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was piqued by tales of a mythical city
of gold called the “Kingdom of
Quivira.” Coronado and his men
trudged for more than a month across
prairieland, from Texas to Oklahoma
to Kansas. Eventually they found
Quivira. It turned out to be a few vil-
lages of Wichita Indians living in grass
huts in central Kansas—no gold in
sight. With their hopes for treasure
dashed, the Spanish packed up and
went home.
The next serious attempts to
explore Kansas came almost two cen-
turies later. This time it was French
explorers who came seeking to estab-
lish trade relations with the Indians
along the Missouri River. The French
traded European goods, including
guns, metal tools, and alcohol. In
exchange, they wanted fur.
Across Europe, North American
furs—especially beaver furs—were in
big demand. As a result, many French
trappers made great fortunes from the
fur trade. The Indians did not fare so
well. Contact with Europeans exposed
them to new diseases. Epidemics of
smallpox and other infectious diseases
devastated their numbers.
By the end of the 1600s, France
had acquired a vast stretch of land
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Lower Plains: Kansas, Nebraska
Statue of the Spanish explorer
Francisco Coronado in the city of
Liberal, in southwestern Kansas.
In the 1540s, Coronado led a
small Spanish army through the
Great Plains in search of seven
legendary cities of gold.