CORONADO HISTORIC SITE

In 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, with 2,500 men, entered the Rio Grande Valley, somewhere near this site. Coronado was searching for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. Instead of treasure, he found a dozen villages inhabited by prosperous farmers. They spoke Tiwa, and their ancestors had settled in this region for thousands of years. Coronado called them Los Indios de los Pueblos or Pueblo Indians.

Kuaua was the northernmost of the twelve villages. Its name means "evergreen" in Tiwa. It was first settled around 1325 and was occupied by about 1,200 people when Coronado arrived. Conflict with Coronado and later Spanish explorers led to the abandonment of this site within a century of initial contact.

When archaeologists excavated the ruins in the 1930s, they discovered a square kiva in the southern plaza of the community. This kiva, or ceremonial chamber, contained many layers of wall paintings. These paintings represent some of the finest examples of pre-Columbian art ever found in the United States. Painstaking efforts were made to recover the murals, and fourteen examples of the original art are on display in the visitor center. The painted kiva was reconstructed and one of the mural layers was also recreated. The visitor center was designed by the famous architect John Gaw Meem (1894-1983) and displays many of the artifacts found at the site.