For nearly 170 years, historians have labeled California land promoter Lansford Hastings as the villain in the 1846-47 Donner Party tragedy. Hastings was the man who steered the Donner Party wrong, enticing the wagon train to take a primitive, untried trail through the rugged Wasatch Mountains of Utah as a shortcut to the Pacific … Continue reading Lansford Hastings: Donner Party villain?