America's top gumshoes are back to prove once again that an object found in an attic or backyard might be anything but ordinary. Wesley Cowan, independent appraiser and auctioneer; Gwendolyn Wright, historian and professor of architecture, Columbia University; Elyse Luray, independent appraiser and expert in art history; Dr. Eduardo Pagán, professor of history and American studies at Arizona State University; and Tukufu Zuberi, professor of sociology and the director of the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, leave no stone unturned as they travel around the country to explore the stories behind local folklore, prominent figures and family legends.
"Lost City Of Gold" - A Preservation Fellow at the Center for Desert Archaeology in Tucson, Arizona, our contributor has long pondered an inscription on a rock wall in South Mountain Park just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. The inscription, which was discovered in the 1920s, reads: “Fr Marcos de Niza corona todo el nuebo Mexico a su costa 1539.” Roughly translated it means, “Fray Marcos de Niza crowned all of New Mexico at his expense, 1539.” If this date is accurate, then de Niza was the first European in the Phoenix area, and Spanish explorers arrived in America much earlier than records show.
