A Bit About Kuykendall Ruins

I strongly doubt that the Kuykendall Ruins are Chichilticalli, and nobody would like it to be true more than I. I was among the first (as far as I know) to suggest that Chichilticalli may have been Kuykendall or some other of the ruins in the West Turkey Creek area, suggesting this as early as 1990. I was also among the first to suggest Coronado’s route from the San Pedro across Government Draw and over Apache Pass. There were blog posts on this site as early as 2004 when I was actively searching the area around Apache and Bear Springs Passes for signs of Coronado’s expedition. There are a number of reasons I am skeptical about Kuykendall, but this article is about my theory so I won’t go into detail here, the main reason is the sheer number of artifacts. Simply compare the artifacts found at the Jimmy Owens site with those found at Kuykendall, it is my opinion that when Chichilticalli is actually found it will make Blanco Canyon look like a second rate lithic scatter in comparison.

Coronado’s Trail – A Bad Premise

Over the years there have been a lot of really weird and hard to believe ideas about Coronado’s route, placing Chichilticalli everywhere from Casa Grande to Pleasant Valley to the San Bernardino Valley. Most of these have made a couple of the same big mistakes. The first is that they assume the “Señora” Valley of Coronado’s route is the Sonora Valley of today. The second is that they build on each others mistakes, for example Udall built on Haury who built on Bolton’s work. When what really needs to happen is to throw out all previous assumptions and start fresh.

The Rarely Considered “Eastern Route”

I intend to suggest, through this series of articles, that Coronado followed a more eastern route than is commonly considered. That Coronado followed an ancient trade-route between Mesoamerica and the Northern Pueblos, a trade-route that took a more practical and direct route through the heart of Opata country and north to Zuni along the Rio Yaqui. There are many good reasons to examine this route which I will explore in future articles here. When this route is compared to the narratives of Jaramillo and others it fits as good in some places and better in others, than the more westerly, Sonora Valley route.

This trail, which had probably been in use for generations led through a recently (past 100 year) abandoned country, the heart of the Mogollon/Salado homeland, and past a famed pueblo. This great trading pueblo which had controlled the trade route for who knows how long, was still famed when Coronado passed through and was still a good stopping place along the path. Hopi legends speak of a famed “Red House” in the south from which some of their clans originated called Palatkwapi, could the red house of Hopi lore be the same as the “famed” red house of Chichilticalli?

The Route

The route I suggest would approach what is now the United States along the Rio Bavispe, then cross into the United States and follow either the San Simon River or Animas Creek north before crossing the Burro Mountains and traveling north to the Gila River. This would put Chichilticalli somewhere in the vicinity of the Burro Mountains west of Silver City New Mexico. To support this theory I will reference the writings of Cabeza de Vaca, Fray Marcos de Niza, Melchior Diaz, Pedro Castañeda, Juan Jaramillo and Coronado himself, along with documentation on historic and prehistoric trails in the area.

To be continued.

There are three places in the area where mountain ranges appear to “turn west” and must be crossed over to get to the level land on the other side as it is said the Coronado expedition did. The junction of the Rincons and Catalinas and Reddington Pass, the junction of the Chiricahuas and Dos Cabazas at Apache Pass and the Pinalenos and Santa Teresas at Eagle Pass. Reddington Pass would not allow them to continue North or North-West for two days as Jaramillo says, Eagle Pass is just too far north and does not account for the deep and reedy river or two days travel to the San Juan. My only problem with Apache Pass is the distance to the Nexpa (San Pedro), it’s something like 50 miles across there, I am sure that 25 miles a day is not impossible (the horses were said to be tired at Chichilticalli) but I seriously doubt they made that kind of time, they averaged something like 12.5 miles a day between Corozones and Chichilticalli.

There are only so many north flowing rivers in the area, Santa Cruz, San Pedro and San Simon, then you need to calculate two days travel east from there to the foot of the mountains (where the land turns west). Then, crossing those mountains there should be a deep and reedy river thereshould be two days of relatively uneventfull northward travel to the Gila.

The route over Apache Pass matches this pattern best, like I said, it’s too long on the distance between the San Pedro and the mountains but Jaramillo said he could be wrong on some of the distances (he wrote his acount many years later). Eagle Pass is way too far north, remember they only traveled north along the Nexpa for two days and there should be two or three days of travel and a river between the mountains and the Gila.

We spent all day Sunday exploring the area below the pass and all the way up to the western base of Red Mountain and found very little evidence of prehistoric habitation and nothing Saladoan at all.

Still I am convinced it is in the area, the next time I will try farther east in the area from Red Mountain to Comet Springs. Most of the area we were looking in last weekend was rather dry, I think we need a more dependable water supply to support a large pueblo of such a late date

My interest in Chichilticalli goes back over 15 years to my work on the Salado sites in the West Turkey Creek area. It was when I became aware of the large Salado population on the west side of the Chiricahuas that I realized the lost pueblo of Chichilticalli did not need to be as far north as the Penalenos but could easilly exist in that area. Of course it would have to be farther north than Turkey Creek since Coronado’s party crossed the mountains at “Chichilticalli Pass” the day after leaving, and there are no passes across the Chiricahuas in that area. But what about several miles north at Apache Pass?



My friend Amy Campbell and I explored the area below Apache Pass around 1998 and found nothing but some Mogollon sites that were much too old to be Chichilticalli . While leaving the area however we looked at the mountains south of Apache Pass and noticed the extremely red color of the earth there, the maps revealed several alternate routes across the mountains in that area, Bear Springs Pass and Immigrant Pass. Amy and I determined to return at a later date and explore that area.

I moved to Louisiana some time after that and before I returned Amy moved to Colorado. Now I will be hiking across Bear Springs Pass with my 12 year old son to fulfill a dream older than he is.

In my estimation Chichilticalli must be:

• In a location where the earth is extraordinarily red. Southern Arizona has a great deal of red earth, this pueblo would have to be built of exceptionally red earth for it to have been noteworthy.
*Saladoan, given the time period, 1540, that this puddled adobe ruin was roofless but not tumbled down indicates it’s late date of occupation, probably no later than 1500. In this part of Arizona such a late date has to be Saladoan.
• At the foot of a large mountain range and near a pass over the mountains.
• Someplace where a continued North or North-East route would require them to cross over the mountains. Chichilticalli was said to be “where the land turns west”.
• An important trading village. Located on what was probably the main trade route between Mexico and Zuni at a spot where it could controll trade over the mountains, we are probably looking at a very important trading center.
• In a prominent location. Chichilticalli was a major landmark on the trail, mentioned by the Spanish who recorded the trak and probably by the indians guiding them since they talk about “the fame of Chichilticalli”. At the late date this pueblo was inhabited it would not seem unusual to expect Chichilticalli to be on a hilltop or some other defensive location, and therefore visible for many miles down the trail.

Stay tuned…