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Francisco de Coronado
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meandering through the Southwest by Francisco de Coronado over
450 years ago "gave Spain a sound claim by right of discovery and
exploration to this region". This claim later resulted in the
Spanish Land Grants that firmly established Hispanic ownership of
portions of the San Luis Valley. Coronado traveled from Mexico to the Rio Grande about 15 miles north of Albuquerque, where he established his main camp and spent the winter. From there, he set out the next year with a smaller army to find "Quivira". After traveling in a northeasterly direction for "many days", Coronado sent most of his forces back to the camp on the Rio Grande and proceeded with only thirty of his men until he came to Quivira. His direction was north by east. By the time he crossed the Arkansas River he had traveled 2,500 miles from Mexico City. It is possible and most probable that he found Quivira somewhere northeast of the center of the present State of Kansas. Because of Coronado's failure to find the mythical "rich cities", it would be a long time before Spaniards would risk again such an expensive and fruitless campaign. His failure thus checked further exploration as far north as the Colorado region. |
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