Etzanoa: The Lost City

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Discover The Lost City of Etzanoa

A group of people are digging in a dirt pit.

A black and white drawing of a group of huts in a field.

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In June 2015, archeologist Dr. Don Blakeslee led a wide-ranging field study in central and southern Kansas. One of his primary goals was to rediscover the long-lost Native American city of Etzanoa.

He was successful.

The location, size, and significance of Etzanoa or the “Great Settlement,” as Spanish explorers labeled it after their 1601 expedition there — had become lost in the mists of time. For many decades, archeologists debated these issues.

But in recent years, Blakeslee, a Wichita State University anthropology and archeology professor, became convinced that the town inhabited by 20,000 ancestral Wichita Indians, the second-largest, or perhaps even the largest, settlement in North America in the early 1600s, was hidden in plain sight.

It was in the present location of Arkansas City, Kansas.