CORONADO

Call me Coronado. And a big hello from me as well. This thing started when I decided maybe I could have a nice life in a nice place if I put something together to tell the school kids and everybody else that comes to the Grand Canyon about the first guy to tell the rest of the world about it. Coronado. A hispanic guy. Like me. Back in Kansas, all we ever got in school and in the movies was about the English pilgrims heading west, looking for gold in California, and all the rest of it. But one day I happened to stop at a little museum a ways out from Wichita - I think I was out there for some real estate deal - and I stop by this little museum and find out about Coronado, who came over on a boat from Spain, and eventually went all the way up from Mexico City and on into Kansas, on a horse no less, a hundred years before the so-called pioneers started heading to California. And it turns out that on the way some of the scouts with him stumbled onto the Grand Canyon.

So I decided to see it for myself, like everybody does some time, because they’re curious, have nothing better to do, I don’t know. But the thing is: everybody checks it out, once at least. What better place to stage a play to tell people about the beginning of American history, the part they probably missed in school, like I did. That little place in the middle of Kansas just doesn’t draw that many people, you know. What better place to tell the world about Coronado and our history than someplace everybody goes to at least once. The Grand Canyon. So. . . I thought I’d have some fun doing it and take a boat ride down the Colorado like plenty of other tourists do, and we dock at this funky old place that’s in about the middle of it, down in the bottom by the river: Phantom Ranch is what they call it. It was summer, and it was hot in the late afternoon, and my boatmates and me, we were wiped out. They went into the lodge to rest and clean up for dinner. Me? I just crashed on the beach and didn’t even notice this lady making a painting until this Chinaman starts talking to her. Then he comes back with a pitcher and we start shooting the breeze. It turns out he’s a rockhound, from China no less, and we kind of hit it off, and before it’s all over I’ve got the guy looking for someplace we can do a totally different story and the other one, the space cadet artist that’s pissed about a change in the light or something......

AURA

No, no. You’re supposed to just be telling what this is about, not being opinionated about......

CORONADO

Hey. I kept quiet while you were doing your Wow, You’re here bit, huh?

AURA

Space cadet......

CORONADO

Between the two of them they just weirded me out and now we’re doing this in what’s supposed to be a flying saucer. How strange can things get?

SINE

One thing I like about it......

CORONADO

Oh. That’s Sine, the rockhound.

SINE

Rockhound. Haha. – I was just going to say one thing I like is seeing all the places Aura and Coronado have been around here. I even made a Map showing them, and when Coronado told me about where Coronado explored, I added the paths he followed.

AURA

The old Indian paths the Indians told Coronado about.

CORONADO

Sure. Of course. So I start telling them about Coronado and before you know it we’re off on smog, dams, the nature of man, space travel, the nature of nature, you name it.

Anyway, I’m done. Aura never finished her painting. Sine never started working at Tesla like he meant to. Everything got all switched around. And here we are, right smack in the middle of all the places we talked about that night a couple years ago. And I’m lovin’ it. You can see the places list right here if you want. I’m not going to recite ‘em since you can see ‘em easy enough on the Map Sine made. But for now, just go ahead and click on the Operator’s Manual Sine put together to see how to get the most out of this thing.

Sites mentioned in that first conversation

and described in links from it, from the Map, and visited in our Tours

These places
* are unique or the best representative of their kind in the region
* give the region its identity
* can each be grasped visually in a single picture Aura came up with
* welcome tourists, have the infrastructure in place to handle tourists, and can be seen fully with easy access.

Though most are not in major cities, nearby cities offer accommodations, transportation, and the chance to round out an itinerary.

Arizona

Asarco Mineral Discovery Center, Green Valley

Arcosanti, Cordes Junction

Biosphere 2, Oracle

Bisbee Queen Mine Tour, and Old Bisbee, Bisbee

Grand Canyon National Park: Grandview Point, Phantom Ranch, volcanic dam remains

Hoover Dam, Nevada

Imperial Dunes, Yuma

Jerome

Jerome State Historic Park Museum, Jerome

John Wesley Powell Memorial Museum, Page

Kitt Peak National Observatory, Sells

Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff

Meteor Crater, Flagstaff/Winslow

Petrified Forest National Park, Holbrook/Chambers

Petrified Forest National Park: Puerco Pueblo solar calendar

Picacho Peak, Picacho

Sanguinetti House Museum, Yuma

Titan Missile Museum, Green Valley

Tuba City

California

GlamisImperial Sand Dunes

Colorado

Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave, Golden

Challenger Learning Center, Colorado Springs

Grand Lake Yacht Club, Grand Lake

Meeker Home/ Museum, Greeley

Space Command Center, Boulder

Kansas

Boot Hill Museum and Santa Fe Trail at Dodge City, plus Dodge City itself and the Santa Fe Trail ruts they hold dear

Coronado Quivira Museum, Lyons

Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop/Santa Fe Trail, Olathe

Prairie Center, Olathe

Santa Fe Trail ruts, Dodge City

Nevada

Yucca Mountain, Las Vegas

New Mexico

Acoma Pueblo Visitor Center, Acoma

Chaco Canyon National Historical Park Visitor Center, Pueblo Bonito

International UFO Museum and Research Center, Roswell

National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Socorro

"Rendezvous over Roswell" - drama

Spaceport America Visitor Center, Truth or Consequences

White Sands Missile Range Museum

White Sands National Monument

Zuni

Oklahoma

Cherokee Heritage Center, Tahlequah

Texas

Palo Duro Canyon

Space Center Houston, Houston

Utah

Antelope Island State Park Visitor Center, Salt Lake City

Natural Bridges National Monument Visitor Center, Blanding/Mexican Hat

Plus

Other thematically kindred sites not mentioned above you can get to from links in the text of that first night’s conversation.

Operator’s Manual