They first originated in Springfield, Illinois, and then they hit the trail where it began in Independence, Missouri in the spring of 1846. Now after following a number of other families in wagons, the party made a fatal mistake. They tried a shortcut. Fueled by rumors of saving weeks of travel, they gambled on what was called the Hastings Cutoff, which instead of the normal route, crossed the Rocky Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert in present-day Utah. By early November, they reached the Sierra Nevada, but winter hit early and quickly they became trapped by the heavy snowfall high in the mountains. By mid-December, some of the group set out on foot to obtain help, but the first relief party did not arrive until the middle of February 1847, four months after becoming trapped. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived the ordeal.