Hernando DeSoto & USA's oldest city
The arrival of Hernando DeSoto and his Spanish expedition in 1540 AD marked the beginning of recorded history in Alabama. As a matter of fact, Childersburg, the city nearest DeSoto Caverns, is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in the U.S., predating St. Augustine by 25 years.
Spain was the first European nation to discover and claim what is now Alabama, and DeSoto became the first European to explore the interior North American continent. At the time of DeSoto's entrance into America, the Muskogean Indians inhabited almost the entire Southeast.
In Talladega County, where DeSoto Caverns is located, the Coosa Indians represented the Muskogeans. Their capital, also called Coosa, was near what is now Childersburg, just a few miles west of DeSoto Caverns. The Coosa Empire, the first in Alabama's recorded history, extended roughly from Gadsden to Wetumpka, and was on both sides of the Coosa River. Coosa, which means "canebrake," was a city of refuge to the Indians, a city of peace. DeSoto Caverns, just on the outskirts of the Coosa capital, was the ancestral cave.
The DeSoto expedition spent a little over five weeks in the Coosa capital. The mission had two major objectives, to find gold and to establish the first Spanish colony in the New World. The Coosa Micco (or chief) warmly welcomed DeSoto during a ceremony that took place near the entrance of DeSoto Caverns. The Micco offered DeSoto territory in which to establish a colony, but DeSoto refused because he had come for gold - which he never found in the surrounding territory. In spite of Micco's kindness, DeSoto took him hostage, took slaves from among the Coosa people and raided their storage bins for food on his journey south.
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