Jun
29
In 1541, a young conquistador named Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Governor of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia, lead an expedition from Mexico to the north in search of seven fabled cities of gold.
Nueva Galicia was a province of New Spain, encompassing the contemporary Mexican states of Jalisco, Sinaloa and Nayarit. At the time both France and Spain lay claim to large sections of the unexplored continent, including the Great Plains.
Coronado and his partner Antonio de Mendoza invested large sums from their personal fortunes and mounted the expedition in two parts: a team that travelled up the Guadalupe River carrying most of the the supplies for the journey and a second team that traveled by land, following El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, “The Royal Road of the Interior Road.”
The Camino Real ran from the port city of Veracruz up to Mexico City, through the silver mining town of Zacatecas and north into what is now known as New Mexico.
The trail, which was 1,500 miles long, later connected with the 900-mile Santa Fe Trail in Santa Fe and the combined route became a significant international commercial highway.
Failing to find the golden cities, Coronado pressed farther and farther to the north crossing into the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and then into Kansas.
Coronado and his men were the first of European descent to come to the Great Plains, and when they crossed the Arkansas River, at a point thought to have been between the eventual sites of Fort Dodge and Ford, the surrounding countryside would have seemed uninhabited.
The expedition, traveling 12 miles a day and finding only dried buffalo chips to make fires, crossed the river on July 29, 1541, the Feast of San Pedro y San Pablo.
According to Wm. B. Shillingberg, in his book “Dodge City: The Early Years, 1872 — 1886,” one of the expedition’s officers, Lt. Juan Jaramillo, described the setting: ” well watered by arroyos, springs and rivers … It is not a hilly country, but has tablelands, plains, and charming rivers with fine waters … I am of the belief that it will be very productive of all sorts of commodities.”
After settling in, a priest traveling with the expedition took the men to a nearby rise where the Mass was celebrated in honor of the two saints.
The explorers named the river they had just crossed in honor of the saints but also gave it a nickname that expressed optimism for their mission. They called it “The River of Quivira,” referring to one of the legendary golden cities.
The Spanish explorers relied on the guidance of a man they called “the Turk,” probably a Wichita or Pawnee native. Most sources suggest that the Turk may have been intentionally leading Coronado on a wild goose chase, trying to get the Spaniards lost in the vast prairies among the millions of bison.
After leaving their camp on the Arkansas, the expedition traveled along the river northeast. They met a hunting party and the guides were able to communicate with them. The hunters took Coronado and his party to Quivira, now believed to have been located on the Cow Creek near near Lyons.
Coronado found straw-thatched dwellings and fields of corns, beans and squash.
The only object of any extraordinary value he found was a copper bell.
Coronado returned, defeated, to New Mexico. He ordered the Turk to be garroted.
In December of 1541, Coronado was badly injured falling from his horse, and his men convinced him to give up and head home. Bankrupt, he retired to Mexico City, where he died on July 21, 1554.
It was nearly 300 years before non-natives came to the Great Plains again.
Four flags flew over the land south of the Arkansas River before it became part of the United States: France, Spain, Mexico and the Republic of Texas.
The areas that are now Kansas and Nebraska became territories of the U.S. in 1850 and Kansas became a state on Jan. 29, 1861.
The journey of the band of explorers lead by Coronado onto the Great Plains still has echoes: the school mascot of the Dodge City Community College is the conquistador.
And a commemorative cross was erected on U.S. Highway 154 six miles east of Dodge City in 1975. The 38 foot cross, a project of the Ford County Historical Society, was built in Newton of pre-stressed concrete.
The Coronado expedition and their celebration of the first Mass on the Great Plains will be commemorated today with a pilgrimage from Sacred Heart Cathedral to the Coronado Cross marker east of town. The pilgrimage will begin at 8 a.m. and arrive at the cros at noon, at which time Father Wesley Schawe, vocations director for the Dodge City Diocese, will celebrate Mass.
EDITOR’S NOTE: As a way of celebrating Dodge City’s 140th birthday this year, the Daily Globe is taking a look at a few events that shaped the town’s history.
These stories are produced with the help of the Kansas Heritage Center. Additional photos and information cam from “A Legacy of Faith” by Tim Wenzl.
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