Coronado Heights

Location:  From Lindsborg take Hwy K-4 North 3 miles to Winchester Rd, then West 4 miles.  It can also be reached by taking Exit 78 from I-135 and following Hwy K-4 South 1 1/4 miles to Winchester Rd, then West.

Nearest Town:  Lindsborg

Hours:  Daylight hours all year

A Kansas Castle fortifies a hill which is thought by some to be the northern most limit of the explorations of the Spanish adventurer Coronado's search for gold in 1541.  A small piece of chain mail body armor from that period found in the vicinity lends at least a little credibility to the story.  The castle on Coronado Heights was constructed of native stone in 1936 by the WPA.  This was a program of the Federal Government which constructed a lot of public works--everything from outhouses to huge dams--during the Great Depression of the 1930's.  These were a dark time in our history as a nation.  Many people had no work and no hope.  Thousands of hungry and desperate men roamed the cities and the countryside.  There were riots in Washington DC and other cities which had to be broken up at gun point.  Our form of government and our future as a nation were very much at risk.  Most people today have no idea how close this nation was to becoming another Nazi Germany or Communist Russia.   Proponents of both were quite active during this period of turmoil and uncertainly.   Fortunately, upon being elected president, Franklin Roosevelt pushed through programs to put people to work.  One of these was the WPA.  It was certainly a "make work" program with lots of waste, but it put men to work and gave them hope again.  And future generations have benefited from their labor such as this really neat castle and park at Coronado Heights.

The gold which eluded Coronado centuries ago is now quite easy to spot from atop the castle.  In every direction you can see the golden glow of ripe wheat and speckled here and there is the flash of wild flowers as they wave in the Kansas wind.

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