11 Facts About Lansford Hastings

Lansford Warren Hastings was an American explorer and Confederate soldier.

Lansford Hastings is best remembered as the developer of Hastings Cutoff, a claimed shortcut to California across what is the state of Utah, a factor in the ill-fated Donner Party of 1846.

Lansford Hastings was a Major in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Lansford Hastings left in the spring of 1843 for Alta California, a sparsely populated province of Mexico.

Lansford Hastings wrote The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California to induce Americans to move to California, hoping they could effect a bloodless revolution by sheer numbers.

Lansford Hastings described California in glowing terms and gave practical advice to overland travelers.

Lansford Hastings wrote this statement before he had traveled the route himself, and he was unaware of the difficulties in crossing the Wasatch Range and the salt flats of western Utah.

Lansford Hastings married Charlotte Toler in 1848 and was a delegate to the 1849 California Constitutional Convention.

However, the so-called Lansford Hastings Plot came to little, as the war ended early the following year.

Lansford Hastings visited the region, made arrangements with the Brazilian government, and wrote The Emigrant's Guide to Brazil to attract potential colonists.

Lansford Hastings died at St Thomas in the Virgin Islands in 1870, possibly of yellow fever, while conducting a shipload of settlers to his colony at Santarem.