El Quartelejo Ruins

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Map of Scott County from KDOT (map legend)

El Quartelejo is the name given to the archeological remains of the northernmost Indian pueblo and the only known pueblo in Kansas. Located in Lake Scott State Park, the remains of the stone and adobe pueblo are situated north of Scott City, Kansas, on Ladder (Beaver) Creek.

There are two possibilities for the origin of El Quartelejo. In 1664 a group of Pueblo Indians left New Mexico and were later rounded up and brought back by the Spanish. They may have constructed El Quartelejo, but more likely is the second possibility. After the collapse of the Pueblo Revolt (1680-1692) most Pueblo Indians accepted the return of Spanish dominion over their lives. A group from the Taos and Picuris Pueblos, however, did not. In 1696 this group fled New Mexico in search of a new home among the Plains Apache. They moved to the Great Plains and evaded the Spanish for ten years, but in 1706 they were captured and forced back to New Mexico. When the Pueblo Indians were seized, the Spanish commander, Juan Uribarri, wrote that they were dwelling in houses of a permanent type. The Spanish called this settlement El Quartelejo and the region around it was called San Luis Province.

No Indians lived in El Quartelejo after 1706, but Spanish and French occasionally occupied the structure as a frontier outpost during the 1700s. However, after 1763 and the French retreat from the area, the pueblo was abandoned. Its walls decayed and the structure was buried by drifting soil.

The pueblo was unknown to American explorers, but in 1898 archeologists rediscovered El Quartelejo. Since then, the site has been excavated to reveal that the pueblo was a seven-room structure, enough to house a small band of Indians. Near the pueblo are traces of shallow ditches extending from the nearby springs. These ditches were most likely used to irrigate crops in nearby fields.

In 1964, the El Quartelejo ruins were designated a National Historic Landmark and the area made into a State Park. Since 2004, the National Park Service has listed the El Quartelejo site as "at risk" because of ongoing weather-related deterioration to the ruins.