12. Lansford Warren Hastings, 1819-1870

The Emigrants' Guide to Oregon and California, Containing... All Necessary Information Relative to the Equipment, Supplies, and the Method of Traveling, By Lansford W. Hastings, Leader of the Oregon and California Emigrants of 1842. Cincinnati: Published by George Conclin, 1845.

Lansford W. Hastings was just a 23 year old youth from Ohio when he was persuaded to make a trip to the far off Oregon country in the spring of 1842. The trek was an eventful one with dissension among the emigrants who eventually deposed their original leader and elected Hastings their "captain." After being disappointed with what he found in Oregon Hastings left the following spring (1843) for California and the next summer (1844) he prepared the manuscript for his Emigrants Guide to Oregon and California which was published in the summer of 1845.

The guide is much more a description of Oregon and California than it is a guide of the trail. He gives careful descriptions of settlements, forts, natural resources, climate, geography and economic development possibilities in California and Oregon. He does not give the kind of detail of how to get there and what to expect on the trail as William Clayton does in his guide three years later. But what it lacks in trail description it makes up for in giving practical advice on the kinds of goods, equipment and livestock necessary to make the overland journey.

In the late Spring of 1845 Hastings went on a lecture tour to New York City to promote his newly published guide. While there he met Samuel Brannan who was impressed with the Hastings account and beginning in July Brannan printed long extracts from the Hastings guide in the New York Messenger. By August the Nauvoo Neighbor was printing the same. It is clear that Mormon leaders consulted the Hastings guide with care as they deliberated on the question of where to move the main body of the Saints. As late as December 27th church leaders were still considering a variety of locations as a council met and

"after prayers a general conversation ensued, in which the Twelve and bishops, J. M. Grant, and several others took part. The visit of the marshal and the emigration to California were the prominent topics. Elder Parley P. Pratt read from Hastings' account of California."

The Mormons considered information on the western country from any source available, the Hastings guide being one of many. It was an valuable source especially for information on Oregon and California. Ironically the Hastings guide provided relatively little information specifically on the Great Salt Lake area giving only this brief description:

"Notwithstanding the general sterility of this section, it has some tolerably, and some very rich valleys and plains, all of which, however, are extremely limited in their extent. Being the most eligible, and in fact, the only practical wagon route, that has as yet, been discovered by which the emigrant may travel with ease and comfort, it is destined, beyond any doubt, to become the great thoroughfare to all the western country."