Lansford W. Hastings
1819-1870
Lansford W. Hastings was born in 1819 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. At the age of 23, he traveled to Oregon and later to California. In an attempt to lure easterners to California and form a new country, he published a book titled, The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California. Although he had never traveled the route described in the book, he urged emigrants to veer away from the Oregon Trail and take a route via the Great Salt Lake. The problem with this suggestion was that no road existed for this route and emigrants would need to cut trail as they went.
In 1846, Hastings left California and guided a group of emigrants safely to California. Unfortunately, the Donner Party was late in arriving and they were left to fend for themselves.
When his dream of creating California as a separate nation failed, he set his eyes on Brazil. There, he tried to establish a breakaway country for former Confederates.
Hastings died in 1870 in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
View user comments below.
|
 |
 |
Hastings' The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California (1845).
|
No comments have been posted.
Feedback: Do you have corrections or contributions for this page? Want to make a suggestion? Click here to send me an e-mail. I am espcially interested in memories, stories, postcards and photographs. Thanks!
Last updated: 2010-09-08 21:11:48 |
