Francisco Vásquez de Coronado Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján ( 1510 – 22 September 1554 ) was a Spanish conquistador , who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542 . Coronado had hoped to conquer the mythical Seven Cities of Gold . His name is often Anglicized as Vasquez de Coronado . Sometimes the name even appears in a Spanish - English hybridization of Vásquez de Coronado , as in the title for this article . Early life . Coronado was born into a noble family in Salamanca , Spain , in 1510 as the second son of Juan Vásquez de Coronado y Sosa de Ulloa and Isabel de Luján . Juan Vásquez held various positions in the administration of the recently captured Emirate of Granada under Iñigo López de Mendoza , its first Spanish governor . Americas . Francisco Vásquez de Coronado went to New Spain ( present - day Mexico ) in 1535 at about age 25 , in the entourage of its first Viceroy , Antonio de Mendoza , the son of his father ' s patron who had died . In the New Spain , he married Beatriz de Estrada , called " the Saint " ( " la Santa " ) , sister of Leonor de Estrada , ancestor of the de Alvarado family and daughter of Treasurer and Governor Alonso de Estrada y Hidalgo , Lord of Picón , and wife Marina Flores Gutiérrez de la Caballería , from a converso Jewish family . Coronado inherited a large portion of a Mexican estate from Beatriz and had eight children by her . Mounting the expedition . Coronado was the Governor of the Kingdom of Nueva Galicia ( New Galicia , a province of New Spain located northwest of Mexico and comprising the contemporary Mexican state s of Jalisco , Sinaloa and Nayarit ) . In 1539 , he dispatched Friar Marcos de Niza and Estevanico , more properly known as Estevan , the diminutive form being a Spanish nickname . Estevan was a survivor of the Narváez expedition , on an expedition north from Compostela , in the present state of Nayarit , toward New Mexico . When Marcos de Niza returned , he told about a city of vast wealth , a golden city called Cíbola , and that Estevan had been killed by the Zuni citizens of Cíbola . Though he did not claim to have entered the city of Cíbola , he claimed that the city stood on a high hill , that it appeared wealthy and as large as Mexico City . Coronado assembled an expedition with two components . One component carried the bulk of the expedition ' s supplies , and traveled via the Guadalupe River under the leadership of Hernando de Alarcon . The other component traveled by land , along the trail Friar Marcos de Niza had used . Coronado and Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza invested large sums of their own money in the venture . Mendoza , Coronado ' s friend and fellow investor , appointed him as the commander of the expedition , with the mission to find the seven golden cities . This is the reason he pawned his wife ' s estates and was lent 70 , 000 more pesos . In the autumn of 1539 , Viceroy Mendoza ordered Melchor Diaz , the commander of San Miguel de Culiacán , to investigate Friar de Niza ' s findings , and on November 17 , 1539 , Diaz departed on the trail to Cíbola , with fifteen horsemen . At the ruins of Chichilticalli , he turned around because of " snows and fierce winds from across the wilderness " . Diaz encountered Coronado before he had departed San Miguel de Culiacán , and reported that initial investigations into Friar de Niza ' s report disproved the existence of a bountiful land . Diaz ' report was delivered to Viceroy Mendoza on March 20 , 1540 . Coronado set out from Compostela on February 23 , 1540 , at the head of a large expedition composed of about 400 European men - at - arms ( mostly Spaniards ) , 1 , 300 to 2 , 000 Mexican Indian allies , four Franciscan monks ( the most notable of whom were Juan de Padilla and the newly appointed provincial superior of the Franciscan order in the New World , Marcos de Niza ) , and several slaves , both natives and Africans . There also were many other family members and servants . He followed the Sinaloan coast northward , keeping the Sea of Cortez to his left until he reached the northernmost Spanish settlement , San Miguel de Culiacán , about March 28 , 1540 , whereupon he rested his expedition before they began trekking the inland trail on April 22 , 1540 . Aside from Diaz ' s mission to verify Friar de Niza ' s report , he also took notice of the forage and food situation along the trail , and he reported that the land along the route would not be able to support a large concentrated body of soldiers and animals . Coronado decided to divide his expedition into small groups and time their departures so that grazing lands and water holes along the trail could recover . At intervals along the trail , Coronado established camps and garrisoned soldiers to keep the supply route open . For example , in September , 1540 , Melchior Diaz along with " seventy or eighty of the weakest and least reliable men " in Coronado ' s army remained at the town of San Hieronimo , in the valley of Corazones , or Hearts . Once the scouting and planning was done , Coronado led the first group of soldiers up the trail . They were horsemen and foot soldiers who were able to travel quickly , while the main bulk of the expedition would set out later . After leaving Culiacan on April 22 , Coronado followed the coast , " bearing off to the left , " as Mota Padilla says , by an extremely rough way , to the Sinaloa . The configuration of the country made it necessary to follow up the valley of this stream until he could find a