What reasons led james reed and george donner to take hastings cutoff? why was their decision unwise?

The Hasting's Cuttoff was an alternative road for westward travel for the immigrants who were making their way towards the California. The reason James reed and George Donner took this alternative route was because it was a shorter way.

Their decision was definitively unwise as the the trail, before their journey, was not tested and thus the undertaking was severely dangerous. Unfortunately their party got trapped by heave snowfall as many of the survivors had to resort to eating to dead in order to survive. 

The native americans, spanish, french and americans all name places in our state. the word “arkansas” came from the quapaw indians, by way of early french explorers. at the time of the early french exploration, a tribe of indians, the quapaws, lived west of the mississippi and north of the arkansas river.