Coronado Historic Site (Kuaua Pueblo)

Kuaua Pueblo was already old — settled around AD 1325, home to roughly 1,200 people — when Francisco Vásquez de Coronado arrived in 1540 searching for the Seven Cities of Gold and found instead prosperous farmers who kept his expedition alive. The site's name means "evergreen" in Tiwa. Archaeologists later excavated a kiva here whose walls held layered mural paintings representing some of the finest Pre-Columbian art found in the United States; originals are on display in the visitor's center, designed by architect John Gaw Meem, alongside a reconstructed painted kiva accessible by guided tour.