Coronado-Quivira Museum
Coronado-Quivira Museum
Location: Downtown Lyons
Contact: 620.257.3941
Fee: Donations appreciated
Photos Copyright Harland J. Schuster. Please do not use without permission.
The area now called Rice County has long been a crossroads, even before the coming of the White man. In ancient times, Native Americans lived here, and apparently prospered. Many Indian artifacts have been collected in the area, and a few of these are on display in the museum.
Later,
Spanish explorers would visit the area, most notably, Coronado.
He was in search of the fabled "City of Gold". His Indian guides would
always insist his destination was only a day or two farther away. It was
in the area of Rice County that Coronado finally tired of this folly, and in
anger and disgust, killed his guides and returned to Mexico. If Coronado
were to return to the area today, in the month of June, he would witness a vast
carpet of gold--the golden ripe Kansas wheat. Of course, this was not the
sort of gold he sought, but over the years the soil he tread upon here has grown
millions of bushels of wheat which has been worth many times over the gold he
longed for that existed only in fable.
In the 1820's, the White man would again return to the area. This time, it was traders who were traveling the Santa Fe Trail on their way to Mexico.
After Kansas was opened for settlement in 1855, pioneers would eventually find their way to Rice County. The museum has several period rooms and other displays from the pioneer era to the present.