Vásquez de Coronado's Route

The source is Pedro de Castañeda, writing his chronicle of the Coronado expedition decades later, in 1565. A captain he never names was sent down the river from Tiguex to find settlements that the people at Tutahaco had described. He marched 80 leagues, found four large villages and left them at peace, and went on until the river sank into the earth like the Guadiana in Spain. The people told him it came out again farther down, much larger, but his orders ran no farther than 80 leagues, and he turned back.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Vasquez de Coronado's Route In 1541 an expedition from the army of Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, New Mexico's first explorer, marched south 80 leagues to investigate the pueblos along the lower Río Grande. The group reached that part of the infamous Jornada del Muerto, now covered by Elephant Butte Lake, where the river disappeared underground.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge — 19 mi
  A Rio Grande refuge south of Socorro where cranes and geese winter by the tens of thousands on wetlands and fields kept by people, because the river no longer floods to make them.

More markers nearby

• Fort Craig — steps away
• Women of the Camino Real — steps away
• Paraje De Fra Cristobal — steps away
• Espejo's Expedition — steps away