Coronado in Blanco Canyon
From 1540 to 1542, Francisco
Vazquez de Coronado led the first
organized European exploration of
the southwest in search of the
fabled "cities of gold." With a
company of more than a thousand
men and women and thousands of
horses and mules, cattle and
sheep, Coronado trekked north
from Culiacan, Mexico, through
land that became Arizona, New
Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and
Kansas.
The exact route along
which their Indian guides led the
Spaniards between Pecos Pueblo in
New Mexico and the Arkansas River
in Kansas has long been a subject
of debate among historians.
Surviving documents are brief,
vague and occasionally
contradictory. Twice in the
spring of 1541, the company
camped long enough to have
created detectable archeological
evidence; the first time, they
chose the site of a Teya Indian
camp. A hailstorm struck,
destroying most, if not all, of
their pottery. They occupied a
second camp for two weeks in a
canyon that was described as
being "a league wide."
In the
1950s and 1960s, two pieces of
chain mail were discovered by
local ranchers in and near Blanco
Canyon. Since 1993, a series of
other objects, both European and
from other parts of the
southwest, have been found in the
same area. They include
projectile points similar to
those used on crossbow arrows.
Crossbows were obsolete after
this expedition and are unlikely
to have been used by any other
group of significant size. In the
late 1990s, archeologists began
the task of confirming this area
as the location of one of
Coronado's camps. Evidence and
artifacts recovered supported the
theory that Coronado passed
through Blanco Canyon.
Marker is on US 62.
Courtesy hmdb.org
