September 26, 1846 On this day in 1846, The Donner Party reached the end Hastings Cutoff and rejoined the established California Overland Trail about 7 miles west of present-day Elko, Nevada. Hastings Cutoff was an alternative route promoted by Lansford Hastings in his overland guidebook “The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California,” published in 1845. The cutoff started at Fort Bridger in southwestern Wyoming. From there, the Donner Party traversed through the Wasatch Range, went south of the Great Salt Lake, across the Great Salt Lake Desert (about an 80-mile waterless terrain), looped around the Ruby Mountains, and rejoined the California Trail at Emigrant Pass. James Reed wrote in a letter while at Fort Bridger on July 31st, just before entering the cutoff, "the route we design to take, is a fine level road, with plenty of water and grass...It is estimated that 700 miles will take us to Capt. Sutter’s Fort, which we hope to make in seven weeks from this day." The group spent ...