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HERNANDO DE ALARCON
Born
in 1540, Hernando de Alarcon was a famous Spanish explorer.
While is interest was in a number of areas, his
primary focus was on the southwest.
To provide support to the land expedition of
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Alarcon was given command
over a fleet.
With
this, he set sail in the summer of 1540, heading up the Gulf
of California with his ship and his men.
On this particular expedition, Hernando de Alarcon
made an interesting discovery – lower California was
indeed a peninsula and not an island as believed by many
people.
However,
Alarcon made another discover on this expedition in the
massive Colorado River.
With both discoveries, his name made it into the
history books. However,
Alarcon failed to do one thing – make contact with
Coronado’s expedition.
Therefore, he took several months to sail along the
river at which time Garcia Lopez de Cardenas made one of the
most incredible discoveries of all times – the Grand
Canyon.
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