The Little Sandy River area of southwest Wyoming sits along what was once one of the most consequential crossroads in American westward migration — the fork where the California Trail split from the route known as the Hastings Cutoff. Today it is open high-desert terrain in the Wind River Range foothills, with little to mark the fateful junction beyond the landscape itself. Emigrants traveling west in the 1840s would have faced a choice here between a well-established trail north toward Fort Hall or a southerly shortcut promised by land promoter Lansford Hastings, who claimed his cutoff would trim approximately 300 miles from the journey. The site sits at roughly 6,900 feet elevation in Sublette County, Wyoming, along a stretch of terrain that has changed little since wagon trains rolled through. Gates visited this location as part of his investigation into the Donner Party tragedy, standing at the very spot where he narrates that one left-bearing decision set a group of roughly 87 emigrants on a path toward catastrophe.
The California Trail through the Little Sandy River area becomes a primary westward emigrant route during the height of overland migration.
The Donner Party, led by newly elected captain George Donner, reaches this junction and chooses the untested Hastings Cutoff over the proven California Trail — a decision that contributes to the group's eventual entrapment in the Sierra Nevada.
Rescue parties reach the surviving Donner Party members stranded near Truckee Lake, California, following a winter of extreme hardship.
Gates investigates the Donner Party story for Expedition Unknown Season 10, visiting the Little Sandy River junction as a key narrative location.
The Little Sandy River junction represents what historians generally consider the single most consequential decision point of the Donner Party's ill-fated 1846 journey. Lansford Hastings had promoted his cutoff in an 1845 guidebook, promising a faster route to California, but he based his claims on theory and limited scouting rather than actual wagon travel — a deception, or at minimum a reckless overconfidence, that Gates highlights on camera.
Mainstream historical accounts hold that by the time the Donner Party reached the Little Sandy fork in late July 1846, they were already running behind schedule relative to the seasonal window needed to cross the Sierra Nevada safely. The choice of the Hastings Cutoff compounded that delay rather than relieving it. Historians have long noted that the group's newly elected leader, George Donner, was by temperament and experience ill-suited for the hard decisions the journey demanded — a point Gates echoes when he describes Donner as 'professional, soft-spoken, gentle and charitable,' and 'not exactly someone familiar with making choices of life or death.'
The broader debate among historians concerns how much individual decisions — versus structural factors like late departure, overladen wagons, and unpredictable Sierra weather — drove the disaster. Some scholars emphasize that the Hastings Cutoff was used by other parties without catastrophic results, suggesting the Donner Party's fate was a convergence of poor timing, fractured leadership, and exceptionally early winter snowfall rather than the cutoff alone.
Gates' episode does not claim to resolve that debate, but it uses the physical landscape of the Little Sandy River to ground an often-told story in actual geography, letting viewers feel the weight of a left turn that 'will alter not just the course of their journey, but their very lives.' The episode then follows the trail forward to Truckee, California, connecting the Wyoming decision point to its Sierra Nevada consequences.
Lansford Hastings promoted his cutoff in an 1845 guidebook but had not actually traveled the route with wagons before recommending it to emigrant groups in 1846.
According to the episode, crossing the approximately 80 miles of Utah salt flats took the Donner Party six days — far longer than Hastings had suggested — and the ordeal killed an estimated 36 of their oxen.
George Donner was elected leader of the group at or near this junction, though Gates notes he was by temperament 'the exact wrong man for the job.'
The Hastings Cutoff was designed to rejoin the California Trail after crossing the Great Salt Lake desert, meaning the party still had to travel the bulk of the original route — the promised 300-mile savings never fully materialized.
The Little Sandy River area is generally accessible via unpaved roads in Sublette County, Wyoming, though conditions vary seasonally and four-wheel drive may be advisable. There is no formal interpretive monument marking the Donner Party trail junction at this location, so visitors with an interest in emigrant trail history should consult organizations like the Oregon-California Trails Association for current route guidance. Check local road conditions before visiting, as the high-desert terrain can be affected by weather year-round.
Pinedale, Wyoming, approximately 30 miles to the northwest, is the nearest town of any size with services; Rock Springs is roughly 75 miles to the south.
Late spring through early fall — roughly June through September — offers the most reliable road access and weather for visiting this remote stretch of Wyoming high desert. Winters can be harsh at elevation, and spring runoff may affect unpaved road conditions.
Bannack State Park
Bannack State Park represents another chapter of 19th-century American westward expansion and frontier hardship that Gates has investigated, connecting thematically to the Donner Party's emigrant-era story.
Coffeyville, Kansas
Coffeyville, Kansas, like the Little Sandy site, is a location Gates investigated as part of a broader American historical episode, connecting through the show's recurring interest in pivotal — and often violent — turning points in U.S. history.