passage across the mountains to the course of the Yaquimi . He traveled alongside this stream for some distance , then crossed to Sonora river . The Sonora was followed nearly to its source before a pass was discovered . On the southern side of the mountains he found a stream he called the " Nexpa " , which may have been either the Santa Cruz or the Pedro of modern maps . The party followed down this river valley until they reached the edge of the wilderness , where , as Friar Marcos had described it to them , they found Chichilticalli . Chichilticalli is in southern Arizona in the Sulfur Springs Valley , within the bend of the Dos Cabeza and Chiricahua Mountains . This fits the chronicle of Laus Deo description , which reports that " at Chichilticalli the country changes its character again and the spiky vegetation ceases . The reason is that . . . the mountain chain changes its direction at the same time that the coast does . Here they had to cross and pass the mountains in order to get into the level country . " There he met a crushing disappointment . Cíbola was nothing like the great golden city that Marcos had described . Instead , it was just a complex of simple pueblos constructed by the Zuni Indians . The soldiers were upset with Marcos for his mendacious imagination , so Coronado sent him back to the New Spain in disgrace . The accompanying map has become outdated since it was created . On - the - ground research by Nugent Brasher beginning in 2005 strongly indicates that Coronado traveled north between Chichiticalli and Zuni primarily on the New Mexico side of the state line , not the Arizona side as has been thought since the 1940s . Also , most scholars believe Quivira was near the great bend of the Arkansas river , about 60 miles southwest of the location on the Kansas River depicted on the map . Conquest of Cíbola . Coronado traveled north on one side or the other of today ' s Arizona - New Mexico state line , and from the headwaters of the Little Colorado he continued on until he came to the Zuni River . He followed the Zuni until he found the region inhabited by the Zunis . The members of the expedition were almost starving and demanded entrance into the village of Hawikuh , which the Zuni spell as Hawikku . The natives refused , denying the expedition entrance to the village . Coronado and his expeditionaries attacked the Zunis . The ensuing skirmish constituted the extent of what can be called the Spanish " Conquest of Cíbola . " During the battle , Coronado was injured . During the weeks the expedition stayed at Zuni , he sent out several scouting expeditions . The first scouting expedition was led by Pedro de Tovar . This expedition headed northwest to the Hopi villages , which they recorded as " Tusayan . " Upon arrival , the Spanish were denied entrance to the village they came across , and once again resorted to using force to enter . Materially , the Hopi region was just as poor as the Zuni in the precious metals Coronado sought , but the Spanish did learn that a large river ( the Colorado ) lay in the west . Coronado sent another scouting expedition led by Garcia Lopez de Cárdenas to find the Colorado River . This expedition returned to Hopi territory to acquire scouts and supplies . Members of this expedition reached the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River , becoming the first Europeans to see the magnificent canyon . After trying and failing to climb down into the Grand Canyon to reach the river below , the expedition reported that they would not be able to use the Colorado River to link up with Alarcon ' s supply ships . After this , the main body of the expedition began its journey to the next populated center of pueblos , along the Rio Grande in New Mexico . Exploration of the Colorado River . Three leaders affiliated with the Coronado Expedition were able to reach the Colorado River . The first was Hernando de Alarcón , then Melchior Díaz and lastly Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas . Alarcón ' s fleet was tasked to carry supplies and to establish contact with the main body of Coronado ' s expedition , but was unable to do so because of the extreme distance to Cibola . He traveled up the Colorado river until the river entered the lower half of the Grand Canyon . In this exploration he hauled some supplies for Coronado , but eventually he buried them with a note in a bottle . Melchior Díaz was sent down from Cibola by Coronado to take charge of the camp of Corazones and to establish contact with the fleet . Soon after arriving at the camp he set out from the valley of Corazones in Sonora and traveled overland in a north / northwesterly direction until he arrived at the junction of the Colorado River and Gila River . There the local natives , probably the CocoMaricopa ( see Seymour 2007b ) , told him that Alarcón ' s sailors had buried supplies and left a note in a bottle . The supplies were retrieved and the note stated that Alarcón ' s men had rowed up the river as far as they could , searching in vain for the Coronado expedition . They had given up and decided to return to their departure point because worms were eating holes in their ships . Díaz named the river the " Firebrand ( Tison ) River " because the natives used firebrands to keep their body warm in the winter . Díaz died on the trip back to the camp in the valley of the Corazones . Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas saw the Colorado River from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon while looking for a route that would connect them with Alarcón ' s fleet . The Tiguex War . Hernando de Alvarado was sent to the east , and found several villages around the Rio Grande . Coronado had one commandeered for his winter quarters , Coofor , which is across the river from present - day Bernalillo near Albuquerque , New Mexico . During the winter of 1540 - 41 , his army found themselves in conflicts with the Rio Grande natives , conflicts which led to the brutal Tiguex War . This war resulted in the destruction of the Tiguex pueblos and the death of hundreds of Native Americans . The Search for Quivira . From an Indian the Spanish called " the Turk , " Coronado heard of a wealthy civilization called Quivira far to the east . In spring 1541 he led his army and priests and Indian allies onto the Great Plains to search for Quivira . The Turk was probably either a Wichita or a Pawnee and his intention seems to have been to lead Coronado astray and hope that he got lost in the wilderness . With the Turk guiding him , Coronado and his army crossed the flat and featureless steppe called the Llano Estacado in the Texas Panhandle , passing through the present - day communities of Hereford and Canadian . The Spanish were awed by the Llano . " The country they [ the buffalo ] traveled over was so smooth that if one looked at them the sky could be seen between their legs . " Men and horses became lost in the featureless plain and Coronado felt like he had been swallowed up by the sea . On the Llano , Coronado encountered vast herds of bison — the American buffalo . “ I found such a quantity of cows . . . that it is impossible to number them , for while I was journeying through these plains . . . there was not a day that I lost sight of them . ” The Querechos and the Teyas . Coronado found a settlement of Indians he called Querechos . The Querechos were not awed or impressed by the Spanish , their weapons , and their " big dogs " ( horses ) . " They did nothing unusual when they saw our army , except to come out of their tents to look at us , after which they came to talk to the advance guard , and asked who we were . " As Coronado described them , the Querechos were nomads , following the buffalo herds on the plains . The Querechos were numerous . Chroniclers mentioned one settlement of two hundred tipis — which implies a population of more than one thousand people living together for at least part of the year . Authorities agree that the Querechos ( Becquerel ' s ) were Apache Indians . Coronado left the Querechos behind and continued southeast in the direction in which the Turk told him that Quivira was located . He and his army descended off the tabletop of the Llano Estacado into the caprock canyon country . He soon met with another group of Indians , the Teyas , enemies of the Querechos . The Teyas , like the Querechos , were numerous and buffalo hunters , although they had additional resources . The canyons they inhabited had trees and flowing streams and they grew or foraged for beans , but apparently not corn because one of the Coronado chroniclers would probably have mentioned it if the Teyas had grown corn . The Spanish , however , did note the presence of mulberries , roses , grapes , walnuts , and plums . An intriguing event was Coronado ' s meeting among the Teyas an old blind bearded man who said that he had met many years before " four others like us . " He was probably talking about Cabeza de Vaca , who with three shipmates made his way across southern Texas a decade before Coronado . Scholars differ in their opinions as to which historical Indian group were the Teyas . A plurality believe they were Caddoan speakers and related to the Wichita . The place where Coronado found the Teyas has also been debated . The mystery may have been cleared up — to the satisfaction of some — by the discovery of a likely Coronado campsite . While Coronado was in the canyon country , his army suffered one of the violent climatic events so common on the plains . ” A tempest came up one afternoon with a very high wind and hail . . . The hail broke many tents and tattered many helmets , and wounded many of the horses , and broke all the crockery of the army , and the gourds which was no small loss . " In 1993 , Jimmy Owens found crossbow points in Blanco Canyon in Crosby County , Texas , near the town of Floydada in Floyd County . Archaeologists subsequently searched the site and found pottery sherds , more than forty crossbow points , and dozens of horseshoe nails of Spanish manufacture , plus a Mexican - style stone blade . This find strengthens the evidence that Coronado found the Teyas in Blanco Canyon . Quivira . The Teyas told Coronado that he was going the wrong direction . Quivira lay to the north . By this time , Coronado seems to have lost his confidence that fortune awaited him . He sent most of his expedition back to New Mexico and continued with only forty Spanish soldiers and priests and an unknown number of Indian soldiers , servants , and guides . Coronado , thus , dedicated himself to a reconnaissance rather than a mission of conquest . After more than thirty days journey , Coronado found a river larger than any he had seen before . This was the Arkansas , probably a few miles east of present day Dodge City , Kansas . The Spaniards and their Indian allies followed the Arkansas northeast for three days and found Quivirans hunting buffalo . The Indians greeted the Spanish with wonderment and fear , but calmed down when one of Coronado ' s guides addressed them in their own language . Coronado reached