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 chapter of this guide, A Description of the Different Routes, describes his cutoff:

"The most direct route, for the California emigrants, would be to leave the Oregon route, about two hundred miles east from Fort Hall; thence bearing West Southwest, to the Salt Lake; and thence continuing down to the bay of St. Francisco, by the route just described."

Although Hastings had never personally followed this route, he sent an open letter in the spring of 1846 inviting emigrants on the California Trail to meet him at Fort Bridger. Between 60 and 75 wagons traveled with Hastings on this cutoff and arrived in California safely. Hastings left notes about the route behind him, which were recovered by the independent Donner Party. The Donner party was seriously delayed by terrain, disputes, weather, and illness, and so arrived at the mountain pass into California at a very late date. After becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada, many died and some of the emigrants resorted to cannibalism.

Donner party | National Trails of the United States