DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. In 1541, the Spanish explorer Coronado is thought to have passed somewhere right around this very stretch of Texas — bound for a place the stories called Quivira. Now, Quivira.
Say it slow. Fabled Indian villages, supposedly dripping with gold. The kind of name that makes a man ride a very long way across a very wide and unforgiving plain.
And Coronado rode. All the way from New Mexico, out across the vast Texas plains, following his guide — a man they called The Turk. That's what the record gives us: The Turk.
And The Turk, it turns out, had led the expedition too far south. When Coronado figured that out, he stopped. Right here at a small canyon — a barranca, the Spanish called it.
He gathered his captains. You can almost picture it: a huddle of sunburned, trail-worn men at the edge of a cut in the earth, the wind comin' across the grass, reconsidering everything. They conferred, they deliberated, and then Coronado made his call.
Follow the compass. Directly north. No more trusting the guide, no more winding path — just north, straight and true.
So they rode north. And they found Quivira. Possibly in Kansas, the marker is careful to say — possibly.
And what was waiting for them there? No gold. No gleaming cities.
Only the poor, grass huts of a Wichita village. After all that distance, all that plain, all that faith in a story — just grass huts. Now, the marker is honest enough to admit that Coronado's exact path across Texas is now difficult to determine.
We're not entirely sure where he walked. But right around here, in the vicinity, 1541, a man stood at a barranca and pointed his compass north, chasing something that wasn't there. Texas has a way of keeping those stories, even when the trail goes cold.
What the marker says
In 1541, the Spanish explorer Coronado is thought to have passed this way en route from New Mexico to the fabled Indian villages of "Quivira", though his path across vast Texas plains is now difficult to determine. Upon finding that his Indian guide, "The Turk", had taken him too far south, Coronado halted at a small canyon or barranca. Here he conferred with his captains and decided to follow the compass directly north. When they reached "Quivira" (possibly in Kansas), no gold was found - only the poor, grass huts of a Wichita village. (1968)