El Morro NM

The expedition of Captain General Vazquez de Coronado

Over the past 800 years, a reliable watering hole at the base of a sandstone bluff attracted Ancestral Puebloan settlers, conquistadores, and early American travelers to El Morro. They left their mark in the form of petroglyphs and historic inscriptions on what is known as “Inscription Rock”. Until 2007, the oldest physical evidence of Spanish presence at El Morro was the 1605 inscription of Juan de Onate. Archeological research in 2007, however, recovered several curious artifacts with dramatic implications that seemed to link El Morro with the first major Spanish foray into the Southwest: the 1540-1542 expedition of Captain General Vazquez de Coronado. As evidence emerged, researchers wanted to know, did Coronado pass by here? If so, this would set the monument’s Spanish Colonial history back decades earlier than previously thought. A few small, metal objects begin this intriguing, modern day detective story that would take researchers to sites thousands of miles from El Morro.

Created by Elaine Silverberg and Eric Betz, and edited by Ryan Gahris, the video examines some of the evidence that seems to support the earlier presence of the Spanish explorers in the area.