The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-06-02
SCIENTISTS FIND
ANCIENT QUIvERA
Site of Lost City on LOup River
In Nebraska.
WAS SOUGHT BY CORONADO

White Men Were There In Search of
Gold Eighty Years Before the Pill
grim Fathers Landed In New Eng
Iand-Vast Ruins Will Be Excavated
by Archeologists This Summer.
Western archaeologists, headed by
DR. Robert F. Glider of Omaha, have
at last succeeded in locating the exact
site of the ancient city of Quivera, for
which Coronado and the old Spanish
conquerors searched so diligently and
fought so valiantly, and during the
coming summer party of archaeolo-
gists and scientists will make excava-
tons and explorations, which are ex-
pected to throw considerable light on
the people of the kingdom whose To-
cation aas been in doubt for 400 years
and more.
The ruins of the ancient city skirt
the Loup river in Nebraska for several
miles, and, according to those who have
visited them, the population at one
While it has been known for a num-
Der of years that Quivera was some
where in Nebraska, the exact spot had
not been definitely settled.
Nebraska is generally looked upon as
a country comparatively new to white
men. Nevertheless eighty years be-
fore the landing of the pilgrims on
Plymouth rock the fauna and fora of
Nebraska had been written about by
white scientist, eighty-seven years
before Hendrick Hudson sailed up the
Hudson river a party of white men
foated down the Platte; sixty-six years
before the English settled in James
town and Captain John Smith found
undying fame white men and Indians
were on the best of terms on the Ne
Nbraska prairies.
Found Golden Corn.
These early white men went to Ne.
braska seeking the city of Quivera
where gold was supposed to be so plen
tiful that it had no value. They found
yellow corn instead of the yellow gold
and they went back home in disgust
But they left their footprints behind
them, and these have been traced back
to the very city to conquer which white
men marched more than 900 miles
enduring all manner of nardships, anC
then marched back again.
Twenty-Five years or so ago, neal
Riverton, Neb., a farmer dug up al
ancient stirrup. 1t was so strange Il
him that he sent it to the state mu
"a L,
ing the exact counterpart, both Il
shape and material, of those used 70
centuries by Moorish horsemen an,
Spanish knights Grant.
1t had been made on a blacksmith
anvil of iron or steel, and the blows O
the hammer were yet visible.
Constant use had worn a small hol
through the center. 1t is eleven incl
es long, four inches wide and weigh
one and three-quarter pounds.
The finding of the ancient SPANS
stirrup revived the old story of th
early Spanish expedition to Nebrask
and so stirred the souls of Nebrask
psychologists that James W. Savag
made a personal trip to Madrid for I'll
purpose of delving into the records
the Spanish court archives concernir
the expedition of Coronado, Caster
da, Pensalosa and others to the kin
dom of Quiyera.
How Place Was Found.
AS a result of years of research NJ
Savage gave the following summa
Of his reasons for locating Ouive
just north of the Platte river in n
braska:
''Quivera was situated northeaster
from Santa Fe. It was distant fro
the latter city 500 or 900 miles. 1t w
north of the fortieth parallel, t
southern boundary of Nebraska.
lay north of a wide but fordat
stream"
In describing the city of Quivera t
Spaniard wrote: This was one of t
cities of Quivera. 1t contained tho
sands of houses, mostly circular
shape, some two, three and even fc
stories in height, framed of a ha
wood believed to be black walnut a
skillfully matched. 1t extended alo
the river for more than two leagu
at which distance a third stream f1e
ed into the second. Beyond this
city again stretched out for ma
leagues"