Quivira Is Just Over The Next Hill: In 1540, while exploring modern-day Arizona and New Mexico, Coronado meets an Indian slave his men called “El Turco.” The enslaved native spoke of prosperous lands filled with riches and gold. Lands where even the poorest of men lived like kings. The magnificent lands were called Quivira.

Coronado was intrigued with El Turco’s marvelous descriptions of Quivira, and in April 1541, he moved his forces out from Tiguex (near modern-day Albuquerque, New Mexico).

The Querechos and Their Shaggy Cows

When they made it to the Great Plains region, they encountered the nomadic Querecho Indian tribe who were following herds of bison. The Spaniards found the clumsy bison quite amusing, and they nicknamed them “shaggy cows.”

Unlike El Turco’s descriptions, the Querechos were extremely poverty stricken. Coronado and his men began to suspect that El Turco wasn’t being honest about Quivira. But they had bigger issues to deal with at the moment.

Food was becoming scarce, and the large army was forced to rely on bison as a food source. This put Coronado and his captains in a precarious position. They called a council and decided that the main body would return to Tiguex while Coronado and led a small, hand-picked force of about 30 men to look for Quivira.

Small Convoy Travels Faster, Enters Kansas Lands

The small company moved out in early June. They were accompanied by a friar named Juan de Padilla. Soon enough he’d have his own iconic part to play in Kansas history.

Coronado and his men made their way slightly northeast toward the High Plains. They were guided along established bison trails by a Plains Indian named Ysopete. El Turco was also still with them, but by this time he was discredited and locked in chains.

The party traveled along the edge of the High Plains through the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles. As the company entered Kansas, Coronado passed through the sites of modern-day towns including Liberal, State Line, Milner, Hayne, Archer, Arkalon, Kismet, Plains, Collano, Meade, Fowler, Advance, Minneola, Bloom, Kingdown, and Ford. This path is now known as Highway 54.

Quivira Is Just Over The Next Hill

At the end of June, they crossed the Arkansas River at Ford, Kansas, a short distance southeast from modern-day Dodge City. Not far from there, Ysopete began to recognize landmarks indicating they were heading in the right direction.

Quivira was at hand. Coronado and his men pressed on, anxiously awaiting what they’d find over the next hill.

Source:

William Frank Zornow, Kansas: A History of the Jayhawk State (Norman, 1957)