These rumors were largely caused by reports given by the four shipwrecked survivors of the failed Narváez expedition, including Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and an African slave named Esteban Dorantes, or Estevanico.

Estevanico did not wait for the friar, but instead continued travelling until he reached Cibola (Háwikuh, now in New Mexico), where, at the hands of the Zuni tribe, he met his death, and his companions were forced to flee.

He claimed that they had seen Cíbola from a great distance, and that it was larger than Tenochtitlan; in this city, the people used dishes of gold and silver, decorated their houses with turquoise, and had gigantic pearls, emeralds, and other beautiful gems.

Upon hearing this news, the Viceroy de Mendoza wasted no time in organizing a large military expedition to take possession of the riches that the monk had described with such vivid detail.

When Coronado arrived at Hawikuh pueblo, which the chroniclers called Cevola, Tzibola, or Cibola, he discovered that Marcos de Niza's stories were lies, and that there were in fact no treasures as the friar had described.

Congress authorized enabling legislation in 1988, but the proposal foundered when the people of Zuni Pueblo overwhelmingly voted against leasing land to the National Park Service for the project.

Located about 12 miles (19 km) southwest of Zuni, it includes the excavated ruins of that settlement, as well as the remains of the 17th-century Spanish mission La Purísima Concepcíón de Hawikuh.