Etzanoa, “the Great settlement” or “Tzanoa”, was home to possibly 20,000 Rayados, a Spanish name for a Wichita tribe, between the 1450s and the 1700s and is thought to be the second-largest native American settlement in North America after ancient Cahokia, Illinois. Rayados were farmers and cultivated beans, maize, pumpkin and squash and slaughtered bison. The location of Etzanoa, about 50 miles southeast of Wichita, was finally discovered last April, when a local teen found a cannonball linked to a battle near Arkansas City, Kansas that took place in the year 1601. By the time Europeans visited the area again, in the 1700s, the city was gone, possibly ravaged by European diseases introduced by the Spaniards.
Limited tours began last spring, focusing on key historical and archaeological sites. Town leaders are hoping for a UNESCO World Heritage site designation.
