Quivira, the city Coronado crossed Kansas for

A real expedition to a real place, chasing gold that never existed

In 1541 Francisco Vazquez de Coronado marched out of New Mexico onto the plains chasing Quivira, a kingdom a captive guide called the Turk described as so rich its people ate from gold plates and slept under trees hung with golden bells. Coronado went as far as central Kansas, found the grass-lodge villages of the Wichita people, no gold at all, and had the Turk garrotted. Quivira was real as a place and imaginary as a treasure. Archaeology has since identified the Wichita sites, and the Coronado expedition’s route across Kansas is marked. The lesson holds up: the guide told them what they wanted to hear.