Coronado Heights is a hill northwest of

Lindsborg, Kansas Lindsborg is a city in McPherson County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 3,776. Lindsborg is known for its large Swedes, Swedish, other Nordic and Scandinavian Americans, Nordic and Sc ...

, United States.Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) details for Coronado Heights Park; United States Geological Survey (USGS); October 13, 1978.
/ref> It is alleged to be near the place where

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...

gave up his search for the

seven cities of gold The myth of the Seven Cities of Gold, also known as the Seven Cities of Cíbola (), was popular in the 16th century and later featured in several works of popular culture. According to legend, the seven cities of gold referred to Aztec mythology ...

and turned around to return to Mexico. Coronado Heights is one of a chain of seven sandstone bluffs in the

Dakota Formation The Dakota is a sedimentary rock, sedimentary geologic unit name of Formation (stratigraphy), formation and Group (stratigraphy), group rank in Midwestern North America. The Dakota units are generally composed of sandstones, mudstones, clays, and ...

and rises approximately 300 feet.

History

In 1915, a professor at Bethany College in Lindsborg found

chain mail Mail (sometimes spelled maille and, since the 18th century, colloquially referred to as chain mail, chainmail or chain-mail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common milita ...

from Spanish armor at the Sharps Creek site, a Native American village excavation site a few miles southwest of the hill, and another Bethany College professor promoted the name of Coronado Heights for the hill. In 1920, the first road was built up the hill, known as Swensson Drive, with a footpath known as Olsson Trail. In 1936, a stone shelter resembling a castle was built on top of the hill as a project of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

. In 1988, a sculpture by John Whitfield was placed half-way up the hill with the inscription "Coronado Heights 'A Place to Share'". The hill is now Coronado Heights Park, owned by the Smoky Valley Historical Association.

References

External links

Coronado Heights Park

- The Hutchinson News {{Coord, 38, 36, 42, N, 97, 42, 14, W, format=dms, region:US-KS_type:landmark_source:GNIS, display=title Works Progress Administration in Kansas Parks in Kansas Protected areas of Saline County, Kansas Colonial United States (Spanish) Pre-statehood history of Kansas National Register of Historic Places in Saline County, Kansas