Subsequently, Nugent traveled with a party of Forty-Niners from New York, led by John Coffee Hays, that traveled to California from San Antonio, Texas over the Southern Route, through El Paso across New Mexico Territory to Fort Yuma. The party pioneered a shortcut on Cooke's Wagon Road that saved a long journey to the south. That route became known as the Tucson Cutoff. Later Nugent's Pass and Nugent's Springs on that route were named for Nugent, who gave his notes of the journey to aid Lt. John G. Parke in his expedition to find a railroad route from the Pima Villages to the Rio Grande.