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.