitspatrick, lam ous old trapper and guide, negotiated nego-tiated for their deliverance, which was effected at a low price. The winter climate of Oregon did not appeal to Hastings and seme others, who formed a party of fhiity-six and emigrated to Cal-lloinia, Cal-lloinia, reaching Sutter's Fort in the summer ol '43. While at Sutter's Sut-ter's Fort, Hastings, a man of intelligence in-telligence and vision, conceived the ulia ol einiiiing in emigrants, ousting oust-ing die Mexicans and assuming control of California with himseil h : pusidcnt. He returned east in '44 by boat along the coast and .u. e...-, the Mexico overland. Upon his arrival in the east an adveitising medium was necessary and Hustings wanted to put Jus jouinal on the market but could una no one to finance it. He fell in with Reverend McDonald, a methodist missioary, and together they toured the country lectunne, m the eviis of intemperance, the dire need for missionaries and incidentally in-cidentally the wonuers of California the first traveling Chamber ol Commerce for that great stax-. Hastings' book was published in Cincinnati in 1845 and excited I ureat cuiiosity among farmers from U.'iio to Missouri. Hastings oiganixcd a party of emigrants em-igrants to return with nim to Cal-ilcnna Cal-ilcnna in 1815. Many of them were not able to settle their allair.; on such short notice and others 'iff used to no on account of the Ift'iKss ol the season. Hastings finally left Independence, Missouri, 'late in August with ten men mounted mount-ed on horses. Disregarding all c.jiid.tions, Hastnms pressed on, laid nut his route and leached Suiters i t.iL late in Oct-iber. Hastings and i he men who went through in the fall of 1815 were the beginning of the treks to California which have inrjrea'.ed every year to the present t.mc. Pather than follow the route around the north end of the lake. Hastings decided he could cross (continued on next page) The Hastings Roate (continued from first page) the Salt Desert to the south and v. est oi it and in 1846 he set out from Sutter's Fort and returned east as iar as bnugers Fort to turn the tide of emigration over the shortcut, called since that time -Hastings Cutoff" the most uesolate stretch of desert road for emigrants in America, but now crcssed in a few hours by auto. Emigrants followed the old route along tne Platte and Sweetwater to South Pass, then down Pacific Creek and along the Sandy, Gre.m ! and Bear Rivers to Fort Bridger on Black s Fork. The route from Bridger s Fort passed south o; i Evanstun, ran down Echo Canyon and Weber Canyon, through the present site of Salt Lake City, through the smelting town of Gar-iield, Gar-iield, Grantsville, across Skull Valley, Val-ley, Hastings Pass, around the north end of Silver Island to Pilot Peak. From Pilot Peak the course bore tuthwest ana finally led to Humboldt Wells where the regular route along the Humboldt was followed, fol-lowed, -s wUl be seen, the route down Weber Canyon past Devil's Slidcvss too difficult and this was abandoned for one through the present town of Henefer, Main Canyon and out through Emigration Emigra-tion Canyon and Salt Lake City. In 1846 Hastings led the Young and Harlan Party over nis famous cutoff alcng the Humboldt, over the Sierras and to Sutter's Fort. When he arrived there he found the American Flag flying, with Fremont Fre-mont recruiting volunteers in the north and an American army occupying oc-cupying tne south. Hastings was rudely awakened and his dreams of a presidency in California suddenly sud-denly ended. Finding his plans frustrated he volunteer 3d fcr service to Fremont and was made captain of Company f. California Volunteers. When the campaign against the Mexicans ended, Hastings returned to Sutter's Sut-ter's Fort and with John Bidwell, whu crossed he desert in '41 and was later employed by Sutter, laid out the subdivision of Sutterville and may, therefore, be called California's Cal-ifornia's first Amberlcan realtor. After Hastings and McDonald conducted their joint tour in the interest of temperance, their next meeting was in San Francisco in 1850 at the bar in Vigot's saloon where McDonald was acting as bartender and Hastings asked for a drink. In the late 50's Hastings moved to Yuma, Arizona but returned to California in 1862. Although he was born in Ohio, he became a Southern sympathizer and joined the Confederate Army serving for three years. His next venture was in Brazil in 1367 where he spent six months seeking a location for a colony of preappointed Confederate soldiers. He published an "Emigrants Guide to Brazil" in Mobile, Alabama in 1868. As a result, at least two shiploads of colonists settled in that South American Republic. He died while on the second voyage with colonists in the 70's. |