GRAND JUNCTION — Upstream from the point where the Colorado River cuts across the 39th parallel near Grand Junction, it leaves behind a land of myth.
Upstream lies a city of gold. Upstream lies the fabled home of the Aztecs.
Perhaps not.
“Distant Treasures in the Mist,” a new exhibit at the Museum of Western Colorado’s Museum of the West in downtown Grand Junction, offers a look at the mythology that motivated much of the exploration of the Grand Valley and the rocky overlook to the east, Grand Mesa.
“Myths are what have driven the exploration (of the Grand Valley),” said David Bailey, curator of history at the museum and director of the Western Investigations Team.
Even before Dominguez and Escalante visited the region in 1776, Spanish explorer Juan Rivera passed through, seeking a lost colony of Spaniards living on the banks of El Rio Tizon, now called the Colorado River. Back in 1541, Hernan Cortes heard tales of the riches hidden away on the river.
Cortes’ map clearly shows the Seven Cities at the coordinates of what is now believed to be Fifth Street and Ute Avenue in Grand Junction.
Bailey’s look at the myths spins together the strands of history, well-known and not so well-known.
Among those strands is a display from the Western Investigations Team, a partnership exploring Colorado’s western border. The display features Kannah Creek and the relics it has uncovered.
