Last updated: January 23, 2025
Place
Emigrant Trail Park
NPS
Quick Facts
Location:
Lake Point, UT 84074
Significance:
An original mid-1800s California Trail swale is found within the park.
Designation:
Lake Point City Park
MANAGED BY:
Amenities
10 listed
Benches/Seating, Cellular Signal, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information Kiosk/Bulletin Board, Parking - Auto, Pets Allowed, Picnic Table, Playground, Trailhead, Trash/Litter Receptacles
Emigrant Trail Park in Lake Point, Utah lies on the Hastings Cutoff of the California Trail. Lansford Hastings promoted the cutoff in 1846 and encouraged emigrant parties to use it. The cutoff was a supposedly faster way to travel from Fort Bridger to what is now Nevada compared to the main option of following the California Trail through southeastern Idaho. It left the California Trail at Fort Bridger, went south around the Great Salt Lake, and then rejoined the trail west of today’s Elko, Nevada. Four groups, including the infamous Donner Party, decided to follow Hastings Cutoff in 1846. As they soon discovered, traveling the cutoff required the groups to clear and build a trail, cross mountains, and to traverse an 80-mile desert! At its end, Heinrich Lienhard’s 1846 group discovered just how much “faster” the cutoff was from a party that had chosen the main trail to follow. He journaled “They had left Fort Bridger 12 or 13 days after we did, and were now just as far advanced as we.” This nearly two-week delay, and other events, led to the Donner Party being trapped by the winter snows of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
The Hastings Cutoff of the California Trail still exists in Emigrant Trail Park in the form of a swale. This a broad, linear area of sunken ground. While ruts mark the passage of wheels, swales mark the passage of large numbers of animal pulled vehicles, such as the wagons used on the California Trail. The swale is marked by a tall, white, flexible post.
Site Information
Location (2080 E Dolan Dr, Lake Point, UT 84074)