Coronado’s Trek
While other maps depicting Coronado’s journey differ, the one above is probably the most accurate. It places key sections of the conquistadors’ trek in present-day Oklahoma. According to historians Herbert Belton and Edwin C. McReynolds, they traveled up the future 98th Meridian/Chisholm Trail/U.S. Highway 81 the length of the state near modern-day Duncan, Chickasha, El Reno, Kingfisher, and Enid. A 1907 Temple newspaper reported the unearthing in that area of an apparent Spanish headstone that dated back to 1542.
They later rode across the Panhandle and northwest section of present-day Oklahoma near the modern communities of Tyrone, Optima, Hooker, Guymon, Goodwell, and Texhoma.
They traveled amongst mesquite, cactus, and other bushes in present-day Oklahoma. Turkeys, prairie dogs, jackrabbits, antelope, deer, and wild hogs roamed the land, over the blue grass and buffalo grass that covers the Southern American Great Plains because taller grasses and their greater root system cannot endure those scalding parched climes.
The intrepid Coronado indeed found “Quivera" — such as it was. He considered it the best land he found in the present-day Southwest U.S.: “well settled…
Read the entire Oklahoma story in John J. Dwyer’s
The Oklahomans: The Story of Oklahoma and Its People
volume 1 of a 2-part series on the 46th state and the people who make this state very special.
