Editing Hutchinson County, Texas (section)

===Early explorations===

In 1541, an expedition led by [[Francisco Vásquez de Coronado]] traversed the area on its [[Great Plains]] quest for [[Quivira]] on the search for the mythical [[Seven Cities of Gold]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lourie |first=Peter |title=On the Texas Trail of Cabeza De Vaca |year=2008 |publisher=Boyds Mills Press |isbn=978-1-59078-492-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ontexastrailofca00lour_0/page/46 46] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ontexastrailofca00lour_0/page/46 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| last=Donoghue| first=David| title=Francisco Vázquez de Coronado| url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fvawt| work=Handbook of Texas Online| publisher=Texas State Historical Association| access-date=December 14, 2010}}</ref> Spanish conquistador [[Juan de Oñate]] passed through in 1601 on his Kansas expedition.<ref>{{cite book| last=Blakeslee| first=Donald J.| title=Holy Ground, Healing Water: Cultural Landscapes at Waconda Lake, Kansas |year=2010 |publisher=TAMU Press |isbn=978-1-60344-211-4 |page=113}}</ref> Buffalo hunters and [[Comanchero]] from New Mexico hunted and traded in the vicinity until the 1870s.<ref>{{cite book| last=Rathjen| first=Frederick W.| title=Texas Panhandle Frontier |year=1998 |publisher=Texas Tech University Press |isbn=978-0-89672-399-3 |page=75}}</ref> The first Anglo-American expedition to come through the county was led by [[Stephen Harriman Long|Stephen H. Long]], who mistook the Canadian River for the Red River, in August 1820.<ref>{{cite book| last=Rodriguez| first=Junius P.| title=The Louisiana Purchase: A Historical and Geographical Encyclopedia| url=https://archive.org/details/louisianapurchas00rodr_834| url-access=limited| year=2002| publisher=ABC-CLIO| isbn=978-1-57607-188-5| pages=[https://archive.org/details/louisianapurchas00rodr_834/page/n233 198]–199}}</ref> [[Josiah Gregg]] brought his Santa Fe caravan through in March 1840.<ref>{{cite web| title=Josiah Gregg's 1844 Map| url=http://www.lib.utulsa.edu/speccoll/collections/maps/gregg/index.htm| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060719123602/http://www.lib.utulsa.edu/speccoll/collections/maps/gregg/index.htm| url-status=dead| archive-date=July 19, 2006| publisher=The University of Tulsa| access-date=December 14, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Worman| first=Charles G.| title=Gunsmoke and Saddle Leather: Firearms in the Nineteenth-Century American West |year=2005 |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0-8263-3593-7 |page=7}}</ref> During the month of December 1858, Lt. Edward Beale with 100 men passed through the county constructing a federally funded military road, the first to be constructed in the American Southwest. The road went from [[Fort Smith, Arkansas]], to [[Los Angeles]]. It was named the Beale Wagon Road by Secretary of War [[John B. Floyd]].<ref>Information provided by Historic Archaeologist Jack Beale Smith</ref>