Quivira itself after a few more days of traveling . He found Quivira " well settled . . . along good river bottoms , although without much water , and good streams which flow into another . " Coronado believed that there were 25 settlements in Quivira . The Quivirans were simple people . Both men and women were nearly naked . Coronado was impressed with the size of the Quivirans and all the other Indians he met . They were " large people of very good build . " Coronado spent twenty - five days among the Quivirans trying to learn of richer kingdoms just over the horizon . He found nothing but straw - thatched villages of up to two hundred houses and fields containing corn , beans , and squash . A copper pendant was the only evidence of wealth he discovered . The Quivirans were almost certainly the ancestors of the Wichita people . Coronado was escorted to the further edge of Quivira , called Tabas , where the neighboring land of Harahey began . He summoned the " Lord of Harahey " who , with two hundred followers , came to meet with the Spanish . He was disappointed . The Harahey Indians were " all naked - - with bows , and some sort of things on their heads , and their privy parts slightly covered . " They were not the wealthy people Coronado sought . Disappointed , he returned to New Mexico . Before leaving Quivira , Coronado ordered the Turk garrot ed . Where were Quivira , Tabas , and Harahey ? Archaeological evidence strongly suggests that Quivira was in central Kansas with the western - most village near the small town of Lyons on Cow Creek , extending twenty miles east to the Little Arkansas River , and north another twenty miles to the town of Lindsborg on a tributary of the Smoky Hill River . Tabas was likely on the Smoky Hill River . Archaeologists have found numerous 16th century sites in these areas that probably include some of the settlements visited by Coronado . At Harahey " was a river , with more water and more inhabitants than the other . " This sounds as if Coronado may have reached the Smoky Hill River near Salina or Abilene . It is a larger river than either Cow Creek or the Little Arkansas and is located at roughly the 25 league distance from Lyons that Coronado said he traveled in Quivira . The people of Harahey seem Caddoan , because " it was the same sort of a place , with settlements like these , and of about the same size " as Quivira . They were probably the ancestors of the Pawnee . End of the expedition . Coronado returned to New Mexico from Quivira and was badly injured in a fall from his horse " after the winter was over , " according to the chronicler Castañeda — probably in March 1542 . During a long convalescence , he and his expeditionaries decided to return to the New Spain . Coronado and his expedition departed New Mexico in early April 1542 , leaving behind two friars . His expedition had been a failure . Although he remained governor of Nueva Galicia until 1544 , the expedition forced him into bankruptcy and resulted in charges of war crimes being brought against him and his field master . Coronado remained in Mexico City , where he died of an infectious disease on July 21 , 1554 . Coronado undoubtedly caused a large loss of life among the Pueblos both from the battles he fought with them and from the demands for food and clothing that he levied on their fragile economies . However , 39 years later when the Spanish again visited the Southwestern United States , they found little evidence that Coronado had any lasting cultural influences on the Indians . See : The Chamuscado and Rodriguez Expedition and Antonio de Espejo . Legacy . In 1952 , the United States established Coronado National Memorial near Sierra Vista , Arizona to commemorate his expedition . " Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade " references a Cross of Coronado . According to the film , this gold cross , discovered in a Utah cave system , was given to Coronado by Hernán Cortés in 1521 . It is unclear if any such item ever existed . In addition , when Indy captures the cross from robbers aboard a ship off the coast of Portugal , the ship can be seen to be named the " Coronado . " In 1992 , underground found footage filmmaker Craig Baldwin made the film " O No Coronado ! " detailing the expedition of Coronado through the use of recycled images from Westerns , Conquest films and The Lone Ranger television series . There is also a small " island " ( it is actually a peninsula ) near San Diego named Coronado . Most visitors cross the Coronado Bridge to get there . The song " Coronado And The Turk " from the singer - songwriter Steve Tilston ' s 1992 album " Of Moor And Mesa " is based on the story of Coronado ' s expedition . There is a large hill just northwest of Lindsborg , Kansas that is called Coronado Heights . The former owner of the land built a small castle atop the hill to commemorate Coronado ' s 1541 visit to the area . The castle and the area around it is now a public camping and recreation area . The soft sandstone rocks at the peak of the hill are covered in the names of past visitors to the area . Coronado High Schools in Lubbock , Texas , El Paso , Texas , and in Scottsdale , Arizona , were named for the Spanish conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado . Bernalillo , New Mexico , calls itself the " City of Coronado " because he stayed there for two winters . A don is a name for a Spanish nobleman . Thus , the Coronado Don became the school mascot in Scottsdale . Coronado Road in Phoenix , Arizona , was named after Coronado .