A History of Kansas

A History of Kansas, written by Anna Estelle Arnold, tells us that after four centuries had passed since Columbus discovered America. Kansas is a rectangle four hundred miles long and two hundred miles wide, in the center of of the United States. Kansas gradually slopes from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River. Its surface is cut by eastward flowing streams that lie level in the west but in the east curves into coutless hills and valleys.

In 1528a Spaniard, Narvaez, led an exploring expedition westward from Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. Through various misfortunes and hardships nearly all of the party perished. Cabeza de Vaca and three of his men were taken prisoners by the Indians and held in captivity nearly 6 years before making their excape. They fled westward in an adventurous journey of nearly two years reached a Spanish settlement near the western coast of New Spain (New Mexico). The exact route followed by Cabeza deVaca and his companions was never really known, but his accounts of their wanderings were largely the cause of the expedition of Coronado, the first white man known with certainty to have traveled across what is now Kansas. The Spanish explorers were in search for wealth. Cortez said to the Inidans, "We Spaniards are troubled with a disease of the heart for which we find gold, and gold only, a specific remedy."

There was a great preparation made for an expedition of an army of 300 hundred Spaniards and eight hundred friendly Indians who were gathered and placed under the command of Coronado. In the Spring of 1540 the long march into unexplored country began. After months of travel in a northerly and northeasterly direction, Coronado and his army reached the province of Cibola (probably in western part of New Mexico) and the "Seven Cities" proved to be ordinary adobe Indian villages.

The Indians were anxious to get rid of their unwelcome visitors, persuaded a "Quivira" Indian, whom they held as a prisoner, to tell the Spaniards tales of the wonderful land of Quivira in order to lead them off into the wilderness where they would die from lack of food and water. Coronado and his men listened to this Indian (called "Turk") and followed him as a guide for many days. Turk led them steadily toward the east and after a time they became convinced that they were being deceived and made him confess that "Quivira" was far to the northward. Because of Coronado and his men's being misled by Turk's stories, the Spaniard's put Turk to death. Coronado went back the main body of the army composed of footmen, while 30 horsemen started in a northward journey.

As nearly as can be learned, Coronado and his men entered Kansas abbot where Clark County now is, and went on northward, crossing the Arkansas River at or near the site of Dodge City. From this point they followed the river to Great Bend, and then continued in a northeasterly direction to the vicinity of Junction City. At the end of their journey they set up a cross bearing the inscription: "Francisco VAsqueth de Coronado, commander of the expedition, arrived at this place."

After all this weary journey they had reached Quivira and found it to be merely the home of a tribe of Indians, the Quiviras, later known as the Pawnees. Coronado wrote in a letter to the King of Spain:

• "The country itself is the best I have ever seen for producing all of the fruits of Spain, for, besides the land itself being very fat and black, and being very well watered by rivulets, springs, and rivers, I found prunes like those in Spain and nuts and very good sweet grapes and mulberries. I remained twenty-five days in this province of Quivira, both to see and explore the country, and to find out whether there was anything beyond which could be of service to your Majesty, because the guides who had brought me had given me an account other provinces beyond this. And what I am sure of is that there is not any gold or any other metal in all that country, and the other things of which they told me are noting but little villages, and in many of these they do not plant anything, and do not have any houses, except of skins and sticks, and they wander around with the cows. So that the account they gave me was false, because they wanted to get me to go there with the whole force, believing that as the way was through such uninhabitable deserts, and from lack of water they would get us where our horses and we would die of thirst. And the guides confessed this, and they said they did it by the advice of the natives of these provinces." [Taken from the 14th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.]
  
  The following book, Don Coronado Through Kansas, 1541 then known as Quivira. A story of the Kansas, Osage, and the Pawnee Indians. Kansas Chief WAH-SHUN-GAH. By permission of George B. Cornish. ARkansas City, Kansas, this is published. Taken in 1908. The Pilgrims landed 79 years after Don Coronado went through Kansas. This book's dedication read: "In behalf of the millions of Foreigh born citizens, this work is dedicated to our dear old uncle sam, who gave us homes, liberty and prosperity, and for whom we will lay down our lives. And to our beloved State of Kansas, God bless her, and keep her the most Progressive State in these United States of America.
  
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  True. Were you aware that prior to Statehood, Kansas Territory extended west with it's western boundary being the Continental Divide. The western area of Kansas including what is now Colorado, was one big county named Arapaho. ~Jim Bradley 2011-06-13 23:15:31

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